Shoulder while bench pressing

[ajaygill]

Shoulder pain while bench pressing

for the first time today, i felt severe pain when working out. my chest was strong enough to lift the weight, but my shoulders were just aching. the pain was pretty bad, i couldn't do the weight i could of easily done the week before. Is it time for a week off? been training 5days on two days off for almost 6-8 weeks. does my body just need a rest, or is there something wrong with my shoulders?

 

[dabuffguy]

what a coincidence. My shoulders tole me todat it's time for a break.

just take a couple extra days off. see what happens. If the prooblem persists, get it checked.

 

[life_is_good]

break up shoulder movement days. i train 4x/week. giving a day between each shoulder movement has helped elim pain. i go 6 months before taking more then a week off. might switch days up to give myself a 4 day break.

 

[ajaygill]

well right now my splits like this i know i need to change it in this order

chest/tries
shoulders/abs
back/bies
legs

sometimes i do another muscle that is lagging but its usually this

 

[automaticj5]

id just simply switch your shoulder/ab day with back/bi

you only work abs once?

 

[NASAKYCHAIRMAN]

Re: Shoulder pain while bench pressing

for the first time today, i felt severe pain when working out. my chest was strong enough to lift the weight, but my shoulders were just aching. the pain was pretty bad, i couldn't do the weight i could of easily done the week before. Is it time for a week off? been training 5days on two days off for almost 6-8 weeks. does my body just need a rest, or is there something wrong with my shoulders?

The shoulder pain could be due to an injured or stretch rotator cuff muscle. Also, your technique and form can be part of it too.

I suggest:
1. do rotator cuff exercises
2. better bp technique/form
3. Ice your shoulders for 10-20 minutes
4. Use rubbing ointment on your shoulders before and after your workout.
5. Take a week off or deload for a week.

TRAIN HARD

"BIG WILLIE" J.T. HALL
http://www.youtube.com/user/NASAKYCHAIRMAN

 

[dabuffguy]

well right now my splits like this i know i need to change it in this order

chest/tries
shoulders/abs
back/bies
legs

sometimes i do another muscle that is lagging but its usually this

you realize your shoulders take a big hit from doing back excercises too right?

redo it like this

chest/tris
legs
back/bis
shoulders/abs



Every rep you do with back excercises stress the shoulder too, only instead of loading weight on it, the weight is trying to pull your arm out of it's socket each rep, which is probably worse for your shoulder.

 

[searay]

the stress your back work places on your shoulders is nothing to the stress benching will place on your shoulders. you may need to work your chest and shoulders on the same day. this will give you a full wks rest. as your weights increase the more rest you will need to recupe. remember, your joints and tendons do not grow anywhere near as fast as muscle will especially on gear. sone techniques to take the stress off your shoulders when benching is, bring your grip in so the inside of your hand touches where the knurl begins on the inside of the bar, do not wrap your thumb this way you can keep your elbows close to your side which takes stress off your shoulders, do not touch your chest stop about 1-2 inches from your chest, keep your chin touching your chest. you may also have to stop shoulder pressing movements and only do lateral raises to the side, front, and rear.

 

[DaveTSI]

Re: Shoulder pain while bench pressing

for the first time today, i felt severe pain when working out. my chest was strong enough to lift the weight, but my shoulders were just aching. the pain was pretty bad, i couldn't do the weight i could of easily done the week before. Is it time for a week off? been training 5days on two days off for almost 6-8 weeks. does my body just need a rest, or is there something wrong with my shoulders?

what does your bench groove look like? meaning how high do you bring the bar down to your chest.

 

[Rage-Of-Sparta]

rotator excercices and bringing the bar a little lower helped my shoulders tremendously

 

[ajaygill]

Re: Shoulder pain while bench pressing

what does your bench groove look like? meaning how high do you bring the bar down to your chest.

well i aim to touch my chest with every rep, this what i've been told is a proper full rep

 

[enigma4dub]

Re: Shoulder pain while bench pressing

well i aim to touch my chest with every rep, this what i've been told is a proper full rep

hes asking where the bar touches.

 

[enigma4dub]

and id venture to say your elbows are possibly flared out. i like using a narrow grip (shoulder width), elbows tucked.i use this grip exclusively actually for all my pressing movements. this seems to keep my shoulders healthy.

 

[hardrock]

I do chest and shoulders on the same day. Have ever since I injured both shoulders in the past. I do chest first, then shoulders. That way they both get a full week before either of them is hit again.

