Thread: My pushing movements dwarf my pulling movements.

I'm sorta curious how you measure this dwarfing. Are you expecting to be able to push the same as you pull?

yea, how are you measuring this difference? what exercises are you chosing and why do you feel that those exercises are good indications of opposite movement strength?

what is your posture like?

Originally Posted by P-funk

yea, how are you measuring this difference? what exercises are you chosing and why do you feel that those exercises are good indications of opposite movement strength?

what is your posture like?

Well, there is a combination of many factors that make me believe this. I know they aren't accurate, but I'll say it is within 20lbs. The 1RM chart puts me at pressing 375. I can barely row 185 5 times without cheating. Thats a horrible ratio. I work just has hard on my pulling power as pressing power, but my bench just keeps climbing while my pulling movements lag behind. The only exception is deadlifts and shrugs which are stronger than my pushing movements.

Every time I start getting high up there on bench pressing, my shoulder goes out, just like it did this week. This leads me to believe there is a muscular imbalance that is destroying my shoulder.

Also, I have a posture problem that I can't seem to lick. I am doing all I can to fix it, but I think much of it is simply genetic. My brother, father, and myself have identical skeletal structures. My ribcage is massive. Even when I didn't touch weights for years, my chest was huge and my torso was thick. My neck slumps forward and my shoulders hang forward. If I stand up straight, I can't look down. Hell, I can barely look straight ahead.



I have some friends who told me yoga might help. I don't have the time for yoga now, but I want to start in the fall of this year.


Now that my shoulder is blown out again, I plan to do an upper lower split where all pressing movements are excluded from my program until my shoulder heals.


I don't know what to do. There is something wrong here, and I can't get it out of my mind.

Fix your internally rotated humeri. Work on those rows, scapular retraction and depression. Stop doing shrugs too. Read the link in the FAQ about internally rotated humeri.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Fix your internally rotated humeri. Work on those rows, scapular retraction and depression. Stop doing shrugs too. Read the link in the FAQ about internally rotated humeri.

Stop doing shrugs?

I don't do them

the problems with posture and your shoulder "going out" (are you injured)....leads me to believe that you have some corrective work to do.

The ratio of bent over rowing to bench press is large, but..yuo also have to look at the fact that one exercise is very supports (bench press) and the other is not supported at all (row)....so, the probably will never be equal....the row, because it is unsupported, has several limiting factors.

I would definetly do some corrective work if I were you.

Originally Posted by Witchblade
Fix your internally rotated humeri. Work on those rows, scapular retraction and depression. Stop doing shrugs too. Read the link in the FAQ about internally rotated humeri.

why does he have to stop doing shrugs?

Truth is I deserve what I get. Cpimp outlined some corrective work to do last time I ruined my shoulder, and I rehabed nicely, but I stopped doing them once I was healed.

I am going to rest my shoulder for a bit, then start back with corrective work.

What kind of work did he recommend?

Reverse dumbbell flies, shrugs, rotator cuff work. There was some more things, I'll have to look back a few months in my journal.

I think he shouldn't do shrugs because he lacks scapular depression strength (judging by what he said about his posture). However, if CP told you to do shrugs, I'd take CP's advice over mine. Overhead shrugs are the first that come to mind.

I know it sucks, KelJu, but it well only make you stronger in the long term.

a lot of people have terrible scapular upward rotation. shrugs can help with that. also, the lower traps and rhomboids work in a force couple during scapular upward rotation. Overhead shrugs are good, but if you have these problems, good luck getting your arms overhead in the first place. If you can't upwardly rotate properly, you aren't going to get overhead in a healthy manner.