after lockdown decided to keep it simple one day push/pull "out" ie bench/ seated row out and another day push/pull overhead, overhead barbell press and lat pull down. Doing bench and dumbbell press are very close to being the same exercise
Thanks for the video. I have never come across "reaching" in any other channel here. Question - how or would hanging and scapular pull-up's fit into this routine?
I understood it like reaching is just mobilization of scapula. Because when people did not take care of pull:push ratio, their shoulder become protraction. And function of serratus anterior is protraction of shoulder joint. I could not get it connection between of them :(
I would love for you to make a video expanding on why Strength Culture prefers or leans more towards using landmine press and push ups the most more than military press. You mentioned military but also said the main two you use are landmine and push up. why do you prefer those two over militaries for most of your lifters?
Those are still technically pushing movements, they just work different areas giving better balance where the bench presses require the same areas as the pulling.
So you equate the push category as a pull when you say 2:1 pull:reach? These pull and reach actions are in reference to scap movement during the exercise? Is what makes sense to me. In that case, this greatly reduces the amount of benching, and even back work, in favor of lower loads in the reaching movements. So is this for off season health because ohp does dick for my bench progress? Thoroughly confused because deadlifts and even squats demand lots of scap pulling at even higher intensity than benching.
The idea that there is a magical ration of pushing and pulling that will optimise shoulder health is flawed from a few perspectives. We promote reaching movements as they allow the scapular to move through a full ROM under load, through this we can strengthen some key muscles in the area that may not be under adequate tension in the more typical 'back and down' pressing movements.
This made a lot of sense when explained. Never thought about it this way. Amazing information! Will definitely be incorporating more push-up variations and a bit less bench press. For shoulder health! Should that have been my takeaway here?
Thanks for the video and the following article write up you did for this a few months ago! You argue that an optimal program design would be a 2:1 pull to reach ratio in our programming. For clarification--given the kinetic rationale--are the press movements on the horizontal plane (e.g. flat bench, incline bench) classified as being "pulling" movements under this scheme? For example, say you did 3 movements on a day . You did 3 sets for each of the following 3 exercises: flat bench, lat pull-down and overhead press. Would the calculation come out to be 6:3 pull to reach since you include the flat bench? Or would it be 3:3 with the bench excluded? I believe 6:3 is the correct answer, yes? To further clarify my understanding of this; the flat bench you argue should be classified as a pulling movement, not in the sense of how the movement is /executed/ in an overarching sense, but instead we should look at it from the anatomy and kinetics of the shoulder and our desire strengthen it across all directions (e.g. protraction vs retraction), correct?
Don't overthink it too much haha. For majority of people we program 2 loaded 'reaching exercises' per week (push up variations and some form of half kneeling overhead press). Our classification for all pressing movements fall on this continuum but we arn't strictly trying to balance out volume, per se, just including reaching across the week in both loaded and unloaded patterns.
can you achieve the full reach if doing shoulder press with a cable or dumbbell? I only have a functional trainer and dumbbells....I can sort of visualize it but not sure if safe/likely to cause injury.
Long Tran by not training reaching patterns you are missing out on strengthing important muscles that stabilise the glenohumeral joint. For a majority of strength based lifters, these muscles can help to prevent injuries surrounding the glenohumeral, scapulothoracic, neck and elbow.
Awesome video, I didn't even that "reaching" movements where a thing lmao. I have a winged scapula and have managed to get somewhat strong with this I was wondering if this can even be fixed. I'll definitely give those push-ups a try. I have tried to train my serratus in the past but with little success. btw I would like to think I have pretty good shoulder mobility and can OHP with full extension no problem. I have had the winged scapula for as long as I can remember. Do you think it could be fixed?
Big Lenny Junior thanks for watching! I don't really believe in 'Winged scaps' quite often it is a result of a flatter T spine underneath the scaps which give it that 'look'. you have inspired me to do a video. not this coming week but the week after I will go into it. I would recommend foam roller wall slides, push-ups and landmine presses as shown in this video. Eric Cressey as a lot of videos regarding this. look him up! he is a wealth of knowledge!
Melbourne Strength Culture Thanks for the response. I definitely look forward to the video. I am pretty sure I have a winged scapula though, if i push down on an object I can make my shoulder blades pop out a good 4-5 inches out of my back lmao.
Melbourne Strength Culture Very interesting video. Honestly I don't believe my winging can be "fixed" but after watching that video I see that it's not really an issue. Thanks! Mine is definitely more noticable than the case in that video though lmao. I can make my self look like I have wings sprouting from my back lmao
I don’t understand why letting shoulder blades forward all the way is supposed to be good when doing pushups or landmine presses but not when benching. Doesn’t make sense to me
In the bench press the actual bench gets in the way so in order to keep the shoulders in a safe pressing position we must keep the scaps retracted. This also allows for a stable base to press heavy ass loads with!