Upper Body Structural Balance

One of the many tips I took from Charles is the idea of upper body structural balance. Using the testing protocol and template that Charles has laid out can ensure that there is balance within you training program and that the chance of client injury to the upper body is lessened. Upper body structural balance helps identify muscular imbalances and where these muscular imbalances are in each trainee. Due to the current culture of resistance training, many trainees are using bench press variations until they are blue in the face in order to get the ever so important big chest. This unfortunately has consequences like muscle imbalances, rounded shoulders, weak external rotators, anterior shoulder instability, bench press syndrome, and often weak overhead press strength.

Structural balance testing involves measuring horizontal pushing strength using the shoulder width barbell bench press then comparing the value in that lift to shoulder external rotation, upper trapezius, and overhead pressing strength. Use the following steps to determine upper body structural balance:

Step 1: Test for the traineee’s maximum in the shoulder-width barbell bench press. A warmup of 8 sets or more is required to ensure a true 1RM. The value attained here will guide the rest of the testing so it’s important that it is a real value.

Step 2: Rest minimum of five minutes and select a dumbbell which weighs 9.8% of the 1RM bench press value you just attained and perform a single-arm external rotation from the knee on a 4010 tempo with each arm. If the external rotators are in balance, the trainee will achieve 10 reps or more. Note differences in the strength of each arm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5P21-J_CdM

Step 3: Select a dumbbell which weighs 10.2% of the 1RM bench press and perform a single-arm bent over trap 3 raise on a 4010 tempo with each arm. If the upper trapezius is in balance, you’ll again achieve 10 reps or more. Note differences in the strength of each arm. Here is a video demo of trap 3.

Step 4: Finally, select a pair of DBs which each weighing 29% of the best bench press 1RM and perform a seated dumbbell shoulder press for as many repetitions as possible. If the ratio between overhead pressing strength and horizontal pressing strength is in balance, then you’ll achieve 10 or more repetitions at a 4010 tempo.

These four steps provide information on the structural balance of your client and allow you to design balanced training programs with individualization and specificity. Personal training needs to be personalized after all. The testing also determines which limbs are out of balance and if the imbalance is stemming from the external rotators, upper trapezius, or insufficient overhead pressing strength. Once you know determine this, program design and training volume are manipulated to increase the strength of each area.

We can also utilize the remainder of Poliquin’s percentages for establishing upper body strucutural balance. All of the percentages seen below are once again based upon the maximum (1RM) in the closegrip barbell bench press. The value for your 1RM in the closegrip bench press is what you multiple each percentage by. For example, to calculate what you should be able to do in incline barbell press in relation to your closegrip bench press you mutiply your close grip bench press max by 91%.

**tempo for all movements is 4010

Here are all of the resulting values for a trainee with a 275 maximum in the close grip bench press.

So this trainee should be able to do external rotations with 27 lbs on a 4010 tempo for 8 reps and have an incline bench press maximum of 250 lbs at 4010 if they were to be in structural balance.

Use this testing protocol and template while training yourself or while training others to achieve balanced upper body development, guide corrective programming, achieve optimal results, and reduce the chance of injury to the upper quarter. Enjoy the new found awareness!

Resources
http://charlespoliquin.com/portals/0/pdf/StructuralStoryHiRes.pdf
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/achieving_structural_balance