Press Technique help

[docjlud]

So i've read through all of SS and practical programming, and have been following the SS Novice program for a few weeks now. For some reason after reading and rereading SS's section on Press technique and practicing with lighter weights, I haven't quite dialed it down and I find parts of the section to be almost contradictory, so i am hoping some of you can shed some light on this for me.

What bothers me is the starting position of the press: should i focus on having my shoulders forward so that the bar can rest on my anterior deltoids (loosening my traps and rhomboids necessarily to allow this), or not worry about getting my shoulders far enough forward for the bar to rest on them and just focus on keeping my upper back muscles (traps and rhomboids) nice and tight?

Here are the two seemingly contradictory statements that are tripping me up from SS:

1) pg 154 4th paragraph "the idea is to have the bar resting on top of your anterior deltoids.......Inflexible people may not be able to get the shoulders FAR ENOUGH FORWARD and up to put the bar in this position" ----this seems to be advocating shoulders forward (ie relaxed traps/rhomboids for the initial starting position) which is what it looks like in the pictures as well (figure 5-8 the kids shirt is tight in the back, not wrinkled like in the figure in the bench press section where Rip is advocating an active back squeeze)

2) pg161 2nd paragraph "the other way to be loose is to let the shoulder blades slide forward.......these muscles (rhombs and traps) are what keep the shoulder blades in position during the press and if they are allowed to relax.....the potential for pressing inefficiency and injury goes way up. This is corrected by keeping the SHOULDER BLADES RETRACTED AND TIGHT and the elbows not too far forward"

Sorry for the long post, but this is really bothering me. So, which is it? Shoulders retracted or forward?

Thanks in advance.

-Jason

[MikeC1]

Neither, at the bottom, shoulders are in a neutral position; I think the point of those paragraphs is to not overexaggerate either slumping forward or retracted back. It's not terribly important if the bar is resting on your deltoids or not. For me, the bar rests on the top of the pecs and just under the collarbones, top of the sternum. It may be different for you. The important thing is that everything is tight, your elbows are slightly ahead of the bar, and the bar is actually as far down as you can get it so you aren't cheating your ROM. Chest is up.

[docjlud]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I think i am overthinking the technique a little bit. I like the idea of it resting just under the collarbone on top of the pecs instead of trying to force my shoulders forward so that the bar can rest on my delts.

Either way, i should be cranking through the reps fairly quickly and not stopping to let the bar rest at the bottom right?? anyways from the video samples i was watching from the SS videos it looked like they didnt really stop to let the bar rest at the bottom after finishing a rep..

[MikeC1]

It's up to you whether you want to start each rep from the bottom or each rep from the top (after the first one). I do the latter, the small stretch reflex at the bottom helps to crank out more reps. But either way, you don't want to dilly dally around. Take enough time between reps to make sure you have enough air for the next rep, but not more time than that.