Is the bench press (regular grip) both transverse flexion, and lateral extension of the shoulder joint? Little confused on this, since both make sense, but a flexion and extension simultaneously just leaves me a little confused.

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Oct 21 2014 09:57pm

Litebro told me it's a lat dominated movement and I believe him

I'm asking about the anatomical shoulder joint action. I think it can be either of what I listed, but I'm having difficulties distinguishing why on each:

Transverse flexion vs. Lateral extension

I'm not really concerned with the muscle groups involved in the exercise, that's straight-forward. The concept of the joint movement is what is getting me.

bi-dimensional, part transverse part sagital. there's no shoulder lateral extension involved here physiologically apart from post delt stabilization

Lay down on bench, push up, down, repeat

Arnt u 5gettong ur lats m8

Well, it depends. If by bench press you mean attempting a 405 squat in nothing but boxers, then yes. Bench press.

There is no lateral extension IIRC. Lateral shoulder extension only occurs in the frontal plane and bench press is in the transverse plane.

edit: Think about what way the muscles run to determine which plane the movement is in. Front/back + up/down = sagittal, sides + up/down = frontal, horizontally = transverse. This is the general rule of thumb.

edit2: http://brentbrookbush.com/1-anatomical-position-anatomical-directions/ --pretty good website for explaining some simple anatomy.

Final edit: Now that I think about it... can you even have lateral extension of the shoulder? The lateral/medial deltoid should only have abduction/adduction as it moves in the frontal plane.

This post was edited by HoneyBadger on Oct 22 2014 09:56pm