starting strength gym
Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: AC joint pain while pressing

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Posts
    2

    Default AC joint pain while pressing

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
    • starting strength seminar jume 2024
    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    Hi,

    A couple of weeks ago my left shoulder started to ache at the AC joint after a workout. I started to take
    ibuprofen as advised here (800 mg x 4/day for 5 days) than started the Starr rehab protocol for shoulder injuries.

    Surprisingly I do not feel any pain during benches but presses do irritate the injury especially during the dynamic
    start (have to employ a floating start having relatively long forearms) and up to the point where the bar reaches
    the nose. This is a bit strange to me because reading through the forum people with this kind of injury usually tend
    to have pain during benches and presses are claimed to be safe and painless.

    Because the irritation during presses the pain intensifies after the workout but after a couple of hours the pain
    tones down and I can only feel a bit of it occasionally. At the moment I am to switch to pin presses starting just
    above the point pain starts and continue training that way until the pain ceases to be. What is your opinion?
    Shall I stick to presses even with the pain or is pin press a good alternative?

    Short bio:
    35 years old, 3 years under the bar,
    Squat: 150 kg x 5 x 3
    Press: 53 kg x 5 x 3
    Bench: 65 kg x 5 x 3
    Deadlift: 155 kg x 5
    Power clean: 67.5 x 3 x 5

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Wichita Falls, Texas
    Posts
    2,414

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by AdamK View Post
    Hi,

    A couple of weeks ago my left shoulder started to ache at the AC joint after a workout. I started to take
    ibuprofen as advised here (800 mg x 4/day for 5 days) than started the Starr rehab protocol for shoulder injuries. The Starr Rehab method is appropriate for muscle belly tears. It is not appropriate for hardly any other orthopaedic concerns.

    Surprisingly I do not feel any pain during benches but presses do irritate the injury especially during the dynamic
    start (have to employ a floating start having relatively long forearms) and up to the point where the bar reaches
    the nose. This is a bit strange to me because reading through the forum people with this kind of injury usually tend
    to have pain during benches and presses are claimed to be safe and painless. If most people have pain during bench pressing, what would we assume about most people? If most people have no pain during press, but you have pain in the press, what should we assume about you? There is nothing inherently dangerous about bench or overhead press. Both are incredibly safe, and most people perform both exercises with no pain. This does not mean that there is no risk at all as fast as safety or that both lifts cannot cause pain.

    Because the irritation during presses the pain intensifies after the workout but after a couple of hours the pain
    tones down and I can only feel a bit of it occasionally. At the moment I am to switch to pin presses starting just
    above the point pain starts and continue training that way until the pain ceases to be. What is your opinion? I don't like this course of action at all. Minor pain during the workout, decreasing to a small amount of occasional discomfort should not be an indication to start modifying your training to partial reps. How will you ever adapt to the full ROM exercise if at the first sign of trouble, you bail on the main lift?
    Shall I stick to presses even with the pain or is pin press a good alternative?

    Short bio:
    35 years old, 3 years under the bar,
    Squat: 150 kg x 5 x 3
    Press: 53 kg x 5 x 3
    Bench: 65 kg x 5 x 3
    Deadlift: 155 kg x 5
    Power clean: 67.5 x 3 x 5
    Comments above in bold.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Posts
    2

    Default

    Thanks for the comments! I truly deserve the reprimand.

    When I searched through the forum and looked for threads concerning AC joint related
    injuries people usually mentioned pain doing bench (if they had this kind of injury) but
    I found virtually no mention of pain performing presses in the demography of people reporting
    AC joint related injuries. This is the reason I wrote that I found it strange that in my case
    the bench was not at all painful and only felt pain in/close to the starting position of the press.

    Thanks for talking me out of doing pin presses! I really love to do presses so I cannot
    imagine myself not doing them for some time.

    I do not want to bail out on any of the lifts but since Rip wrote in his book that shoulder
    surgery is big deal I wanted to be a bit more cautious. I am from that part of Europe where you
    better think it twice to go to the hospital... As a matter of fact this is one of the reasons
    I started SS back in the day.

    Since you were against the pin press I performed presses with a slight deload keeping perform
    form. In light of what you wrote I tend to keep up with my normal training having the press and
    bench alternating but with a slight deload in both and being meticulous about form. Would you have
    any other recommendations?

    Thank you very much for the help!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •