Back Lever: To Protract Or Not To Protract?

Who here can make the case for or against?

 

Is protracting better for the shoulder girdle? Or is protracting a personal preferance? Do you build more strength in one versus the other?

 

I feel a stronger entry into the back lever and the ability to lower completely horizontal with little or no curving in the lower spine, i would just like to hear some opinions.

One is not necessarily better than the other in BL, but they will be slightly different. Coach says some degree of protraction is almost always used when executing the BL. I try to eliminate as much of it as I can when I do BL work, unless of course I am doing connecting moves to and from BL, in which case I protract hard. It depends on what you want I suppose, as getting acquainted to protraction and retraction (as well as the other scapular orientations) is super important, play around with it and see what feels best.

I'm not sure which one to stick with either, but when I work back levers, I do one hold with fully or heavily retracted scapulae and the next hold would be with some protraction so I would be proficient at both. Retracted is harder than protracted. I also try to fully depress them in the back lever. My scapulae tend to be slightly elevated if I don't think about depressing them. I'm not sure if that's a big deal.