Shoulder pain is pretty common, particularly for people

​Maybe your girl left you for the guy with better shoulders.   You do lift, don't you? Or maybe you screwed your shoulders up in the gym and now you can't bench or military press.  Sounds like we got a lot to fix.

BETTER SHOULDER HEALTH + SEXY SHOULDER AESTHETICS

● Issue 1: poor tissue quality
Fix 1: Lacrosse Ball massage the Front, Side and Rear Deltoids
Fix 2: foam roll Lats

● Issue 2: tight Lats
Fix: Bench Thoracic Spine Mobilization

● Issue 3: weak rotator cuff
Fix 1: Adducted Cable External Rotation
Fix 2: Horizontally Adducted Cable External Rotation

● Issue 4: deltoid imbalance
Fix 1: less Front Delt work
Fix 2: more Lateral Delt work
Fix 3: more Rear Delt work

If you’ve got traumatic shoulder injuries, you may need more advanced methods or a physical therapist.  .

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGewZS_irTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N-JAe2wj1U​

I've been wanting to talk about this for a while and it's time to address this exercise rivalry.  The method is simple; compare these two exercises in four categories and see which one is the true king of compound chest exercises.

1. SIZE:

If you read my stuff, you wanna know which exercise will put more size on you.  I haven't seen significant data that indicates which exercise does hypertrophy better, so I'm gonna break down what's happening during these two exercises and make a decision based on that.

Bench Press and Push-up both work the Pectoralis Major, Front Deltoid, Lateral Head of the triceps and Medial Head of the triceps.  Both exercises primarily do three things: horizontal adduction, elbow extension and partial shoulder flexion.

Without official data we can assume that both exercises build the triceps and delts about equally.  There are going to be differences in how the chest is loaded though.  Flat Bench and Push-ups likely build the lower chest about equally.  When it comes to building upper chest Incline Bench Press is the classic.  Decline Push-ups also target upper chest.  Until we have more information, I recommend sticking to the Incline Bench for reliable upper chest building.

We're not done with physique talk yet.  Push-ups train more functions than the Bench Press and has additional physique benefits.  Push-ups safely train loaded scapular protraction, making it arguably the best Serratus Anterior builder.  You want the best physique you can possibly achieve? Build that Serratus Anterior. Most people don't even know have it, but it really stands out when it's well-developed.

WINNER: Both.  Incline Bench for upper chest.  Flat Bench, Decline Bench and Push-ups for triceps, shoulders and lower chest.  Push-ups for SERRATUS ANTERIOR.  Optimal combo on paper is Incline Bench + Weighted Push-up.


2. PERFORMANCE:

The best choice for improving performance depends on what you need to perform well at.  If you’re a powerlifter, get off the floor and under a bar because benching is ⅓ of your sport.

You a field or combat athlete? Don't ignore Push-ups, because the core strength and Serratus Anterior gains have tremendous carryover to striking power.  Push-ups have plank properties; when done correctly, the abs are trained by doing their job and resisting extension of your lumbar spine.  Serratus Anterior is the Boxer’s Muscle.  Develop stronger scapular protraction and you're more likely to be the guy standing, while your opponent's laid out on the floor, not knowing what hit him.  The Single-arm Push-ups you see in Rocky movies aren't just hype either.  Get good at these. Get so good that you can do them with weight .   As good as Weighted Push-ups are, don't sleep on other options.  The INCLINE BENCH PRESS specifically is another top choice because it'll get you strong at a common striking angle.  In this case it'd be a more sensible choice than flat or decline benching.

WINNER: Depends on the sport

3. SAFETY:

If you're diligent about keeping your Rotator Cuffs and Delts strong and healthy and keeping your mobility in check, the Bench Press and Weighted Push-up are both safe when executed correctly.  More tends to go wrong when benching though.  It's not unusual to hear about guys developing chronic shoulder pain from long-term benching, but this comes down to human error.  Benching heavy enough and often enough with a bad bar path, incorrect hand placement and poor elbow positioning is what will usually wreck a rotator cuff.  A lot can also go wrong when doing Weighted Push-ups, but it's harder to screw up the eccentric and generally more forgiving in regard to joint health.  As long as you're wrists aren't screwed up, you'll probably be capable of pain-free Push-ups.

WINNER: Weighted Push-ups but both are 100% safe when done correctly.  Bench Press is just easier to screw up.


4. CONVENIENCE:

You see everyone benching and no one doing Weighted Push-ups because the Bench Press is easier to set up.  Grab some dumbbells or slap some plates on a barbell and you're ready to bench.  Doing Weighted Push-ups with light weight is easy to set-up, but once you need more than a 45 lb plate, the set-up becomes an issue.  You're going to need a second person to help load you up or use a more time-consuming method.   

WINNER: Bench Press

OVERALL:

This strictly comes down to what your goals are.  Both exercises serve unique purposes and it's up to you to know how to use them and fit them into a program.  After reading this, you should have a better idea of how to do that.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BVBZBb8gAJR/?taken-by=iamjackbryant

​​People don't talk enough about the Leverage High Row.

Most efficient overall? Hard to say. Haven't seen data that proves this. But it's likely that the Leverage High Row is the most efficient OPEN KINETIC CHAIN back exercise for size gains.

The reason? It's the only exercise that combines a pulldown and a row. You get all of the loaded shoulder extension that a pulldown provides and all of the loaded scapular retraction that a row provides. It's like doing rows with an extremely longer range-of-motion and bonus lat activation.

I'm not a fan of machine training, but I'm on this damn thing three days a week, because I believe in using the best possible tool for the job.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR:
• People with overactive lats
• People that sit at desks all day and have poor hip mobility and inhibited glutes
• Overweight people. They're better off doing exercises that require standing. 

You might be on a bad routine right now.  I was talking to a previous client about a routine she tried and she showed me this.  A routine on bodybuilding.com that's so bad I had to post about it.

It's simple: for natural lifters, MUSCLES NEED TO BE TRAINED MULTIPLE TIMES PER WEEK to maximize weekly size and strength gains.  This has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by multiple studies.  This routine sucks because you're basically only hitting each muscle once a week.
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It's 2017.  Bro-splits are dead.  A lot of fraudulence and pointless trends exist in the fitness world right now.  Learn at least some exercise science and protect yourself from things that are going to waste your time and money.