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Episode #61: Your Shoulders & Barbell Training | How not to hurt your shoulders in powerlifting
The shoulder is one of the most common sites of injury in powerlifting and barbell training because it is involved in every single powerlift. So in order to protect yourself from shoulder pain or injury, it’s important to have good bar placement, grip width, and shoulder position to optimize force production while minimizing extraneous forces on the shoulder.
In this episode of the PRS Podcast we discuss not just the functional anatomy of the shoulder and the four joints it’s composed of, but how it functions in each lift and how you should move to reduce your risk for injury while getting as strong as possible.
This episode is broken down by lift and common myths or misconceptions about technique and the shoulder in barbell training.
The Shoulder In The Squat:
What are some misconceptions people have about bar placement, stability, and grip width in the squat?
How does the shoulder impact grip width and bar position in the squat?
The Shoulder In The Bench Press:
How does arching your back improve bench press execution and support muscle development?
Why does excessive arching in the bench press create a problem at the shoulder?
Why do we want to maintain tightness and not sink the bar into the chest when bench pressing?
Why is the idea of tucking and flaring during the bench press problematic for the shoulder?
The Shoulder In The Deadlift:
What role do the lats play in the deadlift?
How does the role of the lats in the deadlift influence our back/shoulder angle?
The Shoulder In The Overhead Press:
Why is overhead feared by doctors and physical therapists?
How do you protect from impingement in the shoulder while overhead pressing?
If you’re a chiropractor, physical therapist, medical doctor, strength coach, or student clinician, this episode is a great review and application tutorial regarding the foot and ankle in barbell training.
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Dr. John Petrizzo, PT, CSCS, SSC: [00:00:00] And this is kind of the problem with powerlifting, right? When you take basic strength training, movement patterns, and then you make them competitive lifts, right, lifters are going to try and modify them and modify them as much as possible to take advantage of the rules to allow them to lift a little bit more weight. Right. And that's not the way that we would approach, you know, training from a more systematic perspective for anybody that's just looking to get stronger, you know?
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:00:29] Welcome to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. We're your hosts, physical therapist, strength coaches and clinical coaches, Dr. Alyssa Haveson and Dr. Rori Alter. Join us on our journey of barbell strength training and rehabilitation. All right, folks, welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Rori Alter, head clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength with my awful husband and lovely co-host, Dr. John Petrizzo. He's not an awful husband. He's an excellent husband. But if you're unaware and you're new to this podcast, he is my husband and he likes to make fun of me a lot.
Dr. John Petrizzo, PT, CSCS, SSC: [00:01:09] The only reason I agree to do these.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:01:12] We're at the start of our shoulder curriculum month here on the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. And again, if you're new, John is also a professor at Adelphi University in the exercise science department. He teaches a lot of classes, including biomechanics, kinesiology, and he brings the barbell into his education or into academics, which is pretty cool. We bring John on to the podcast for our introduction to each part of the body because he can speak with his eyes closed on functional anatomy, biomechanics, et cetera much better than Alyssa and I can since he does it every day of his life. So with that, we're going to give a brief introduction to the structure and function of the shoulder and how the muscles, bones, and elements of the joint in the shoulder function under the barbell when we are moving specifically the barbell as it pertains to the squat, the bench press, the deadlift, and the overhead press. So with that, John, why don't you give us a brief introduction to the shoulder girdle and all of the muscles, bones, and joint structures that are involved?
Dr. John Petrizzo, PT, CSCS, SSC: [00:02:34] Sure. So when we talk about the shoulder, you know, everybody I think even with a basic understanding of anatomy knows that the shoulder joint is a ball and socket joint, right? When we're talking about the shoulder joint, what we're referring to is the glenohumeral joint. That's the head of the humerus, which is the proximal part of your arm and the glenoid fossa, which is the socket part of the joint, which is a projection off of the scapula or the shoulder blade.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:03:06] Shoulder blade that most people know. Right. Right.
Dr. John Petrizzo, PT, CSCS, SSC: [00:03:09] Right. If we're talking about how the shoulder really functions, it goes well beyond just the glenohumeral joint. There are other joints involved that all have to work together to allow for it to function optimally. Those other joints would be the sternoclavicular joint where your collarbone meets your sternum, your acromioclavicular joint where your collarbone meets the acromion, which is a projection of bone off of your scapula or your shoulder blade.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:03:45] I have the scapula somewhere in this office. Maybe I should pause. Hold on. Let me go get the scapula really fast. For those of you who are watching this on YouTube or if you're listening to this on the podcast, you can head over to YouTube for some imagery along with this episode. The shoulder is such an important joint in barbell training, so important that we actually walk around with a little scapular to talk about it when we teach the lifts. John is talking about the scapular. This is the right scapular. You're looking at it from the front view. This is the inside of the scapular or the anterior portion of the scapular. And then if we turn it around, you can see the spine of the scapula. This is if I was facing the other way. So spine of the scapula, the acromion, and then what is this one called right here?
Dr. John Petrizzo, PT, CSCS, SSC: [00:04:43] The coracoid process.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:04:44] There you go. This is because I don't teach it every day of my life. Then this is the glenoid fossa, so that the socket of the ball and socket joint. We just wanted to bring that into play here.
Dr. John Petrizzo, PT, CSCS, SSC: [00:04:56] Okay, we can use that in a minute or two. We have the acromioclavicular joint and then we have the scapulothoracic joint, which is not really a true anatomic joint. It's just basically the interface between the scapula sitting on your rib cage, right? Because the scapula has the ability to move in a variety of different directions and slide up and down and side to side and things like that. We refer to that as the scapulothoracic joint, even though it's not really a joint in the true sense of the word. Then we have the glenohumeral joint. All of those joints have to work together to permit optimal function of the shoulder. The clavicle or the collarbone right at the sternum has the ability to elevate and depress, right? So if we lift our arm up, the collarbone has to move up with us, right, and it moves back down. It can move forward, which we call protraction. It can move backwards, which we call retraction. It also has the ability to rotate, so it can move in all three planes of motion. Now, the acromioclavicular joint, which is the connection between the collarbone and the shoulder blade, right, which kind of creates a little roof above your glenohumeral joint is the way I kind of describe it to students.