I’ve been consistently noticing that my right arm is struggling and tends to pump out much earlier than my left in most movements: Barbell bench, DB bench, Tricep press downs, and DB flyes are the most noticeable. For the bench movements, I struggle to keep my shoulders pinched and it feels like the right side is crapping out and then it’s hard to regain even tension.
For a while I have just felt like I need to continue doing the movements and eventually things will catch up. I am curious what kinds of cues you might give to someone who is experiencing this. Is this a situation where a form check would be needed before knowing what cues to give?
FWIW I have no previous injury or surgery on that side. I’m right hand dominant for most sports, so, maybe that side is just used to doing most of the work.
I do not see any notable asymmetry in strength. I would not cue or otherwise address what you’re experiencing in this way.
That said, your bench press technique could likely benefit from some adjustments. I think your grip is likely narrow, though I cannot swear to this given the angle. I’d favor grabbing the barbell with your pinkies on the score marks (at 31"). I’d then cue you to touch the bar much higher on your chest than you currently are- 3-4" up your sternum.
Got it. I will play around with the technique there - I recently decided to narrow my grip on the bench because I was feeling it much more in my shoulder joints than my chest. I’m working through Hypertrophy I at the moment and based on some info from the podcast I thought maybe narrowing the grip was acceptable to accommodate the volume. That said, once I narrowed the grip, I didn’t see much of a difference in the videos that I took between my standard bench and my close grip bench. I’ll keep at it though and hopefully the two sides will even out in terms of effort.