Tips For Bench Pressing With Shoulder Pain | Path to Gains | Men’s Health Muscle
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00:00The bench press is and always will be the backbone of any good chest routine.
00:04It is a lift that we can load up, where we can go heavy, we're going to get really great
00:08stimulus for our chest.
00:09And let's be honest, it is awesome to tell people what you max out on on the bench press,
00:13especially once you get to those big numbers and you're at two and three plates.
00:17The downside of the bench press is this, no matter what kind of lifter you are, whether
00:21you are a power lifter who is setting world records, or whether you're somebody who's
00:25just hitting the big box gym five days a week to get stronger, there is a very good chance
00:29that you either have dealt with shoulder pain, or you will deal with shoulder pain
00:33at some point from this lift.
00:35And that can lead to little issues and more serious issues depending on how you train
00:40and depending on how you deal with that shoulder pain when it does arrive.
00:45So shoulder pain does not have to end your quest for a big bench press or your quest
00:49for a strong chest, as long as we think about a couple of things, and we're going to go
00:53over that for you now.
00:54So before we get into the issues that could lead to shoulder pain in the bench press,
00:57let's first understand one major thing, the bench press is not an exercise that you really
01:02should feel in your shoulders at all.
01:05So if you are feeling this in your shoulders, even if it's not pain, if you're feeling very
01:09sore in your shoulders after you bench pressing, then to some extent, you're not really doing
01:14it right and you're not getting the ideal stimulus from the lift.
01:17So focus and make sure that when you're doing the bench press next day, if you feel sore,
01:21you want to feel it in your chest, and you shouldn't really feel that much shoulder
01:25strain period.
01:26So we have three major technique issues that can lead to shoulder pain when we're bench
01:29pressing.
01:30And the first of these is that you're setting up under the barbell and you're taking way
01:34too wide a grip.
01:36When we take a wider grip, we're going to wind up cutting that range of motion on the
01:39bench press a little bit, which might let us lift heavier in the short term.
01:43But it's creating a variety of technical issues that are going to limit us overall in the
01:48bench press.
01:49The biggest thing that happens when you go too wide in the bench press is that we're
01:51really not going to be able to lower the bar properly.
01:55If we lose control of the bar, we can very easily tip into a position called internal
02:00rotation.
02:01That is a position where there's a lot of mechanism for injury, where the humerus and
02:05the clavicle are not interacting in the ideal way and they're not creating ideal force angles.
02:10And so that is a position that we just want to avoid.
02:12So what we want to do to avoid that is we want to make sure that we are taking a proper
02:17grip with the bench press.
02:19And the way we can figure this out is by starting in the bottom of the bench press and just
02:24taking an unloaded barbell and finding the ideal position for our hands.
02:28You can have somebody spot you with this, but what you want to do is essentially lower
02:32the barbell all the way down to the bottom of your chest.
02:35It should be nice and comfortable.
02:37And because if we find that 45 degree angle with our elbows and we find a truly perpendicular
02:42forearm in that bottom position, it's going to be nice and easy for us to press up with
02:47power and get some help from our triceps and our shoulders as we're pressing up, but still
02:52make sure that we're driving with our chest.
02:54The second problem we're going to encounter in the bench press, we might not be lowering
02:58with the proper arc.
02:59So very often, especially when you just read about the bench press in a book or you just
03:04see a picture of it, we think of this as a two dimensional idea.
03:08When we're lowering, we want to think about lowering in an arc.
03:11So you will start with your wrists, elbows, and shoulders stacked directly over each other
03:17and the bar directly over it, but we're going to lower at an arc and you want to think about
03:20lowering almost to your nipple line or your lower chest.
03:25If you do that, you're one, you're going to track a lot better.
03:29And two, you're actually going to be working a lot more optimally with how your chest is
03:33supposed to work.
03:34Our chest, yes, it is a key adductor for us.
03:37And so that means we're going to get a nice challenge and we're going to load our chest
03:40nicely when we are out in that wide angle, but we're going to be able to move a lot more
03:44weight, which is going to wind up creating that same chest stimulus.
03:48And then we can press back up in that arc so that our joints stack at the very top of
03:53the lift.
03:54That is the optimal way to bench press and it's going to keep you out of pain too.
03:57And the third major problem that could be leading to shoulder pain when you're bench
04:00pressing or will create it at some point is that you're not leading with your chest.
04:05So very often, especially for beginners, what happens is you lie down on that bench and
04:10that is we're not squeezing our shoulder blades and creating a little bit of a back arch.
04:15When you are lying on that bench, the first of this is we want to get a little bit of
04:19an arch.
04:20You should not just be simply lying on the bench.
