Shoulder Stuff: Scapular Retractions with respect to Pushing and Pulling Exercises

In any case now a days they start always with scapular health and movement first before doing the ever stressed "external rotations". That is very important because without proper scapular dynamics the rotator cuff would be unable to function and stabilize properly so that doing those rotation exercises would actually cause more harm than good.

So always remember the importance of the scapula in shoulder girdle health. It will make or break you. Most people completely focus and the delts and rotator cuff and that is very wrong.

As for as balancing pulling and pushing, that can be misleading also because of the relatonship of the scapula. People think of the pulling and pushing thing as a "delt" thing. But delt balance is easy to achieve. Big fucking deal. You do anything with the rear delts. You do pressing and bench pressing. Laterals, pullups, pulldowns. Basically if you have any sense of programming at all you're delts should be good.

But just balancing bench press and rows, for example doesn't actually address the important difference between shoulder retraction and protraction. Think about it, when you do bench press you keep your shoulder blades retracted the whole time. When you do rows you are training scapula retraction. They are the same in that regard! If you really wanted true balance between pushing and pulling you would have to do full pushups (with protraction at the end) coupled with rows. You see how this stuff is oversimplfied?

But it's still an improvement over someone just doing bench pressing all the time and nothing else so I'm not complaining too much.

I'll drop you an explanation of the bent over cuban press I like. DUMBELLS ONLY wiht HAMMER GRIP thumbs facing you! No barbell external rotations of any kind and absolutely no pronated (overhand, palms away from you) grip with external rotations!!!