Sports 2022, 10, 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports10020019 www.mdpi.com/journal/sports Article Chest Exercises: Movement and Loading of Shoulder, Elbow and Wrist Joints Pascal Schütz 1 , Pia Zimmer 1,2 , Fabian Zeidler 1,2 , Michael Plüss 1 , Katja Oberhofer 3 , Renate List 1,4 and Silvio Rene Lorenzetti 1,3, * 1 Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, Leopold‐Ruzicka‐Weg 4, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland; ps@ethz.ch (P.S.); pia.zimmer@outlook.com (P.Z.); fabian.zeidler@chello.at (F.Z.); michael.pluess@hest.ethz.ch (M.P.); rlist@ethz.ch (R.L.) 2 Department of Medicine, Sports and Healthcare, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Höchstädtplatz 6, 1200 Vienna, Austria 3 Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen (SFISM), Hauptstrasse 247, 2532 Magglingen, Switzerland; katja.oberhofer@baspo.admin.ch 4 Human Performance Lab, Schulthess Clinic, Lengghalde 2, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland * Correspondence: Silvio.lorenzetti@baspo.admin.ch; Tel.:+41‐79‐543‐50‐86 Abstract: Injuries to the shoulder are very common in sports that involve overhead arm or throwing movements. Strength training of the chest muscles has the potential to protect the shoulder from injury. Kinematic and kinetic data were acquired in 20 healthy subjects (age: 24.9 ± 2.7 years) using motion capture, force plates for the bench press exercises and load cells in the cable for the cable pulley exercises with 15% and 30% of body weight (BW). Joint ranges of motion (RoM) and joint moments at the shoulder, elbow and wrist were derived using an inverse dynamics approach. The maximum absolute moments at the shoulder joint were significantly larger for the cable pulley exercises than for the bench press exercises. The cable cross‐over exercise resulted in substantially different joint angles and loading patterns compared to most other exercises, with higher fluctuations during the exercise cycle. The present results indicate that a combination of bench press and cable pulley exercises are best to train the full RoM and, thus, intra‐muscular coordination across the upper limbs. Care has to be taken when performing cable cross‐over exercises to ensure proper stabilisation of the joints during exercise execution and avoid joint overloading. Keywords: shoulder; strength exercise; pectoralis training; kinetics; kinematics 1. Introduction Strength training plays an integral part in the prevention of and rehabilitation from injury, as well as improvement of sports performance [1]. Thereby, the primary goal of strength training is to increase muscular strength for stabilising the joints while simultaneously improving inter‐ and intra‐muscular coordination [2]. Focusing on the shoulder joint and upper limb, injuries are very common in sport disciplines that involve overhead arm or throwing movements, such as tennis, baseball or basketball [3]. Here, well‐trained chest muscles may help to reduce injury risks by better stabilising the shoulder joint and the interconnected upper limbs [4]. Bench press exercises are the most popular strength exercises for developing upper body strength, especially of chest muscles [5]. The core muscle groups which are trained during bench press exercises are the pectoralis major, the triceps brachii, the anterior deltoid and the medial deltoid, serving as key stabilisers of the shoulder joint [1]. Another common method to improve chest muscle strength is to perform strength exercises on a cable pulley system [6]. The cable pulley system offers a wide range of exercise execution types that can be adapted to individual preferences and requirements. From a Citation: Schütz, P.; Zimmer, P.; Zeidler, F.; Plüss, M.; Oberhofer, K.; List, R. Chest Exercises: Movement and Loading of Shoulder, Elbow and Wrist Joints. Sports 2022, 10, 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports10020019 Academic Editor: Marco Beato Received: 22 December 2021 Accepted: 28 January 2022 Published: 31 January 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu‐ tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu‐ tional affiliations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Li‐ censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con‐ ditions of the Creative Commons At‐ tribution (CC BY) license (http://crea‐ tivecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).