What’s up folks. I am familiar with your content but have some questions. So I’ve been back in the gym for 4 months and have an issue that I 100% didn’t have before. I’m pretty much uneven on all upper lifts. When I do a pull up my right shoulder is lowers to my ear at the top. If I do a push up (even on my knees) my body starts to tilt k guess and one side is lower. If I attempt to barbell bench the barbell tilts to the right side on the way down no matter how hard I try to keep it even. If I do dumbbell bench my shoulders are still sitting uneven. Not sure if this is a winged scapula but looking at old vids I used to not have this problem. It might be an issue with keeping one scapula retracted but I can’t fix it. When I set up on the push up one shoulder looks like it’s upper higher or more forward if that makes any sense and I can’t do them symmetrical even on my knees it looks like one shoulder drops lower. Should I focus on purely unilateral exercises at this point? If not what what your management be if you were in my exact situation?
WL125,
Thanks for the post. Do you have a video of you doing a pushup and/or bench press so that I may see what’s going on? I can weigh-in a bit more after that, but I likely would not recommend a unilateral program for this situation. Depending on the video, I may not do anything special, though I’d also like to know what program you’re running right now too.
-Jordan
This “asymmetry” is not something I’m sure is even real, as it may be an artifact of being set up on the bench favoring one side or the other or uneven grip, different length arms, etc… I favor this hypothesis given the asymmetry at lockout, which wouldn’t really occur even in the face of large muscular strength differences. Even if it is “real”, I wouldn’t do anything to address this as it’s very normal. I can’t speak to your R shoulder during pull-ups without seeing it.
So on bench as I descend the right side of the bar is slanted towards the right side. When I’m in a push up position it looks like one shoulder is more forward even when I try to set it even
I can send u something better when I get home later. I appreciate the reply
Yea, that may be the case, but I’m not sure it’s a big enough difference to matter, you know? May I ask why you’re concerned?
I’m concerned because I used to be pretty symmetrical on push ups, bench and pull ups. It’s vastly different now. I wanna compete in bodybuilding so don’t want a crazy imbalanced side. Also wouldn’t it increase risk of injury since once side is loading more on barbell bench and stuff?