I keep hurting my shoulder on flat bench presses

i am suffering from persistent, chronic shoulder problems too, especially the left shoulder but the right one is starting to act up too. narrowing my grip a bit on the bench and taking fish oil and joint formula has helped somewhat, but i think i really need to rest it for an extended period of time, which i hate to do. i probably need surgery on the shoulder, i don't know. i was told it is bursitis.
 
DerickVonD said:
Balancing the delts, or knowing if the delts are balanced is sort of challenging, considering movements involving the front delts can take a lot more weight. For example I am using 70 pounds on the incline dumbbell bench press. Using 70 pounds for lateral raises and rear delt rows is unheard of. So how do you truly tell if they're balanced?
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By balanced i mean making sure that delts aren't over developed...it means that your training your front delts waaay more than your rear.

Definitily not mean to balance the same weight. Even exercises using light weights will help with your rotator cuffs. So even 20 pounds...

Odds are you rotator cuffs arnt balanced, and fortifying and growing ur mid and rear delts will help a lot.
 
ineedprotein said:
By balanced i mean making sure that delts aren't over developed...it means that your training your front delts waaay more than your rear.

Definitily not mean to balance the same weight. Even exercises using light weights will help with your rotator cuffs. So even 20 pounds...

Odds are you rotator cuffs arnt balanced, and fortifying and growing ur mid and rear delts will help a lot.
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I know what you mean, I just meant telling if your delts are balanced can be difficult.
 
Okay the problem is still there, but I foundout I can't maintain an arch on the flat bench. If I try doing the bench incline, I can only bring the bar just before my arms are 90 degrees, but I naturally have an arch with it inclined, than with the bench flat. I'm having an ex power lifter buddy or so he claims, dude is big so, anyway he's coming over to look at my form monday. Hopefully he can help. When I add weight to the flat bench, I can't maintain my arch.
 
My left shoulder is all sorts of snapped up. I have been doing DB press instead of bars for about 2 weeks now and it has seemed to help. I had a friend tell me yesterday when we were doing a shoulder and back workout that my rear delta were non-existent compared to my fronts.
Maybe that's why my bench has been sucking lately, my delts are overpowering my pecs. It's all about form I guess
 
Is there such a thing as tucking the elbows too much or tucking them wrong? My friend was looking at me benching and he said, that when I tuck my elbows in I tend to try and sort of pull my elbows towards my body, like instead of flaring my elbows out, I sort of pull them in towards my torso. Whatever is going on I definitely still feel in in my shoulders. So I'm obviously tucking wrong and I don't know how to fix this.
 
DerickVonD said:
Is there such a thing as tucking the elbows too much or tucking them wrong? My friend was looking at me benching and he said, that when I tuck my elbows in I tend to try and sort of pull my elbows towards my body, like instead of flaring my elbows out, I sort of pull them in towards my torso. Whatever is going on I definitely still feel in in my shoulders. So I'm obviously tucking wrong and I don't know how to fix this.
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Yes, you can overtuck.
 
Rodja said:
The latter.
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One last question. If it doesn't hurt when I do any kind of overhead press movement and my form is good, is it more likely that I have a muscular imbalance or that I'm just plain benching wrong, or could you not tell since the movements are different?
 
DerickVonD said:
One last question. If it doesn't hurt when I do any kind of overhead press movement and my form is good, is it more likely that I have a muscular imbalance or that I'm just plain benching wrong, or could you not tell since the movements are different?
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It's more likely bad benching.
 
healing the injury

Hey there,

So I am new to this site but not to fitness. There are a lot of good replies on here about form and how to adapt so you can continue lifting. However, you should conisdered what is injured. This sounds to be your rotator cuff =(. You should try working with some resistance bands to help stengthen your RC. I had injured myself before and the symptoms seem the same as what happened to me. I used resistance bands and some specific stretches to help heal and strengthen. One method I found extremely helpful was laying flat on your stomach with you arms out in front of you, lift the arm of the injured shoulder 4-6 off the ground with your thumb pointing down. Then slowly bring it back as if you were tucking your elbows.


Anyone with feed back?
 
Jmacconnach said:
Hey there,

So I am new to this site but not to fitness. There are a lot of good replies on here about form and how to adapt so you can continue lifting. However, you should conisdered what is injured. This sounds to be your rotator cuff =(. You should try working with some resistance bands to help stengthen your RC. I had injured myself before and the symptoms seem the same as what happened to me. I used resistance bands and some specific stretches to help heal and strengthen. One method I found extremely helpful was laying flat on your stomach with you arms out in front of you, lift the arm of the injured shoulder 4-6 off the ground with your thumb pointing down. Then slowly bring it back as if you were tucking your elbows.


