Question
I was working out in the gym the other day when this guy came in with a female. As he was lifting weights it was obvious that he was more concerned with being big poppa pump up than actually do a workout. But I digress. He started to do bench press and was going to parallel and then back up. I told him those only counted if he either touched his chest or broke parallel. He told me that going past parallel gave you a potential danger of hurting your rotator cuff. One, was I wrong for what I said? Two, is it better to stop at parallel or go past.
November 5, 2008 at 5:12 am
You’ll see a lot of people that don’t go past parallel on movements, such as bench press, military press, etc. etc. He’s right that it does put your rotator cuff (shoulder joint) in more of a comprimising position, and a lot of people with previous shoulder injuries that limit their range of motion will not go past these certain points as well, or more than likely can’t go past these certain points. However, that’s not saying that you shouldn’t do it if you feel comfortable with a greater range of motion in the movement. It’s the same thing with military presses. Any type of behind the neck exercise puts you at risk for potential injury as well, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it, and it certainly doesn’t make the exercise less effective for most people. So, yes, he was right, but that doesn’t mean you were wrong. You’re both working the same muscle effectively. You’re just using a greater range of motion.