I was reading on a popular supplement companies facebook today “people need to use a full range of motion when working the chest” [paraphrased] now apart from the obvious stand of ‘training muscles not lifts’ I tend to agree with this statement.
However, when personal trainers make outlandish statements without any research to back it up. It gets under my skin so;
PT Polo Shirt claims (Nothing to do with the said company) “It's well known that more shoulder injuries occur from people going too deep on chest than is caused by even training shoulders in isolation”
I could not disagree with Polo-Style more, If you are going to Bench 'for the Pecs' with no activation of posterior chain and your elbows flapping around in the wind, then yes. You’re going to rip your shoulders to bits. This is typically caused by the Humeral head getting smashed out of alignment with the Glenoid Fossa However, if you engage the posterior chain, keep the Humeral head in its spot and base yourself through the hips (not the shoulders like I see so many try) then you are liable to go 20 years without even a twitch.
Additionally, the highest rate of force on the shoulders and elbows has been reported at the reversal point of the movement (eccentric to concentric) this is why you see power lifters performing board presses and not reversing mid movement. In the case of body building, the pause on the chest works to remove this loading. (Think about box squatting)
And finally, Yes. I can provide peer reviewed evidence to support my statement. However, you’re not going to read it, so I wont bother…….
