Hey Coach, I have always had a hard time getting my right pec to contract or get any kind of burn doing most chest movements. My buddy had at one time told me that I had weak external rotator cuff muscles. I worked on my rotator cuffs a bit, but never saw any improvement in my chest.
Essentially my buddy said my right pec was essentially just offering static support during movements I did for chest, instead of actually contracting. And wouldn't you know it, my left pec is big and full and grows VERY easily while my right pec is flat and never grows, meanwhile my right anterior deltoid and triceps are both overdeveloped in comparison to the same muscle on my left side.
So my question to you is, what might I be able to do to fix this? I have been watching video's on youtube on how to strengthen your rotator cuffs, and wonder what if any advice you have? Would be very much appreciated.
What do you think of these movements?
Am I going in the right direction? What about working on retracting my scapula? What am I missing here? Thanks for your time.
1. Dyslexic is correct
2. This video....Fitness Quest 10 is owned by a friend of mind Todd Durkin. Just about anything Todd teaches thats incorporated into his system IMO is gold. I learn a lot from him.
3. The sub-scap and "shoulder girdle" if you will (from the nipple line on up to the back from the rhomboids on up) are IMO a must for rotator health and of course balance. On the to rotator cuff, there are 4 muscles that make up the rotator cuff itself Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor and Subscapularis. instead of getting into the action of each muscle for the sake of arguement lets just assume you have no injury and it is in fact just an imbalance. But the one you have to remember is that the muscles of the rotator are a STABILIZER and not a prime mover.
Most people don't bother to even think about rotator health let alone know how to train it. After rolling, warmup, mobility, etc, we get into whats called "pre-hab or pre-habilitation training. Let assume this for a throwing athlete, baseball, QB, tennis player or even a bodybuilder that does heavy over head presses. That would call for shoulder "pre-hab" where we do a series of movements each time they train, these are done at the beginning of our training. Rotator work just doesn't consist of just internal/external rotations, there are a miriade of muscles that tie into the shoulder itself. Biceps brachii/brachialis ties into the shoulder. We do Y-T-W-L, scap retractions, internal/external rotations, ball drops with a 9oz baseball, band pull aparts. You need to have the balance between the pec minor and sub-scap in order to help keep the rotator cuff stable. Too many people work prime movers and then when they get into trouble THEN they do cuff work. It HAS to be the other way around. Joint integrity before primary work.
Now, since the 4 muscles are actual muscles, we set a limit on how long we train them, usually six weeks then we stop. Why, because since they are a muscle they will grow and if they grow to big it will be too tight to actually move in the joint itself when that happens, especially in throwing athletes, that could be a reason for a tear instead of the usual overuse injury. More on this later. Just got back from my son's graduation