04:23What we have to do is create a little bit of arch through our thoracic spine, essentially
04:27to the area of our spine, right below our chest and through the top of our rib cage.
04:31And by doing that, we're going to allow for our shoulder blades to move.
04:36Whenever we're doing this motion, we need our shoulder blades to move because that's
04:40what's going to allow our shoulders to travel in a normal arc.
04:43And that's what's going to allow us to get the depth that we need in the bench press
04:46so that we can touch that bar down to our chest.
04:48How do we do this?
04:49First, we want to unshrug our shoulders.
04:51So very often people will wind up a little bit high.
04:55We think this is a natural position, in part because of the issues we have in step two.
04:59We think we're trying to lower that bar straight down.
05:01What you want to do is think about turning your elbows almost downwards towards your
05:05hips and unshrugging your shoulders as much as possible.
05:09That's going to turn on our lats, which are going to help us with this bench press as
05:13well, and they're going to create more stability for our shoulders.
05:16Once we've done that, we need to do one more step and we need to think about driving our
05:21shoulder blades hard into the bench, essentially trying to squeeze a pencil between our shoulder
05:26blades.
05:27Your back, your mid-back will naturally arch up a little bit.
05:32That way it can create space for your shoulder blades to move and for you to get that really
05:37good shoulder blade squeeze.
05:39As we're lowering and as we begin to press up, you want to maintain that shoulder blade
05:44squeeze.
05:45All of that is going to help you lead with your chest.
05:47Now, here's two great things about leading with your chest.
05:50One, if we're leading with our chest, then that means our pecs are really driving this
05:55motion.
05:56And two, because our chest is driving the motion, that means our shoulders aren't driving
06:01the motion and we're not overextending because when we overextend, that's when you're going
06:04to feel this in your shoulders.
06:06If you do those two things, you will wind up leading with your chest and that will put
06:10you in a lot better position to get a lot more out of the bench press.
06:12Now, if you're already dealing with a degree of shoulder pain, thankfully there are a couple
06:16things that we can do so that we can continue to pursue chest gains while also working to
06:22get ourselves out of shoulder pain and getting ourselves in position to really, really be
06:26strong on this lift once we get through this little bout that we're dealing.
06:29The first of these is point blank.
06:31If you're having shoulder pain on the barbell press, we've got to put away that barbell
06:35press for a little bit.
06:37Thankfully, though, we have so many tools in the gym that can still allow us to go through
06:40that pressing pattern and to hone that pressing pattern.
06:44That way we can get nice and strong with it and our form will be that much tighter when
06:47we do return to the barbell.
06:49What I'm going to do very quickly is go through four motions that we can use to replace the
06:53barbell press, depending on where you are in terms of shoulder pain and depending on
06:57how you feel like your technique is.
06:59You can easily mix in all of these motions or you can just stick with one of them.
07:02First of these naturally is going to be our standard dumbbell bench press one with the
07:07standard dumbbell bench press.
07:09You can get very, very strong.
07:10We can wind up lifting very heavy until I have maxed out the dumbbells in my gym, gone
07:15as heavy as I can to the heaviest dumbbells.
07:17I don't even need to touch the barbell press.
07:20The strength of the barbell press is that it's going to let us load that much more weight
07:23on without having to kick back giant dumbbells.
07:26And that's why we really like the barbell press for chest stimulus.
07:29It's going to give you a little bit more freedom and make it easier to create that
07:32proper elbow rotation and to unshug your shoulders.
07:36All of those habits are a lot easier to build and to learn when we're doing presses with
07:40dumbbells.
07:41Second option you have, we can go from dumbbells to kettlebells.
07:45And the great thing with pressing with kettlebells is these very naturally are going to tip us
07:50into a position of shoulder external rotation because that is a position that's going to
07:54create a lot more joint space for us.
07:56It's not going to cut down joint space, which is what happens when we shift into internal
08:00rotation.
08:01So kettlebells are another great way that we can press.
08:04Our third option, we're going to go to something called a bottoms up kettlebell press.
08:09With this, we're flipping the load on the kettlebell up top.
08:12And what that does is that forces us to one, go a lot, lot lighter.
08:18This is going to be the humblest version of the bench press that you can take on.
08:21And two, it's going to force us to really keep that forearm perpendicular to the ground.
08:26The entire time for the entire life of the press, and there can be no margin for error.
08:31The great thing about that is it's going to teach good technique and it's going to help
08:34you groove and find that right position for you.
08:39That's going to allow you to have that 45 degree angle with your upper arm when you're
08:42pressing and that perpendicular forearm.
