Hey Friend,
The Bench Press is one of the best mass building exercises you can do for your upper body.
Unfortunately, people who do a lot of Bench Presses often experience some of these issues:
- Decreased shoulder flexibility, especially reaching overhead and behind your back
- Rounded shoulders and “winged” scapula
- Nerve impingements
- Rotator cuff issues
- Tendonitis
That's why if you do Bench Presses, you must ensure that you're balancing them out to avoid these issues and having to take time off from working out due to injury.
First, you have to perform double the number of sets of pulling exercises to maintain strength balance across the shoulder. The best choice for this is a horizontal pulling exercises - such as the Seated Cable Row.
However, if your pecs are already tight from a lot of Bench Presses, then you're never going to achieve full range of motion when you do the Seated Row, because they'll limit how much you can open your chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together. That's why right before each set of Seated Rows, you should do a static stretch for your pecs. Just hold onto a rack or sturdy post with one arm (as shown in the picture below) and twist your body in the opposite direction so that you open up your chest. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds while you breathe naturally, then repeat on the other arm.
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