Yes I think that’s exactly what is happening. I’m using the “Body by science” lifting protocol as described by Doug Mcguff in the book with the same title, which has going to failure as a key point, and I think I’ll continue exploring it for a while longer. But yes I think I am compensating in the end because of this, and I’ll have to really keep an eye on myself not to do this.

I watched your videos, and maybe you already have but check out the first video in this thread by Evan Osher – If nothing else what he says and shows around 7 minutes in. As I understand it by doing what he describes we get kind of an ON-switch as you describe it in method one (but not by retracting!), that puts the scaps in a good relationship with the shoulders/ribcage, and then we maybe don’t have to care so much about when to retract or protract because we just keep them in place and do our business. This seems to give us a simple way to always have the scapulas in check.

That is if the guy is right about this, and that I’ve understood it correctly. But it seems to make sense.