Antagonist Stretching For Bench Press

[Jakethaniel]

Though I do not compete my main training goals are powerlifting oriented. This technique should be effective for all presses, but I have been mainly testing it on the flat bench with a competition setup.

I have only gotten to try it out twice so far and have liked it a lot. To do it I did some stretches for my Teres Minor, Infraspinatus, and Posterior Delts, 2 minutes each stretch pre-workout then threw in 15-30 seconds here and there during rests.

The idea behind this is similar to how hip flexors inhibit glutes, these muscles should inhibit the pectoral muscles and anterior deltoid. The lats and the medial head of the deltoid are antagonists to the chest as well, but I feel that "shutting them off" too much would hurt strength and stability too much, but I might eventually give it a try on a light day.

This is something that will have to be counteracted through end of workout chest stretches, band pull aparts, and/or increased pulling volume because these stretches reinforce bad shoulder posture.

I do not think it would be a good idea to do these before a max attempt because there is some loss in stabilization, I am mainly treating it as a training and teaching tool. Teaching in that I believe it should teach your CNS to take the brakes off of chest power output a bit eventually even when you have not done the stretches and training in that you can definitely feel your chest more.
One possible negative to note is that my shoulders have felt a little rough the day after the times I have tried it, but I am not sure if that is from stabilization muscles in my shoulders having to work harder and my front delts being sore or what.

Looking for some thoughts on the idea as a whole.

 

[avega17]

Before every upper body day, I do some dynamic warm ups (such as I's, T's, and Y's among others) after a 5-10 minute general warm up. Specifically, Y's activate the traps and rhomboids, which in turn stretch the chest and other internal rotators via reciprocal inhibition. This is superior to basic passive stretching, where you might see some decline in performance due to loss of "stiffness" and elasticity at the joint. I recommend a dynamic warm up after a general warm up and then some specific warm up sets on the exercise your about to perform.

Edit: T's activate traps and rhomboids, stretch internal rotators

 

[Jakethaniel]

Before every upper body day, I do some dynamic warm ups (such as I's, T's, and Y's among others) after a 5-10 minute general warm up. Specifically, Y's activate the traps and rhomboids, which in turn stretch the chest and other internal rotators via reciprocal inhibition. This is superior to basic passive stretching, where you might see some decline in performance due to loss of "stiffness" and elasticity at the joint. I recommend a dynamic warm up after a general warm up and then some specific warm up sets on the exercise your about to perform.

Edit: T's activate traps and rhomboids, stretch internal rotators

I am actively trying to have a decline in performance in the the muscles I am stretching, that is the whole point. I want them to be "turned off" so they can not inhibit the pectorals power output as much, like tight hip flexors do for glutes.
I do not do any stretching pre-workout unless it is corrective or has a training purpose.