Not Just the Shoulders

One of the reasons push ups, and various overhead pressing movements are so important might surprise you. 

It has nothing to do with building strength or gaining muscle.

It’s about getting your body to work better together.

On movements like a push up, overhead press or angled bar press, the shoulder blade must move with the shoulder. This is key to healthy, robust shoulders. When we do a floor press, or a bench press, our shoulder blades are “pinned,” meaning they aren’t moving in congruency with the shoulder joint itself. 

One isn’t better than the other. Rather, they’re both important in a strength and conditioning program. 

Other movements we want to see your shoulder blades moving include:

Sled marches (arms out straight allows this to happen, imagine it as an iso hold of the position I’m referring too, just like planks)

Wall balls

Medicine ball slams 

Medicine ball chest passes 

Anti-rotation presses

And we even want to see shoulder blades engaged on things like high and low planks - this shows us your shoulder is in the most stable position. When this doesn’t happen, we can see a winging happening where the scapula is poking out of your shirt.

Remember, it’s not just the shoulder, but all the other stuff that attaches to it as well. 

Justin Miner

@gain_sc

Gary shows us a solid high plank position here.