In case you missed it:
Universal Start Position
Physiology and Causes of Injury
Overdeveloped Chest
We all love the bench press. I am willing to wager that every single person in the world, at some point in their lives, has been asked, “How much do you bench?”
The bench press is so awesome. It builds a huge chest, really helps develop the lats, and is a major player in strength development. If you spend enough time benching and do it really well, you will be able to confuse enough people on Instagram that you know everything there is to know about strength training.
Unfortunately, creating this InstaBody comes with a few drawbacks. As the pec develops, the added musculature and tightness can pull the shoulder forward causing the shoulder to internally rotate.
Coupled with the increasing sitting that you do at work, in the car, and on the couch, bench pressing compounds the internal rotation issue. With enough time, the body becomes unable to counterbalance the strength of the chest and the universal start position ceases to exist. Problems compounding problems.
But it goes deeper. Now that your shoulders are internally rotated, we start to add chinks to the armor. Internally rotated shoulders fires up the traps. There is a reason every super bro you have ever seen has gigantic traps; overdeveloped pecs, internally rotated shoulders, and traps that do not turn off.
Oh but there is more. Traps that are unable to relax also trigger the head into a forward lean. Our head weighs 11 pounds and if the traps are constantly firing, the head is forward, and putting a ton of pressure on our spine.
When we add more pressure to our spine, our
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