Pushing The Limit

By James Fitzgerald

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

At a recent fitness competition, one of our OPEX EC Global clients scored a number of reps less in her bench press when compared to her power clean. Both of these movements were done with a 2 min time cap and with the same load. 

In the sport of fitness, OPEX has observed that the 1RM ratio between the power clean and close grip bench press are quite indicative of structural balance in the sport. 

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

At the fitness competition, males were almost identical in their rep ratios while most females were significantly below in their bench press when compared to their power clean. The athlete we are discussing was a female with 35 reps for her power clean and 24 reps for her bench press in each of those 2 minutes.

There is NO argument that the differences in absolute strength for the male and female in the upper body are very noticeable, and very real. Yet, tests in the sport of fitness do not take upper body volume requirements into consideration when designing most of these tests.

The ending result in most cases is a higher chance of injury and a GREATER discrepancy between good females and great females in the sport, where the majority of great athletes have developed adequate upper absolute strength relative to their body weight and their peers.

OPEX Athlete and CrossFit Games Competitor Amanda Goodman

Photo courtesy Infinite Strength Games

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

After the test I had her look further into three pressing variations: behind the neck press 1 rep max (RM), a semi supinated dumbbell (DB) shoulder press 6 RM and a lying DB tricep extension 8 RM. 

What I discovered along with some other testing scores was this.

Handstand Pushup (HSPU) strict - 0 Kipping Ring Muscle Up - 0 Strict Pull up - 12 Press 1RM - 110# Weighted Chin Up 1RM - 189# Close Grip Bench Press (CGBP) - 175# Lying DB Tricep Extension 8 RM - 20#/h 2 min Max Power Clean Reps - 35 2 min Max Bench Press Reps - 24

comments: L front of shoulder - pain L under scapula after HS walks - pain

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

In the behind the neck press, when the weight is sitting on the back of the neck, the arm extensors, the scap elevators and the deltoids try to work in agreement with one another to move the weight.

As the load moves further away from the neck, and the upper arm moves further and further away from the neck, the scapula border AND the upper arm AND their angle in relation to one another should move WITH one another. This is proper scapular movement.

When the upper arm is below parallel (i,e. the barbell is on the back of the neck), the upper arm moves faster in relation to the scapula. When the upper arm reaches parallel though, the scapula moves almost at the same speed in rotation as the upper arm moves. 

Watch the video here

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

In this press variation the barbell does not allow the hands to move away from one another; they are fixed. With dumbbells, it is different.

So when you see the 1st picture, you can understand that at the point where the barbell wants to continue to move further away from the body, the scapula elevators (upper trap on L) are working harder THAN the opposite side upper trap on R. The brain at this point is thinking that the bar HAS TO move upwards, so it will do what it needs to do to get there.

When we see this in the barbell movement, one can say that the symmetry is not there from one side to another. Often times with barbell movements, it can be difficult to see differences in Right to Left mechanics and they cannot be picked out.

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

In that case, we can test a DB press with some similar effects - pressing overhead from seated AND with slight fatigue.

As you can see in picture 2, the same “kind” of affect happens. Where the upper trap on the L is overactive under fatigue. As well as in picture 3 with a standing press.

So in this case it is a gross motor inability to move these loads in barbell and dumbbell work. With an obvious imbalance.

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

So in the next case I was curious about the arm extensors, so we tested them indirectly with a 8RM DB tricep extension test.

In the pictures to the right, the required test was an 8RM with a 40X1 tempo (4 second eccentric-down, 0 second pause in the bottom, as fast as you can concentrically-up, 1 second pause at the top). 

All of these tests were unsupervised. Even though the “elbows to ceiling” form was not maintained for the concentric portion of the last rep (as seen in picture 3), one can still see the inability of the R arm to do the final concentric piece of work, where both arm extensors are “tired”, R and L, but the R side dies out.

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

At the end of the video, the L arm continues to “try” to conclude the rep, and the R arm concedes and falls down, weight to shoulder.

This new insight led me back to understanding now why the barbell press and dumbbell press were scouring as they were. 

It can be simply stated that the R arm extensors (which is not only the tricep as a lot is involved in the “action” of the extension - like scap stability, open nerve pathways, etc..) are not working as well in isolation or in complex upper body pushing patterns.The “possible” resulting pain in OH straight arm pressing and bent arm pressing is from the L scapula and upper trap on L side doing a lot of the work.

When the upper trap does more than it is supposed to in pushing, especially on one side more than the other, then resulting overuse patterns of one area occurs.

Watch the video here

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

At OPEX we like to look at multiple areas of movement to determine where people should be, or more importantly, “start” on their exercise program.

Once you have a layout and plan, then you can look into specific areas here to determine a clients progression.

Simply saying that movements like press and push press and HSPU because they are multiple joint, high intense patterns of movement “should” be in everyones training program is incorrect. There is a time for everything. In this case, without diagnosing, as a coach I can see that the R to L pattern exists. All the “scaling" of press and push press and HSPU can happen, with continued LACK of progress; until we figure out what to do.

Having some structural tests allow us to investigate how that pushing occurs in a step by step manner, providing the coach insight on where to start the client best, as opposed to guessing.

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

We use FLR (Front Leaning Rest) —> Push Up —> Dip —> Wtd Dip —> Press/Weighted Chin Up Ratio…as our basis for progression. In each area, one must have scores that indicate they can move onto more challenging sequences of exercise.

One of the most interesting things I see in intense group model fitness is a lack of front end assessment for these pushing movements and variations.

If someone can only do 3 strict push ups, there is no way in HELL they should be doing 50 burpees in a workout. Think of the eccentric demand on that anterior shoulder. In some cases, people cannot connect the dots on this due to inexperience but ALSO not having a playbook that can give you direction to assess and properly design. OPEX CCP does this.

© OPEX Fitness 2007-2015

In the end, the outcome of the assessment for our client is:

• investigation with a practitioner in upper cervical spine work to get a check on the neck - in most cases of CF females this can occur as they “have to” perform kipping hspu as a skill, but in fatigue cases this can cause neck alignment issues leading into improper energy going into the arm flexors and extensors (in the case of the tricep test)

• more front end Single Arm (SA) work on trap 3, work and remodeling of scapula retraction over elevation and protraction with elevation (i.e. less Barbell variants and more SA scap work)

• continue with barbell movements that are required for sport participation; moderate loads and %’s for strength speed work to ensure correct shoulder alignment; dynamic upper work only as skill - not in fatigue 

Interested in learning more about the assessment process? Sign up for an upcoming C5 or Assessment course HERE.