whats some good mass building alternatives for flat bench?

Rush8780

Rush8780

Member
My right shoulder will just not hold up to flat bench anymore, dumbbell or barbell. I need some good stuff to substitute for some size, any ideas?
 
First thing that comes to mind is recover your shoulder
 
You could always focus on incline bench at various angles. My lower pecs grow considerably faster than my upper. I had the same issue and resorted to this and rehab work and I'm pleased with results thus far.
 
As far as recovery goes. I'm currently deployed an I took almost a month off to heal and spend with my family. The week I started back up I started right back. I can literally do every other angle. Even dips. Just flat bench kills my rotator cuff
 
Are you asking solely based on chest development? Cuz honestly weighted push-ups and ring flyes did more for my chest size than flat benching ever did
 
Man do be honest with u I'm up for anything that I can do with my shoulder the way it is. If it doesn't hurt il def give it a go
 
Yea, kinda weird that you have no pain with any other movement as there's some similarities there. But if that's all you can't do you should be fine. I would still get that shoulder checked out if you can. May be an easy fix.
 
Rush8780 said:
As far as recovery goes. I'm currently deployed an I took almost a month off to heal and spend with my family. The week I started back up I started right back. I can literally do every other angle. Even dips. Just flat bench kills my rotator cuff
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When I hurt my shoulder flat BPing, lying L-flyes with a #5 plate only, really got me back to pressing again in about 6 weeks.
Might be worth some rehab work to strengthen those little exterior cuff muscles.
 
Yeah I usually take a 5or a 10 plTe and do rotator cuff movements but usually just one set prolly need to do it more
 
Before pressing I'll warm up with several sets of standing rear delt flys with a band to really pump blood into the shoulders and traps. I've read a number of articles indicating the benefit of performing posterior shoulder/trap movements as a precursor to pressing movements. It took a few week but now I have minimal discomfort when pressing. Also, I'll slide a 10 lb plate under the foot area of the flat bench to give it a slight decline. That, too seems to help.
 
pmdied said:
Before pressing I'll warm up with several sets of standing rear delt flys with a band to really pump blood into the shoulders and traps. I've read a number of articles indicating the benefit of performing posterior shoulder/trap movements as a precursor to pressing movements. It took a few week but now I have minimal discomfort when pressing. Also, I'll slide a 10 lb plate under the foot area of the flat bench to give it a slight decline. That, too seems to help.
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This is good advice. Doing a little assistance work to pump the shoulders/traps could definitely help stabilize the pressing movements.

Also, have you trying a joint supp like Cissus? I couldn't bench for a while after benching at too high of a frequency and Cissus really blew my mind how fast I was able to heal. I really thought i would have to work around flat bench from then on but i was back at it in 2 weeks!
 
I almost never do flat bench anymore, at least not conventional stuff. Since my shoulder surgery in 09', I have stopped doing them. I also do rotator cuff exercises before EVERY workout, and still achieve good chest development doing other movements. Just have to work around the injury and do your best.
 
The seated chest press does work well for me, you can really feel the pec isolation
 
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