Discover higher steadiness for a greater press.
Final up to date on March tenth, 2025
Mike O’Hearn is finest generally known as a bodybuilder and a former member of American Gladiators, however he’s no stranger to the powerlifting platform. His expertise in powerlifting goes again many years — he’s bench pressed over 405 kilos on an incline. Now in his 50s, O’Hearn coaches and trains purchasers to get stronger.
One instance of O’Hearn’s power teaching options his shopper’s incline bench press coaching in his dwelling health club. O’Hearn’s shopper had a power imbalance — one aspect was stronger than the opposite, leading to an uneven press. O’Hearn positioned a small yoga block beneath his shopper’s shoulders to treatment the problem.
“This may give much less room for his again; he has to remain extra balanced,” O’Hearn defined. The shopper carried out a number of reps on the incline bench with the block between his shoulder blades. The block’s thickness created a more-compromised place, which compelled O’Hearn’s shopper to focus extra on steadiness and stability to carry correctly.
O’Hearn had his trainee carry out extra units with heavier weights with the identical type to cement the purpose. Implementing methodology to repair type fairly than manually manipulating it for higher numbers is how O’Hearn’s purchasers can navigate their lifts to raised positions all through the reps. This interprets to coaching extra constantly long run.
Longevity is the final word purpose.
—Mike O’Hearn
Power asymmetries are frequent, however the dominant limbs or sides are usually not at all times the identical. No matter which aspect is dominant, trainers, medical doctors, and practitioners can suggest particular workouts to assist promote steadiness, as O’Hearn did on this case. (1) One other extensively used technique is more unilateral dumbbell work to advertise physique and power symmetry.
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Reference
- Boccia, G., D’Emanuele, S., Brustio, P. R., Beratto, L., Tarperi, C., Casale, R., Sciarra, T., & Rainoldi, A. (2022). Power Asymmetries Are Muscle-Particular and Metric-Dependent. Worldwide journal of environmental analysis and public well being, 19(14), 8495. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148495
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