Anyone with feed back?
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I dislocated my shoulder and found my healing was greatly improved by incorporating band work in focusing on the rotator cuff. I had 6 different exercises I did daily for 2 sets of 20 reps. I think most people could actually benefit from these exercises.
 
nicksox15 said:
I dislocated my shoulder and found my healing was greatly improved by incorporating band work in focusing on the rotator cuff. I had 6 different exercises I did daily for 2 sets of 20 reps. I think most people could actually benefit from these exercises.
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Post videolinks to those movements?
 
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There's one more where you lay flat on your stomach on a bench. Then with 5's lift with you're arms straight and hold for 5 secs
 
Is there something I can do right now at home with light dumbbells(10 lbs). I mean I can buy some resistance bands, but I won't have money until next week. I know I can do scaptions to help, but I wasn't sure if I do start doing scaptions, if I should still do lateral raises.
 
I would definitely do lateral raises with those a long as there's no pain associated with it.
 
nicksox15 said:
I would definitely do lateral raises with those a long as there's no pain associated with it.
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There isn't, as long as I do the lateral raises slightly in front and not directly by my sides and when I do the, I can't really do that "pour" motion at the top and I can't do them with straight arms.
 
sure, put a towel under your armpit and hold the dumbbell at mid-chest. extend your arm out laterally while keeping the towel tucked under your armpit. good rotator cuff exercise i do sometimes. i do it with bands, but a light dumbbell would work too.
 
Can sleeping on your side, cause an imbalance, since the shoulders are in a forward position all night? When I wake up from sleeping on my side sometimes my shoulder hurts. I'd sleep on my back, but when I do that my jaw drops and I get sleep apnea.
 
sleeping on my side seems to aggravate my shoulders from time to time too, but i usually sleep on my back so it's not a frequent issue.
 
DerickVonD said:
Can sleeping on your side, cause an imbalance, since the shoulders are in a forward position all night? When I wake up from sleeping on my side sometimes my shoulder hurts. I'd sleep on my back, but when I do that my jaw drops and I get sleep apnea.
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Hey just saw this, I had a similar injury and sleeping on my side did not help at all, woke up stiff and sore :( did you try any of the stretching I mentioned earlier?
 
Jmacconnach said:
Hey just saw this, I had a similar injury and sleeping on my side did not help at all, woke up stiff and sore :( did you try any of the stretching I mentioned earlier?
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Yeah sadly, I don't know if I can sleep on my back, because I'm prone to sleep apnea. So I need to loose weight maybe, but then idk how I'm going to bulk.
 
Well as mentality frustrating as it is, you have to let it heal man. I'd hate for you to damage it to the extent you need any type of surgery! Keep stretching and incorporating resistance bands. Might need 2-3 weeks off from any bench, flat,incline/decline alike. Another thing for stretching you can try is raise your arm in an L shape and apply it again a door frame at different angles to get a good stretch. Just make sure to keep your core tight and do not twist into it
 
DerickVonD said:
Yeah sadly, I don't know if I can sleep on my back, because I'm prone to sleep apnea. So I need to loose weight maybe, but then idk how I'm going to bulk.
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You can recomp your body. You don't need to "bulk".

But, losing fat is pretty essential to addressing sleep apnea as it's that soft tissue that causes the obstruction in the vast majority of obstructive sleep apnea. The long term consequences of sleep apnea are nothing to take lightly.
 
trn450 said:
You can recomp your body. You don't need to "bulk".

But, losing fat is pretty essential to addressing sleep apnea as it's that soft tissue that causes the obstruction in the vast majority of obstructive sleep apnea. The long term consequences of sleep apnea are nothing to take lightly.
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I know, but it seems like I'm never going to build muscle. Unless you have a way I can build muscle while loosing fat.
 
Haha well building muscle will help you lose some fat but not like the way I believe you are looking for. You should really look at your diet. I went 5 months, just lifting no cardio and my waist slimmed down so much. It was mainly because of my food intake. Kept it to 7 meals a day ever 2 hours. Set my metabolism on fire. Why does your diet look like? Make sure you are eating enough, check your BMR bud
 
Jmacconnach said:
Haha well building muscle will help you lose some fat but not like the way I believe you are looking for. You should really look at your diet. I went 5 months, just lifting no cardio and my waist slimmed down so much. It was mainly because of my food intake. Kept it to 7 meals a day ever 2 hours. Set my metabolism on fire. Why does your diet look like? Make sure you are eating enough, check your BMR bud
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It's hard to get that many means in a day, since I have insomnia. 220-250 grams of protein, 200 carbs, 150 fat, 63 or less grams of sugar and 3,300 calories. no cardio. 4 day split, but 8 day workout week, since I take an extra day off after my leg day.
 
