anterior deltoids hurting on chest day

[snadboy]

just recently at the start of every chest workout my anterior deltoids have been burning like crazy after just one rep and it doesnt feel like a good burn... previously ive never had to do any warm up sets before benching, which is prob a dumb thing but im doing 8-12 reps and besides the first few feeling abit sluggish from the lack of pump ive never had any pain or injury or anything of the sort

but recently ive had to do 1 often 2 warm up sets at 60% of my normal weight and that still burns a fair bit and my first 1-3 working sets of chest i still feel uncomfortable and often in pain

any idea what could be causing this? im only benching 32.5kg each side (71.5lbs) so its not very heavy and ive worked up to this over a number of years so no big jumps in weight recently

[Cheeseburger12]

Just do a shoulder warmup coupled with some rotator cuff exercises to strengthen them. And always warmup. Bench is a very injury prone exercise.

[snadboy]

hmmm didnt think of rotator cuffs... but that could make sense! although once i get a pump it seems to be fine and i dont have any pain the next day... still sound like rotator cuffs?? seems weird to come on all of a sudden though

[Cheeseburger12]

I used to get this weird pain in my left shoulder while doing OHP and also dumbbell pullovers. I started doing rotator cuff exercises/a warmup for my shoulders and since then I haven't had any problems.

Even if it's not your rotator cuffs, you should still warmup and strengthen your rc, just to prevent injury.

[Xuaxace]

A lot of people think it is the pain they experience when benching is the anterior deltoid, but most of the times it is not. E.g you can do certain anterior delt dominant without any pain (e.g a front raiser),

The guilty party would the the subscapularis if that is the case.




What tends to happen is that this muscle tends to be overworked and tight, when not stretching proper, not taking care of the external rotators, when flaring when benching etc, this muscle gets stretched above what it can handle and pain tends to show right underneath the the anterior deltoid.

[snadboy]

ahh looks like it is the rotators then thanks guys.... ill try doing a good stretch and warm ups and if that doesnt do the trick ill do some rotator isolations... they do only really hurt when i stretch at the bottom of the bench sooo im guessing for whatever reasons they have tightened up recently

[DorianHowellFit]

just recently at the start of every chest workout my anterior deltoids have been burning like crazy after just one rep and it doesnt feel like a good burn... previously ive never had to do any warm up sets before benching, which is prob a dumb thing but im doing 8-12 reps and besides the first few feeling abit sluggish from the lack of pump ive never had any pain or injury or anything of the sort

but recently ive had to do 1 often 2 warm up sets at 60% of my normal weight and that still burns a fair bit and my first 1-3 working sets of chest i still feel uncomfortable and often in pain

any idea what could be causing this? im only benching 32.5kg each side (71.5lbs) so its not very heavy and ive worked up to this over a number of years so no big jumps in weight recently

Most overworked muscle

[iabs]

easy solution...


drop your elbows to your nipple line or slightly below that.

[Xuaxace]

ahh looks like it is the rotators then thanks guys.... ill try doing a good stretch and warm ups and if that doesnt do the trick ill do some rotator isolations... they do only really hurt when i stretch at the bottom of the bench sooo im guessing for whatever reasons they have tightened up recently

this is what I do every day I go to the gym.

2 min rotator cuff warm up (this gets the external rotators going)





subscapularis/pectoralis major stretch or/and broom stick shoulder dislocations




warm ups

10kg x 10x2
20kg x 8
30kg x 5
40kg x 3
45xkg x 1
50x3

an example... anyhow

Point is, the warm ups do two things, The very light sets/ high reps are designed to get the blood flowing into the area you are working and stretching with a low load. As you go up with the weight, you decrease the reps. Half way through, you should be pretty much warmed up (blood flow wise), now the point is to work your way to a working set with the least ammountt of effort, hence why the reps go down. The point of this is CNS activation. This smaller increments help your brain progressively fire up so you don't go from 60% to 100%... you will be much weaker if you do that.


-----


P.S , to take load off the subscapuralis, TUCK YOUR ELBOWS WHEN YOU BENCH.

[Footballa_19]

If your shoulders hurt after bench your grip is too narrow, you wrists should be as wide or wider than the elbows from the start to finish through the rep. Too narrow of grip brings the anterior deltoid into the exercise and puts a horrible angle on your rotator cuff. Warm your shoulders up before chest day, but don't forget to just use a wider grip.

[Xuaxace]

If your shoulders hurt after bench your grip is too narrow, you wrists should be as wide or wider than the elbows from the start to finish through the rep. Too narrow of grip brings the anterior deltoid into the exercise and puts a horrible angle on your rotator cuff. Warm your shoulders up before chest day, but don't forget to just use a wider grip.

Next time, read the thread a bit more.