...it’s as far as you can go in good form...

Tonight's workout is 531 Bench press (week 3), it'll be with a little less ROM after reading the article below (pinched from DaveDrapers site). The Poorman's Rotater has loosened-up my shoulders wonderfully, more o' that in a later post; however workout-wise reducing ROM looks like focus stays more on the chest. The safety bars are gonna get a bashing t'night.
Short Range Bench Presses
One of the fundamental rules of weight training is to always use a full range of motion. What’s not so simple is figuring out what constitutes a “full range of motion.” It is not necessarily going as far as you can go; it’s as far as you can go in good form, with adequate strength and stability in the joints.
It isn’t unusual to discuss the maximum safe range of motion for some exercises. For example, most would agree you don’t want to squat lower than the range where you can keep a flat back. You don’t hear much talk about the safe range for the bench press. One exception is this article from Paul Chek. In the article, Chek details how it may be better to stop the bar a few inches short of the chest. If you look, you’ll find a lot of evidence to substantiate this.
In this T-nation article powerlifter Jack Reape talks about using the floor press to limit the ROM. I think his reasoning is consistent with Chek’s.
I was first introduced to this idea by a gym owner and football coach that followed the Bigger Faster Stronger strength training program. Bigger Faster Stronger advocated using a rolled up towel resting on the chest to limit the ROM in bench pressing. He got good results with their program for his team.
He had been a very good bencher in his youth but had quit the exercise for over 15 years. He decided to try towel benching and managed to match his best numbers from his younger days in his forties, setting a master’s record in the process. He found that towel benching carried over very well to his regular bench. I have passed this along to several lifters who were just about ready to quit the lift, and all have been pleasantly surprised.
A lot of people will tell you that dumbbell bench presses give them shoulder relief. Part of this may be due to the reason they just don’t use as much weight - as a rule, most people can only use about 80% of their barbell poundages. However, if you watch people closely, although the edge of the dumbbell may get to chest level, very few let their hands sink to chest level. Without the bar, they just go to where they feel a good stretch - well short of the range they cover with a barbell.
Powerlifters have been using board presses quite a bit in recent years, a method similar to the towel. Board benching with one to five stacked 2″x6″ boards is an art all its own, especially for the lifters that use the most supportive bench shirts. Now there can be no doubt, these guys are doing it primarily to lift more weight. However, I have met a couple masters powerlifters who can no longer bench raw (without a special bench shirt) without problems, but are still very strong doing all their bench training shirted. The shirt greatly reduces the tension in the bottom couple inches and allows them to work without pain.
So if you’re going to bench press, rethink what the right range of motion really is - maybe it will save your shoulders.

Chug-a-lug: Homemade Kettlebell Sloshpipe


Here's Rob with a mini sloshpipe on a Kettlebell...  (The idea came to me in a vision - either that or I'd had too much RedBull) Rob implemented the concept perfectly!

Go see him in further action kettlebell-training-for-sport

Homemade Deadlift-Jack


Material needed; 50x75x250mm wood stuff + 25x25x75mm wood stuff

Rotator Cuff - Shoulder Health & The Rotater

I won't deny it - I'm cheap, so cheap that I'll make a Heath-Robinson version of owt that catches the eye. Latest is the Rotater - a rehab/prehab shoulder saver (http://therotater.com/)



Like with most problems, the simplest solution is usually the best. I aint got $50 spare at the moment, so here's the Grim up North knock-off...
The Homemadegymstuff 'Woody'



50x25x410mm legs, 3 90deg brackets and a length of 25mm webbing; below a bit o'padding (OK, carpet)


Loosens up the shoulders great, and it also feels looser in the delts and upper lats... Buy one if you can; make one if you can't. Simple.

Homemade Wrist-rollers

52dia x 330mm long (jubilee clip to attach cord, m24 HD bolt spindle)

37dia x 400mm long (welded cord grip, m24 HD bolt spindle) **use this baby 'til the old fingers cramp-up, magically they will become "magnetised" and appear to 'stick' to the roller... ROFL


I use these babies for sets - rope over and rope under for a balanced grip workout.

(gripfaq.com ->>)

One of the most basic tools for strengthening the forearms, the wrist roller is a straight bar with a cable attached in the middle. Weight is hung from the cable via a loading pin, and as the name implies, the implement is rotated with the hands to bring the weight up. For developing serious grip strength, the wrist roller is normally used supported on a barbell or the safety pin of a power rack at shoulder height.
Key factors to consider when selecting a wrist roller are the diameter, length, knurling, and how smoothly it will roll:
Diameter - Wrist roller diameters tend to range from 1 3/8" up to 3". The larger the diameter of the roller, the more the stress of the exercise is shifted from the wrists to the hands, especially the thumb. A roller that barely allows the thumb and fingers to touch when the hand is wrapped around it will provide the most even balance between stress on the hands and stress on the wrists.
Length - When choosing a wrist roller, be sure it is long enough to comfortably place both hands when the arms are held straight out from the body. For most people, the appropriate length will range from 18-24 inches.
Knurling - Wrist rollers are available with a range of knurling, from very sharp to none at all. Sharp knurling is not desirable on a wrist roller. When the weights get hard, knurling will cut into the skin on the hands, limiting training frequency and poundages used. A smooth finish on the wrist roller will provide sufficient friction for training the exercise while preserving the skin on the hands. If slightly more grip is needed, athletic tape can be wrapped around the roller.
Rolling Smoothness - Many wrist rollers are constructed by taking a piece of pipe, drilling a hole through the center, and then running a cord through the hole, knotting it inside the pipe to hold it in place. This method of construction will create a bump in the exercise, when the knot is rolled over on the supporting pin. The bump can be minimized by either welding washers on to the end of the roller with openings smaller than the inner diameter of the pipe or by sliding a piece of PVC pipe inside the roller to sit between the knot and the supporting bar. Training on a roller with a bump will not diminish the effectiveness of the exercise but can be annoying.

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