08:45That way, when you go from that bottoms up press back to your barbell or dumbbell press,
08:49you're that much stronger and you have that much more stability at the shoulder joint.
08:53We do have one more option, and this is for anybody who really, really wants to go heavy,
08:58but just can't get through that full range of motion in the bench press.
09:02What we're going to go to is going to be the floor press.
09:04So the point where in general, we're going to feel that shoulder pain in the bench press
09:08is going to be in that stretch position in the bottom position.
09:11That's where we're going to make the three mistakes I gave you earlier.
09:14If we're not hitting that position, no, we're not going to get the same range of motion.
09:18We're not going to get the same stretch through our chest muscle, but we are going to be able
09:22to go heavy and we can continue to work that heavy load stimulus and work on finishing
09:27the press.
09:28And we can do that with either a dumbbell floor press or a barbell floor press.
09:31The second thing you're going to do is you're going to think about reorganizing how you
09:36train overall.
09:38Very often we think of chest as the first thing that we want to hit every week.
09:42And we also think of it as the lift that we want to make strongest.
09:44But I want you to refocus and rethink your routine.
09:47That way we're prioritizing a different exercise, not the bench press.
09:51What I want you to do is think about prioritizing rows in all your training and prioritizing
09:56your back training.
09:57The reality is if we are bench pressing and if we are prioritizing the bench press too
10:01much in our training, our chest does get stronger.
10:04But if our back is not continuing to get stronger as well, those shortened chest fibers are
10:09just going to pull us forward.
10:11What we want to protect our chest and also to look as super heroic and as aesthetic as
10:16possible and also just for general shoulder health.
10:19But we want our shoulders and our mid back muscles to pull us back.
10:22So we need a little bit of balance in our physique.
10:25If you're somebody who does total body workouts or upper body workouts, think about training
10:30rows, doing at least six sets of rows before you hit your bench press or your incline press
10:36and make sure that we're leading with that.
10:38By leading with that in your workouts, you're going to naturally be stronger because you're
10:43fresher.
10:44By the time you get to the bench press, you're going to be a little bit fatigued.
10:47That's going to help control for the load a little bit.
10:49You'll still get a lot out of the bench press and you're still going to be able to go heavy,
10:53but you should be going heavier with your rows.
10:55Second thing you can do if you're on a little bit of a push pull leg split or something
10:58like that.
10:59What I would suggest you do is lead your training with your back day.
11:02I want you to prioritize dumbbell rows, plank rows, barbell rows, exercises like that.
11:08By doing that, again, you're going to be stronger on that day one of your split and you're going
11:12to create the back strength that you need to support your bench press, which can then
11:16be on your day two and day three.
11:18We're going to help keep our physique and our shoulder health in much better balance
11:23by doing that.
11:24The third thing we're going to do is we're going to tweak our workouts with a warmup
11:26activation exercise that's going to help us prioritize really, really good shoulder blade
11:31positioning and shoulder blade movement and open up our chest.
11:35You can do this before every single workout.
11:37You can do this every day, to be honest, if you're in shoulder pain.
11:40It's going to just basically help reinforce good body positioning, which will carry over
11:44to all our lifts, including our bench press.
11:47This is a two-step idea that we're going to do.
11:49You'll need a lacrosse ball or some kind of hard ball that we can use on our chest.
11:53Basically, what we're going to do, we're going to get up against a wall.
11:57We're going to really drive that ball into our upper chest.
12:01From this position, we can go through some active mobilizations that will help to open
12:06up range and stretch out that pec minor and help us take our shoulders through a couple
12:12different stretches that will then loosen up our pec minor a little bit.
12:16You'll do that for about 30 seconds.
12:19And after we're done with that, we're going to get on the ground.
12:22You're going to ideally grab a medium weight kettlebell.
12:25We're essentially going to get in position for a floor press.
12:28One, make sure that your form and your technique and your positioning are perfect.
12:31So we're getting that 45 degree angle, lock it in, and then we're going to let that weight
12:37essentially drive our shoulder joint back into the ground and squeeze our shoulder blades
12:42as we do this.
12:44That's going to help reinforce really, really good bench press positioning and help our
12:47body start to understand that position.
12:49And if you're in pain already, it can help you reinforce good technique on your dumbbell
12:54presses and kettlebell presses and other moves.
12:56So no matter what stage you're in in your bench press journey, whether you're at the
13:00beginning, whether you are just starting to feel it a little bit in your shoulders, whether
13:04you've been dealing with pain for months, there is a way to get back to bench pressing
13:08with the tools that we've given you.
13:09And if you do all of those things, you will eventually get back to bench pressing and
13:13getting strong at the bench press and you'll get all the chest gains that you've been targeting.