The Problem
A few months ago I took a visit to a local high school to reunite with a colleague I hadn’t seen in awhile and I found myself helping coach some of the athletes as they entered the weight room.
One common question I received from one of the male athletes was:
“How could I improve my bench press, should I just do more dumbbell flyes and add in incline bench press?”
Since this type of response was the furthest from my mind. I emphasized;
“You need to take the slack out of your lats and bring your core up to speed.”
He looked at me confused like a 3rd grader doing fractions for the first time so I had to explain a little better.
“Your lats help to connect your shoulders and your hips, and are a big part of your core.”
He STILL looked at me a little confused, so I simply said:
“You gotta learn how to push from your armpits!”
The lightbulb must’ve finally came on because he smiled with a big “Ohhhhh!”
The Solution and Results
The four exercises I told him to focus on and get stronger in were chinups, dips, pushups and sumo deadlifts. This way he’ll engage his lats as both a moving and core muscle in these four movements. After 2 weeks of implementation he slapped 40 pounds onto his max bench press.
Now you may be wondering “how is this possible?” Here’s how: after watching him bench press, his body had no idea how to stay “connected” in order to avoid leaking and wasting energy. From a sequencing and patterning standpoint, the coordination of his lats with the rest of his body improved so that his shoulders didn’t have to carry the load alone.
This is what I meant by take the slack out of his lats and bring his core up to speed. The 40 pound increase came from increased stability, improved coordination and simply priming the nervous system to move more weight. He didn’t follow a 3 sets of 10 scheme either. Because he was looking to increase strength, 4-5 sets of heavy triples and sets of 5 were key. His body had to accumulate a lot of volume (reps and sets) with relatively heavy loads.
So if you want to start moving more weight, no matter if it’s a bench press or deadlift, or even if you want to be able throw a ball farther then you must take the slack out of your lats and tap into the power of your armpits.
The Schematics of Armpit Power
The lats play two critical roles in the body:
- Work with the abs to stabilize the lumbar spine (lower back).
- Work with the upper back muscles to stabilize the shoulder joint.
Now this whole concept of “Armpit Power” is something I assumed everyone was aware of. A few weeks ago when I attended the Perform Better 3-Day Summit in Providence, RI Dr. Stuart McGill also talked about the importance of the lats. And during the practical portion I was blown away that most of the attendees had not been using their lats when they lifted. I even
met a competitive powerlifter from New York, I partnered during the hands-on breakout session with, who had no concept of armpit power.
We talked after the conference and with a few tips I gave him I recently found out that he added 35 pounds to his bench, 60 pounds to his squat and 45 pounds to his deadlift while decreasing his back pain.
Armpit Power Benefit #1: Protect the Lower Back to Amplify Atrength and Efficiency
So one benefit of tapping into the power of your armpits is to protect your back. When it comes to protecting the lower back the lats play a HUGE role. When the lats have an increase in activation due to high muscular tension, it helps to prevent lumbar flexion (forward rounding of the back).
By helping the spine to remain in neutral this increases the amount of strength one can express because of the precise transmission of force from the legs to the arms.
When lifting most may think that when you see someone with a rounded back that their hips may be tight or their abs are weak. What tends to happens is that if you have a trainee who does a lot of forward flexing direct ab work this can create a strength imbalance between the abs and lats. The abs want to flex the spine while the lats want to extend the spine.
When these muscles work together in a synchronized fashion this results in the lower back being protected while the efficiency of force transmission is greatly amplified.
Below is a simple video of how to protect the low back and activate the lats and accompanying armpit muscles as a stabilizer to the spine and trunk.
As you can see I’m in a tall kneeling stance. I’ve done this to eliminate accessory joints from the equation to focus strictly on the hips and lumbar spine. By squeezing my glutes and abs, this makes it easier to tap into the armpit muscles.
The band provides a low load of tension in order to provide feedback to the armpit muscles so that they reflexively increase their level of activation and begin to work properly.
Armpit Power Benefit #2: Protect the Shoulder for Explosive Arm Action
The second benefit of the armpit muscles is the dynamic stabilization of the scapula (shoulder blades) that yields explosive arm action. Explosive arm action is key when it comes to sprinting. The unique design of the lats creates force tranmission lines that run from one glute, across the lower back and up to the opposing shoulder. This results in an “X” pattern that allows for force links to continuously and efficiently run though the body.
The “X linking” combined with explosive arm action allows rotational athletes like tennis players, baseball players and football quarterbacks to swing a racquet or throw a ball with tremendous speed and accuracy with no fear of injury.
This concepts of throwing from the armpits helped an NFL quarterback eliminate chronic elbow pain he dealt with after practices and games.
The video below shows a good progression of the first video that will set the foundation for explosive arm action to accompany the “X links” created by the lats and the rest of the armpits.
The Recap
In summary, Armpit Power will protect your
- Lower back by increasing the stability of the (lumbar) spine while working with the abs as a force transmitters
- Shoulders by increasing the stability of the scapula (shoulder blades) while working with the upper back muscles to produce explosive arm actions
No matter if your goal is to increase your bench press, sprint faster or throw farther; your secret to high performance lies in tapping into “The Power of Your Armpits”!
PDF
