flat bench is the worst exercise ever created

[Beelzebub]

for me anyway. another pec injury tonight. with my good pec. i don't understand it at all. there was no warning sign, not even a hint. i had been climbing by 10lbs each week using progressive overload. nothing crazy, was supposed to hit 355 x 10, and at the bottom of 8, i could feel something separate in my upper right pec. i had a good arch, feet tucked, elbows tucked, etc. so ****ing frustrating. this is the 3rd goddamn time that flat bench has screwed me over. it's the only exercise i've ever been injured on. i'm done with it. ain't worth it anymore. if i compete, it'll have to be in deads or squats and that's it. i think some guys just aren't made for flat bench, and i am one of them.

[CDONDICI]

Sorry to hear, that sucks, take a long, long time off to heal and work your way back up from the beggining.

[BiggerNstronger]

Sorry to hear about the injury man, that sucks. Do you use a benchshirt when you compete? Maybe you could implement the shirt MORE into your workouts to alleviate some of the stress on your pecs...less raw/full range too, more boards? Good luck to you either way.

[CROWLER]

VERY sorry to hear that Beelze.

That really sucks. Ice it, ibuprophine and elevation and hope for the best.

I read that just about all injuries occur at the bottom of the movement and inorder to prevent this you must come to a full stop at the bottom and actually avoid going to complete bottom in exercises such as flat bench, BB overhead press, BB curls etc.

Trying to gain info here for myself and others. When you were at the bottom did you pause breifly or basically just go down and up? I am not saying you bounced just wanting to see if what I read might be accurate.

Heal fast bro.


CROWLER

[kwyckemynd00]

Damn beelze...that really sucks, man. Sorry to hear that...

[Apowerz6]

I am sorry brotha, and keep it iced Keep your head up...

[Beelzebub]

biggernstronger, i haven't even competed yet. i was working my way back up to 405 for 10 RAW, then was going to add the shirt. had injured my other pec doing that back in september. like i said, i don't see any reason to continue punishing myself like this for one movement. it's ridiculous.

crowler,
it's a small pause at the bottom for each rep, probably around a second or less. just enough to know i have control of the weight. bouncing ain't allowed in comp and i was getting used to the pause at the bottom. on this particular injury, i was about 1" from touching my chest on the downward motion. as soon as i felt it, i just let it plop on my chest and told the TP to grab it. it's no where near as bad as my last one, but enough is enough. doesn't make sense. it's not even a tie-in. it's in the upper middle section of my right pec.

[Knowbull]

I agree, learned early on that it is one of the most injury causing exercises. Now I use it as a warm up, using very light lbs and absolutely no arching, Then incline DB press, heavy for reps, seems to do the trick.

[Beelzebub]

heavy flat dumbs are fine (got 145's x 14 couple weeks ago), every other movement is fine. it's just that one movement, friggin flat bench.

[lifted]

sorry to hear. I also hate flat BBB. It's my worse excercise bar none and I dread doing it each time. I just keep sucking it up and doing it though. Since I've sucked all my life doing flat BBB, I REALLY stink at doing incline BBB. I figured that I would just take the lesser of the two evils. Chest exercises are the hardest to switch up IMO after having done a certain exc. for so long. I always think that I won't get the same growth if I were to change to a different exc. As other's said, take the appropriatte time off and heal up, that's the least you can do. Good luck to ya...

[Sirius]

Sorry to hear about your injury Beelzebub! I only do flats as a power movement occasionally myself...it's easy to get an injury with flats. I've pressed 475 max 6x strict and 505 3x cheating last 2 reps! You didnt' mention this ..but do you tuck your chin into your chest while pressing your shoulders down? I literally dig mine into my chest and compress! The worst advice I got was to bench to my inner neck and super wide to hit more upper pec...go heavy on that and you will suffer shoulder and elbow injuries quickly. I seperated my shoulder military pressing 315 on the 12th rep..10 were strict ..and 12th was cheating..do we see a pattern here?? cheating=injury?...I almost busted my skull open dropping the bar on my head since my spot didn't catch the bar with no hint of my shoulder giving in so suddenly.

I hope you heal up well and wish you a speedy recovery!

"What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!"

[revodrew]

heavy flat dumbs are fine (got 145's x 14 couple weeks ago), every other movement is fine. it's just that one movement, friggin flat bench.

First off I want say that is very impresive to say the least. Next, I am sorry to read this as you know I follow alot of your post, and try to learn as much as possible I can from you. I was looking forward to seeing how you would progress. Sike, get well soon you bald jackass!!!

[guyfromkop2]

that sucks man, sorry to hear

[LCSULLA]

I'm sorry as well Beelz. But bench at the end of the road when it comes to working the chest.

[natedogg]

Sike, get well soon you bald jackass!!!

Kickin a man while he's down. I love it!

I haven't done barbell bench in over a year (at least). My shoulders have thanked me for it. Do they have DB bench competitions?

Now go get a straw and suck it up you big baby!

[Beelzebub]

pardon me for not being the in the mood for jokes at the moment.

sirius, no, i keep my head on the bench at all times as some federations don't allow your head to leave the bench. didn't want to develop a bad habit of doing that.

lcsulla, are you saying flat bench is the last exercise you would pick for working the chest? if so, i agree, but unfortunately, APF (along with the rest) don't see it that way.

[Beowulf]

Damn Beelz, that sucks. I spent 6 months training for my last marathon only to get injured in my final long run. I still competed, but finished almost 20min behind where all my training suggested I would be. : So I can definitely empathize with your frustration right now. The anguish of hitting a wall like that is devastating.

I have never benched anything close to what you do, but every time my poundages started increasing, my shoulder would start getting messed up. I haven't flat benched in about 8 months, and my shoulders feel the best they ever have since I started lifting. I was about to give it another whirl. I think you might have just stopped me from doing so.

Hang in there, bro!

[Sirius]

pardon me for not being the in the mood for jokes at the moment.

sirius, no, i keep my head on the bench at all times as some federations don't allow your head to leave the bench. didn't want to develop a bad habit of doing that.

lcsulla, are you saying flat bench is the last exercise you would pick for working the chest? if so, i agree, but unfortunately, APF (along with the rest) don't see it that way.

beelzebub, didn't know about that regulation. When I say tuck chin in..it's almost like a turtle crunching the head into the shell..you barely lift your head at all..but that way you compress and compact and put more emphasis on pecs vs. the shoulders and tris..etc. I'm sure you know what I mean but you avoid it as you said so you don't get disqualified at the events.

[Beelzebub]

i don't think it's a regulation at the major ones like APF and USAPF, but the smaller organizations like AAU are nazis about it. anyhoo, yeah, i understand what you're saying, just not sure how that would effect my bench numbers. looks like i need to place less emphasis on my chest being that it's the only part getting injured. basically, i have a problem and don't know how to fix it. so the next logical step for me is to avoid it all together.

beo, yes, avoid flat bench. there's much better exercises out there for pec development. unless you're competiting in PL'ing, it's just not worth it. nothing more than an ego check.

[natedogg]

So does this mark the end of flat bench for you or are you willing to risk further damage in the future? How bad of an injury do you think it is? BTW, I'm sorry, can a brother have a hug?