Bench press - shoulder pain

[havenlock]

Hello everyone. I've been having some pain in both shoulders when I do flat barbell bench presses. It only hurts when my shoulders go deeper and I go past the 90 degree and touch the bar to my chest. Should I use a towel on my chest and not go as deep? I really don't want any shoulder issues down the road.

 

[cwc73]

Mine do this periodically, but I usually don't feel it until after a set--sometimes during though. First thing, start working your rear deltoid more (unless you already do extensively). I'll tell you how I warm up for bench press:

1.First I do one set of 135 for usually 5 reps: this is nice and slow and easy for me. Adjust for your strength/weight.
2. Go to the bands and do "light" sets of interior/exterior rotator work. This just warms them up.
3. I just started doing about 10 push ups after the band work.
4. Start with warm up sets working up to working weight. My warm up sets are usually 2-3 reps. The reps drop to 1 when getting close. I usually jump about 25-40 lbs each set. This keeps you from wearing out, but it lets you fire up the CNS.

Keep in mind that this works for ME. It might not be perfect for you. Also, the bench press is my first upper bdy movement, so I'm usually cold. That is why I warm up the shoulders so much. I hope this helps you. And like I said, WORK THE REAR DELTS!

 

[havenlock]

Great response. Thanks very much.

I usually do a lilttle band work and also do work with the 5 lb dumbells to work the cuffs. I don't hit the rear delts enough though. Any suggested exercises. I do reverse cable crossovers for them.. but any other exercise suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks again

 

[Tweakle]

why not swap the bench for the close grip bench, decline, db press, incline, dip or anything else that dosen't bother your shoulder for a couple of months

when you come back to benching you might even be stronger

 

[das79]

like tweakle said, you could swap the bench with something else. I used to get pains in my shoulders when I did bench, so I switched to db presses. The pain has gone away since. I could probably go back to regular bench, but now I prefer the db's.

 

[NorgePrecision]

Before you stray away from the bench press I would try widening your grip a little bit. It seemed to put less stress on the shoulders for me.

 

[anthrax]

Before you stray away from the bench press I would try widening your grip a little bit. It seemed to put less stress on the shoulders for me.

I was about to tell him the exact opposite, lol

For ME:

Wide stance = more stressful for the shoulders
Narrow grip = more stressful for the tris

 

[NorgePrecision]

Well, I went further down below parellel when my grip was closer. It makes much less of an angle with the elbows with the wider grip. I'm talking wide grip, like barely past 90 degrees between the forearms and biceps.

 

[HAPPYKC]

The solution.

The pain you get from the shoulder area is derived from the weak link of the rear delt body part. The true solution is not to give up bench pressing (which is a key compound movement for developing size and strength), but to incorporate rear delt lifts to strengthen the link.

You will notice a BIG boost in benching once your rear delts get bigger and stronger, furthermore having great rear delts make your shoulders look bigger and stops that rounded shoulder look.

Cheers

 

[Ozz2001]

Hello everyone. I've been having some pain in both shoulders when I do flat barbell bench presses. It only hurts when my shoulders go deeper and I go past the 90 degree and touch the bar to my chest. Should I use a towel on my chest and not go as deep? I really don't want any shoulder issues down the road.

How much weight are we talking about when this happens?How many days apart are you doing bench and shoulders? Could it be overtraining? all these questions are importanted to really get a good answer on what might be going on..Most shoulder pain comes from incline or shoulder exercise's...But i have had pain on flat bench in shoulder after i get to about 275 and the bar comes down to far up my chest...But its hard to pinpoint your problem with out some added info.....