Bench press advice!?!?

[Foxxxy]

Before i Dislocated my right shoulder and broke the Tuberosity (Small bone at the top of the humerus) off my Humerus. (I did this while skiing).....

Anyway i could bench around 160 lbs,
Now its so painful that i can only do 100 lbs
It's been almost three years. Should i just go back to 160lbs and push through the horrible pain,
Or start low all over again and eventually im sure the pain would go away?

You can tell when i bench press because my left always goes up first and then i struggle with my right!

Please help me out here!!!
I really dont want this problem the rest of my life.

 

[musketeer]

Does swimming help, have you tried? Often a good resistance exercise for shoulders because it's "free", improves strength AND flexibilty and has no negative component.

 

[Foxxxy]

That's a great idea, I have a pond and pool at my house so, ill be doing laps. Thanks

 

[raze]

Yeah wouldnt be pushing through the pain bro, its telling you something isnt quite right. Give swimming a go but talk to a physio, maybe get some more xrays to see whats going on.

 

[artificialaspirations]

have you gone through physical therapy. They should be able to help and give you exercises to stretch and strengthen the shoulder. I'm 10.5 months post op from torn labrum and supraspinatus. I am benching more than I was when I hurt myself. I consistantly warm up my shoulder before pressing and have to keep perfect form or the pain flares up. I'd go back to the doc if I was you...did they say anything about never lifting weights again after that injury?

 

[Foxxxy]

yah i went through physical therapy. It's better then it ever was. But benching is the only thing that hurts. Is there Anything that can replace bench pressing? I wasn't aloud to life weights for like a year or two.

 

[RottenWillow]

yah i went through physical therapy. It's better then it ever was. But benching is the only thing that hurts. Is there Anything that can replace bench pressing? I wasn't aloud to life weights for like a year or two.

Given your injury, I think the only bench form you should ever consider using again is one that really minimizes delt involvement.

The common style of keeping arms at about 90 degrees and lowering the bar to anywhere between the nipples and neck puts quite a bit more stress on the rotators and recruits a lot more delt. It enables everyone to lift a lot more because your delts are able to help the pecs quite a bit. I think that's what you need to avoid.

I'd just start with an empty Oly bar and practice this form: keep arms at 45 degrees and lower the bar to the bottom of your ribcage right where they attach to the end of your sternum; at the bottom, squeeze your shoulder blades together to get a big pec stretch and press up while keeping the bar in that lower groove. Don't allow your arms to swing upward towards your face as you raise the bar as that will just bring your delts back in, which is what you want to avoid.

Fair warning, this will feel awkward as hell the first half dozen workouts, but it really works the pecs intensively b/c it makes them do a lot more of the lifting on their own. You can get a mad pump in your upper pecs even though the bar is going no where near your upper pecs.

 

[Foxxxy]

Thank you, +1

 

[S4Hitman]

I hurt my shoulder before also, not to the extent you did though. I had to drop the weight down considerably and do a lot of reps and i got better after about 6 months.

 

[Foxxxy]

Well i couldn't lift for 2 years the doctor said, I can now, but benching is the only prob.