Chest excercises hit your delts, IMO not allowing them to fully recover for your shoulder day.

Now I do train DC style, but began doing both muscle groupe in the same workout years ago. Shoulders haven't bothered me since.

 

[DaveTSI]

Re: Shoulder pain while bench pressing

well i aim to touch my chest with every rep, this what i've been told is a proper full rep

what enigma said, where do you touch your chest with the bar?

 

[fortunatesun]

and id venture to say your elbows are possibly flared out. i like using a narrow grip (shoulder width), elbows tucked.i use this grip exclusively actually for all my pressing movements. this seems to keep my shoulders healthy.

I agree with this. I'm finishing up a rehab phase of my right shoulder. Laid off normal benching and used a reverse grip with my elbows glued to my sides. This took all the strain of the painful area. 4 setsx15-20 several times a week for active recovery. You want the affected area to get plenty of light work to help it heal w/o adding to the pain.

 

[the_alcatraz]

Re: Shoulder pain while bench pressing

for the first time today, i felt severe pain when working out. my chest was strong enough to lift the weight, but my shoulders were just aching. the pain was pretty bad, i couldn't do the weight i could of easily done the week before. Is it time for a week off? been training 5days on two days off for almost 6-8 weeks. does my body just need a rest, or is there something wrong with my shoulders?

do you stretch? warm up?

 

[ajaygill]

sorry my bad for misunderstanding your question, well the bar hits my chest around the middle top region not to far up. and for warm up i walk to the gym on most days, its rougly a 1 km walk or so.

 

[nzrodney]

and id venture to say your elbows are possibly flared out. i like using a narrow grip (shoulder width), elbows tucked.i use this grip exclusively actually for all my pressing movements. this seems to keep my shoulders healthy.

Agree, the wider your grip the more stress you place on the shoulders & rotators. This applies to chins, lat pulldowns & militaries. To avoid the stress on your shoulder joint try bringing in your hands on these lifts with elbows forward & close in. Reverse grip military press is a good option also. I would strongly recommend that on chest & shoulders days you perform at least 10 mins of rotator cuff exercises to warmup & strengthen your shoulders.

 

[DaveTSI]

sorry my bad for misunderstanding your question, well the bar hits my chest around the middle top region not to far up. and for warm up i walk to the gym on most days, its rougly a 1 km walk or so.

ok try this next time you bench and see how it feels on your shoulders. Unrack the bar and start in your normal position. When you start your descent you break you elbows first, flaring them outwards. When you reach about 2/3-3/4 of the way down you will start tucking your elbows down towards your feet. This naturally starts the bar down on a lower groove towards your sternum. 1/4-1/2 way down try to flare your lats to transfer the pressure of the weight from your chest/shoulders to your back.... yes i said your back. if you do it correctly you will learn how to bench with your back, it is the correct way to benchpress and alleviates much of the pressure traditional BP places on the joints. Aim to touch your chest at or just below your sternum, pause for a moment and explode off your chest with your back (again feel the lats flaring out). Groove on the way back is the same as the way down, 3/4 of the way up flare your elbows back out and lockout with the triceps.

also walking to the gym has nothing to do with warming up the upper body for benchpressing.

 

[ajaygill]

okay will try, well for warm up, i usually just do 2-3 sets of the bench press at very light weight about 12-15 reps or so. and then i stretch it out.

 

[nzrodney]

ok try this next time you bench and see how it feels on your shoulders. Unrack the bar and start in your normal position. When you start your descent you break you elbows first, flaring them outwards. When you reach about 2/3-3/4 of the way down you will start tucking your elbows down towards your feet. This naturally starts the bar down on a lower groove towards your sternum. 1/4-1/2 way down try to flare your lats to transfer the pressure of the weight from your chest/shoulders to your back.... yes i said your back. if you do it correctly you will learn how to bench with your back, it is the correct way to benchpress and alleviates much of the pressure traditional BP places on the joints. Aim to touch your chest at or just below your sternum, pause for a moment and explode off your chest with your back (again feel the lats flaring out). Groove on the way back is the same as the way down, 3/4 of the way up flare your elbows back out and lockout with the triceps.

also walking to the gym has nothing to do with warming up the upper body for benchpressing.

Nice description of proper form Dave & just confirms my theory which is, If you want to build your chest, get off the flatbench. I think I will slip bench press into my back workout.