Preventing Shoulder Injuries I: Implications for Pressing Exercises
Every now and then we get an athlete that has a noticeable anterior shift of the humeral head while lowering a weight during bench press variations. Check out the video below:
There are a number of reasons this may occur, including:
- Short pec minor causing anterior scapular tilt
- Poor initial set-up (shoulder blades not locked back and down)
- Insufficient rotator cuff control
Naturally, all of these factors are related. If an athlete has a short pec minor, it's likely that they won't set-up in the best position. The problem with this shift is that it places excessive stress on the anterior shoulder capsule. These are the ligaments that are responsible for preventing glenohumeral dislocations.From a performance standpoint, a lack of glenohumeral stability will impair the amount of force that can be produced from and expressed across the joint. The first attempted repetition on the second video was especially instructive in this regard.
My goal in showing this video is to start a forum conversation amongst other coaches on whether or not you've seen this happen and what you do to go about fixing it. If, through an assessment, we identify that the problem is indeed pec minor shortness, we refer our athletes out to a manual therapist and recommend a partner stretch emphasizing a forced posterior scapular tilt. Set-up issues we simply re-teach and continuously emphasize. Regarding rotator cuff control, we've had some success in using a 1-Arm Stability Ball Wall Hold to get the cuff firing. Using this exercise as an "activator" prior to the chest press exercises has lead to a decrease in the superior and anterior translation of the humeral head. Check out the video below (ignore the partner perturbation at the end of the video):
1-Arm SB Wall Hold
