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Hi,
I just had a few questions, I understand that most of these recommendations come from the performance end but would just like to know your take on it.
I was wondering why not try to release pec minor a little instead of pushing extension of the spine?
In your hip thrust video you talked about the importance of ribcage to pelvis orientation, why not try to maintain that during the bench as well?
Do you think that a decrease in bar path would be more beneficial than an increase in core stability and transfer of force?
Look forward to your reply.
From a human performance standpoint the powerlifting bench press (and numerous other barbell movements in todays strength sports) causes some bad things to happen by opening up the core. This provides an open chain movement to be done with no stability on the proximal end. The result has a negative effect in a number of ways that must be dealt with. you can see this addressed on the SHOP tab with the Shoulderok. Releasing the pec minor will help but in practice doing to much trigger point release on the pec immediately preceding working with maximal weights can lead to heightened injuring risk. This is certainly not always the case but enough so that without being able to assess the situation or control of the viewers of the video it isn’t covered. The method shown in the video works quite well for nearly everyone but may not be exactly what I do every session or with every athlete. As with most things related to human movement the answer is “it depends”.
And to your last question the answer is yes. But there is more factors coming into play than just reduction of bar path with a tight setup. You can gain back some core stability through enhanced lat engagement and the core stabilization should still be cued even though it won’t be fully effective do to the inability for opposition of the diaphragm to pelvic floor. Again this is where the Shoulderok comes into play as a preventative or recuperative measure.