Insomnia as well? You're in a tough stop in life right now huh? Look keep your head up, maybe focusing more on weight loss and getting sufficient rest is more of a priority then making gains, lets get you back on a level where your body doesn't have to worry about injuries and sleep deprivation. Wipe the slate clean in way, diet, weight loss and work on catching some quality zzzzzzzz's
 
I can buy a memory foam mattress, that should get rid of the shoulder pain. My mattress is junk. It was cheap and can't support my weight. My worry is that side sleeping is causing an imbalance in my shoulders. How many of you sleep on your sides?
 
Been there, done that. Diagnosis: severe tear in superspinatus rotator cuff muscle, bissected long head biceps tendon, minor tear in subscapularis rotator cuff muscle. End result: surgical repair of superspinatus and biceps tendon, 16 weeks of physical therapy, no workouts for 9 months following surgery. The good news: shoulder is stronger than ever now (1-1/2 years later). Good luck!
 
deerow said:
Been there, done that. Diagnosis: severe tear in superspinatus rotator cuff muscle, bissected long head biceps tendon, minor tear in subscapularis rotator cuff muscle. End result: surgical repair of superspinatus and biceps tendon, 16 weeks of physical therapy, no workouts for 9 months following surgery. The good news: shoulder is stronger than ever now (1-1/2 years later). Good luck!
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Any calcium deposits form?
 
Coming from an athletic training stand point you described a typical setup and symptoms for S.L.A.P lesion.

The clicking and poping in that position with possible rotation of the humorous during benching sounds like it might have caused your long biceps tendon to fold down within the rotator cuff. Because your long head biceps secondary action is shoulder flexion (raising your arm straight infront of you) try keeping your elbows in closer but not necessarily directly at your side. Benching is tricky since your arms position directly determines what muscles are being used. Too wide is more pressure on the anterior delts though training in such manor might be useful. You need to know what phase healing you are in. Phase one thru two you should not excessively overload said muscles or white tissues. Phase three is maturation restoration, this is the right time. Also have your shoulder injury assessed by an athletic trainer or cscs. To determine what grade your injury is and exactly what you might have injured

Source: second year athletic training student and intern
 
i screwed up my good shoulder yesterday on this bench press machine with a foot lever. i flaked out on pressing the lever on my last set of 225 and gave myself some sort of tear or impingement. i think i'll just be doing legs for awhile :(
 
Jmacconnach said:
That's awesome news! He recommend some good stretches for that?
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No, she recommended I go to physical therapy. My first appointment isn't until next week. I'd like to know of some stretches to do at home as well to speed up the recovery time, especially considering I may only be able to go once a week because I don't own a car and will have to have my grandmother drive me.
 
DerickVonD said:
No, she recommended I go to physical therapy. My first appointment isn't until next week. I'd like to know of some stretches to do at home as well to speed up the recovery time, especially considering I may only be able to go once a week because I don't own a car and will have to have my grandmother drive me.
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Physical therapy will definitely help you, even if you can only go one a week. They'll give you plenty of stuff to do at home and probably some bands to do them with. You need to be patient though or you'll hurt yourself worse
 
nicksox15 said:
Physical therapy will definitely help you, even if you can only go one a week. They'll give you plenty of stuff to do at home and probably some bands to do them with. You need to be patient though or you'll hurt yourself worse
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I just can't stand not benching. I want to hit that 315 mark so bad. I can do incline bench with no pain though, atleast with dbs.
 
DerickVonD said:
I just can't stand not benching. I want to hit that 315 mark so bad. I can do incline bench with no pain though, atleast with dbs.
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Well you have to think about what would happen if you hurt yourself worse and aren't able to bench for even longer. So I'd take it easy and don't push it too much. I know how tough it is but it would suck so much more if you needed surgery.
 
nicksox15 said:
Well you have to think about what would happen if you hurt yourself worse and aren't able to bench for even longer. So I'd take it easy and don't push it too much. I know how tough it is but it would suck so much more if you needed surgery.
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I completely agree with nicksox. You don't want it to be so bad you need surgery and the you're out of the game for a while You will get the bench back, do not worry, but you have to heal!
 
Jmacconnach said:
I completely agree with nicksox. You don't want it to be so bad you need surgery and the you're out of the game for a while You will get the bench back, do not worry, but you have to heal!
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I know, it just seems when I'm starting to finally make good progress I get injured. I was thinking about switching to doing decline bench presses and see if that makes a difference, since declines put a lot less strain on the shoulders.
 
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