How do you dudes ease bench related shoulder pain?

[electricred]

Besides hammering down on form obviously. Some say isolate the rear delts, others says to do variations and not bench, but f that. What's some strategies used here to keep benching and fix those front delt pains/aches?

[Donkeyno9]

Rotator cuff work like reverse H rolls and occasional use of NSAIDS. If you think something serious is wrong see a doctor.

[IngeKJ]

By warming up before benching. If you just lay down and start benching youre gonna get problems after some time. Check out diesel crew on YT, they have great shoulder rehab/prehab and warmup vids.

[Anthony21]

Besides hammering down on form obviously. Some say isolate the rear delts, others says to do variations and not bench, but f that. What's some strategies used here to keep benching and fix those front delt pains/aches?

When you're benching are you feeling it in your delts/front delt or is it after your set? If so it could be from not staying tight in terms of scapula retraction. When you bench and you're not tight through out your upper back this tends to happen(at least for me it does). You'll feel way more than you should on your front delts.

[electricred]

It seems to be afterwards on the left shoulder, but since it lasts many days it carries over to the next bench session. I didn't bench from Monday before Halloween until yesterday, and it remained sore until about Friday. It's not horrible or anything too concerning yet, but I want to incorporate any assistance that may be needed to avoid issues down the road. I do plenty of pulling but nothing that really hits the rear delts specifically, and no rotator cuff work. I'm not even lifting heavy at this point, still beginning.

Just curious what more experienced lifters are doing to avoid shoulder issues.

[scotpak1979]

Get an MRI to make sure u dont have a rotator cuff tear.

Ive been plagued with rotator cuff issues for years and now train mostly pain free.

Making sure shoulder blades are retracted and that elbows r tucked are VERY IMPORTANT ways to keep shoulders injury free. Also face pulls, rotator cuff exercises and making sure you pull more than u push are all ways to keep shoulders healthy.

Also if certain exercises cause inflamation/ pain then cut them out (for me incline pressing and dips do this).

[ecchastang]

Try this for a few weeks. dieselcrew.com/how-to-shoulder-rehab

[Black_Spit]

I used to have lots of shoulder problems from bench pressing. It got so bad 2-3 years ago I couldn't lift my arms up the day after benching or ohp'ing.

There used to be an article on t nation about all the different exercises you should do for shoulder balance. I experimented with some of them and have found that some of them made it worse, but one or two made it much better.

I've been 80% issue-free for a year and a half or two by doing a few specific band exercises before lifting.

I always do 100 reps of miniband pull-aparts, followed by miniband hammer curls (bc my elbows get a little sore but that's from squatting I think actually). I also do some rear delt flyes, 3x15 or maybe 100 reps of that too. Then I do some "band traction" work that I got from Donnie Thompson. Look up his YouTube videos on this to see some of his prehab/mobility videos. Then I do some stretching... Anyway this all takes 15-20 min but it's worth it. And that stuff may not be the specific stuff you need for your shoulders, but do like I did and experiment to find out what works for you.

It won't take effect overnight btw. Expect it to take a couple of months to strengthen those smaller muscles in the rear delts and start feeling much better.

[Swamp Dog]

Pull shoulders back like your squeezing a ball between your shoulder blades
Swith up width of grip
Do towel stretches
Make certain you are doing enough pulling exercises

[JohnSmeton]

dont do powerlifting anymore, but I just eliminated barbell bench press and havent done it since 2006 pretty much

I have a friend who competing in a meet, hurt his shoulder, training for it, its either this weekend or next he competes anyways-its the number one exercise I see people get hurt on- another guy in the gym just injuries his shoulder, anyways, just like everyone said, retract scapula, stay arches, keep tight, lower slowly, keep elbows tucked best you can

prehab/rehab work is a must, shoulder horn is the best tool that worked for strengthen rotators

[musclehead09]

Form wise once I tucked my elbows in more and made a good arch my shoulders stopped hurting and cracking as I pressed. I do band work for the rotator cuffs and also band pull aparts before benching. Sometimes after too.

[TyGuy505]

internal/external rotations
standing overhead press
face pulls

did these religiously and my shoulders are fine now, bench pain free every time

[LardLadDonuts]

cool