Pec discomfort from bench?

[nkupianist]

Hi coaches,

As always, thanks for the free service.

Brief background: Male, 30 years old, 195 pounds, doing HLM program. My pressing schedule is: light day - press, medium day - paused bench, heavy day - touch and go bench.

The last few weeks, I've been having an increasingly unpleasant feeling in my right pec during bench. During the set, in the bottom of a rep, I get a very stretched sensation where the pec attaches around that arm pit. At the top of reps, during the unrack, and after sets, that pec feels very tight and cramped. I kept hoping it would stop happening, but today it got uncomfortable enough that I deloaded for the day out of fear of an impending pec tear. It seems to be related to heavy weight more than fatigue/RPE - I can AMRAP 225 and have it occur far less on the final reps than on the last rep of a maximal triple around 300.

Have any of you encountered something like this or had any clients who have? Does something like this sound like a potential precursor to an injury such as a pec tear?

If it's of any help, here's a recording of a set from last week. YouTube In the context of my question, if there is a more helpful angle than this 45 degree one, I can have that filmed and to you early next week. So far, the only technique flaw that I found and corrected last week is I was gripping slightly narrow on the bothersome side, causing that forearm to be angled toward my body rather than perpendicular in the bottom. I have since corrected that though. I've really been trying to focus on pinning my shoulders back and "pushing the bench away", to little avail with respect to the tightness.

The only technique/setup things I've changed across the board recently have been a) I've been really focusing on squeezing my elbows in and "protecting my arm pits" during my press set up to get it tighter and b) I've switched to a self-spot setup due to my training partner having to miss a lot of workouts. I've always done my own lift-offs, though, so I doubt the self-spot rig would be the culprit. Besides that, business as usual.

I just signed up for my first powerlifting meet, making the timing of this aggravating. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks again
Scott

[Tom Campitelli]

I've had this and have even suffered a minor, non-bruising pec tear. In fact, pain in my left pec insertion has put a serious dent in my bench training recently. You are probably wise to be conservative and listen to what your pec is telling you. You are quite wiggly on your bench presses and your elbows flare a good deal on the way up. You also almost let go at the bottom near your chest. If I were you, I would probably take some weight off the bar and clean up these issues. Less wiggling. Probably a pause at the bottom. And a smooth push up to the top. You can also emphasize the eccentric all the way to the bottom to help stave off tendinopathy issues. While this may not make you happy from the perspective of your upcoming competition, it is probably wise in the long run.

[nkupianist]

Thanks coach.

Some further digging online seems to indicate that the area of discomfort/tightness is exactly where the pec minor would be on an anatomy chart. I tried a bit of self release on the area, manually trying to dig a finger under the pec major to get to the tight area. Once the soreness from doing that cleared up, it seems looser. I'll see if it stays better.

With that said, I'll definitely do a deload and clean up my form. I'll also make all my benches paused for a while - makes sense for meet prep anyway. And yeah, I agree with your long game position with regard to the meet - I'll listen to my body. I'll reread the bench chapter and make the suggested adjustments.

Thanks a ton.

Scott

[nkupianist]

Here is a deloaded set from today with 225 - 250 still feel iffy and didn't want to push it, despite not feeling heavy. Added the pause, tried to stay put more, and kept the negative slower. Tried to keep my elbows more tucked, without perfect success. Tried to really keep the shoulders retracted throughout. I realize I started to rack the bar toward the end of the rep rather than once fully locked out. Especially on the last couple reps, I felt the tightness, particularly at the top of the reps.

YouTube

I wondered if you could take a look.

This might fall more into coach Baker's wheelhouse, but I wondered thoughts on using the slingshot to get some overload during the deload in light of the meet. It doesn't help at the top, obviously, but it does seem yo take some stress off at the bottom while letting me grind through heavier reps.

When you had these issues, aside from fixing form as needed, did any sort of passive therapy like massage help?

Thanks
Scott

[Tom Campitelli]

You are still a little more wiggly than I would like to see. On your descent, you start out very slowly and then when the bar is about two inches above your chest, it accelerates. Your pause is fine, but go faster at the start and slower at the bottom so that the bar essentially moves at the same speed until contact with the chest. In general, fewer wiggles. Don't drive your butt up. Just get tight. If you use the sling shot, do so in a rack, or with safeties. Your thinking about handling heavier loads while giving your shoulders and pec a little support is reasonable. Given your predilection for extraneous movement, however, I would want an insurance policy for your face. Therefore, safeties.

[nkupianist]

Ok, thanks much. I will proceed as suggested.

As a shorter guy with even shorter arms, the bench has always been the one lift I've been able to get away with form slop on while still making gains. I'll change that.

[nkupianist]

Hi coach

Just wanted to follow up and say at my session tonight I focused on more tightness and a more constant eccentric. Discomfort was cut in half. Thanks for the suggestions - they're already helping. I was able to get in a decent 5 x 5 of mildly deloaded paused benches followed by a productive heavy slingshot set. At this rate, I should at least be to my pre-tweak max by the meet.

Starting to wonder if that exaggeratedly slow initial descent had something to do with it. Now that I think about it, this issue started around the time I began doing the exaggeratedly slow eccentrics (first half at least). Don't have an anatomical explanation, but seemingly correlated.

Thanks again for your help.

[Tom Campitelli]

This pleases me. Good luck at the meet, man.