Shoulder health

[hardAtWork]

I've read a lot of other "coaches" who say that you need to balance out pushing exercises with a pulling exercise in the same movement plane in order to keep the shoulder healthy. For example, if you bench, you need to do rows. Just wondering why don't you advocate this in your programs? Do the deadlift and powerclean serve the same function?

Thanks

[Mark Rippetoe]

Muscles contract -- they get shorter. They don't push and pull. But we press, bench press, and chin, so we have the bases covered nicely.

[hardAtWork]

Ok I think I understand what you're saying. I guess the argument from other coaches is that the bench builds up and tightens the pectorals, pulling the shoulders forward, unless balanced out with building up the back muscles. Is that a sound argument?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes, doing just the bench is bad. But we don't just do the bench -- we chin, press, deadlift, and clean. These work the "back". We just don't row, which is what you want to hear is okay. SEARCH FUNCTION for why.

[Peter_k]

In my experience, for what that's worth, I've found that the prescription for more rowing is usually given to people who have done way too much benching and too little pulling over the years, which means a lot of folks.

I think it's just good generic advice: virtually anyone can start doing rows of some kind, while it might be harder for a chiro/PT to convince someone to add chins, deadlifts and cleans to their program if they're not doing them already.

[hardAtWork]

Ok, I understand. I didn't really think your programs would cause an imbalance.

[kittenSmash]

Read Starr's article on the press in the articles section here. It does a good job addressing this shoulder health issue.