Reply With QuoteAn MRI is diagnostic for a shoulder, not a plain film x-ray or an ultrasound. The "sports specialist" is supposed to know this. And explain how the bands work your shoulder harder than benches, presses, chins, and deadlifts. Does your press hurt?
Member
Shoulder pain during bench press
So, I’ve had this problem for 2 months now. I don’t recall how it started but I noticed a sharp pain in my shoulder when I was stretching on an off day. After that, I started noticing some weakness in my right shoulder during bench press which was getting worse at every workout.
Long story short, I went to a sports specialist, who had me do x-ray and ultrasound. Looking at the reports, he couldn’t find anything wrong with the shoulder. His diagnosis was that it was an overuse injury from heavy lifting, probably a rotator cuff strain. He told me there were no tears or cartilage damage according to the reports, and he recommended I continue my physiotherapy band work and resume my workouts. His only suggestion was to take naproxen for 10 days to clear out any remaining inflammation.
Despite my rotator cuff being strong after 1 month of hand work, it still feels unstable and weak on the eccentric of the bench press even with the bar alone. Does anyone have any similar experience to share? I would like to get back on track as I was very close to hit my personal lifting goals for this year…
TMPHBITEU
An MRI is diagnostic for a shoulder, not a plain film x-ray or an ultrasound. The "sports specialist" is supposed to know this. And explain how the bands work your shoulder harder than benches, presses, chins, and deadlifts. Does your press hurt?
Member
It hurts on the negative when I’m lifting close to 80% of my 5-rep max and it feels worse after the 3rd set. But the pain is more pronounced during the bench press when the bar is low to my sternum.
TMPHBITEU
Narrow your bench grip and aim higher on the sternum, and see what happens.
Member
i have had shoulder pain for years, narrow grip and make sure elbow are tucked, helped me the most.
TMPHBITEU
What do you mean by "tucked elbows"?
Member
I may be getting well out of my more comfortable “medical” lane here and I may be opening myself up ostracism from those who know much more about coaching and technique than I do.Originally Posted by TurboKostas
However, I had a similar problem in the past. I noted increasing sharp, knife-like pain and an accompanying weakness on the anterior, lateral aspect of my Chest/shoulder. I could see that my (dominant) right arm was moving the right side of the bar up more quickly than my weaker left side resulting in a visible asymmetry in the movement. I started “cueing” myself to push up evenly thereby correcting the asymmetry. This solved my problem after a few work-outs. Anatomically, I was never able to figure out the actual etiology of my issue; just what fixed it.
Maybe this can help you.
Starting Strength Coach
What did your physiotherapists assess your condition as? Why would an "overuse" injury present itself on an off day when you were simply stretching?
Tendinopathy would not easily show up on ultrasound until it is very chronic in nature, and even then, it hasn't proven to me to be much use diagnostically when a good, thorough physical examination should be able to provide you all the information you need as a clinician. It's also very difficult to distinguish between a partial tear and tendinopathy, although you treat them both identically. If you were close to your personal lifting goals (I'd hope) band work is of no benefit to you. You might consider hiring the services of a coach that is experienced in working with people with orthopaedic conditions, as I would be willing to bet that an issue with your technique or your programming is the causative agent here.
Member
not flaired out the the sides, you do flair some on the way up.
TMPHBITEU
"Flaired" doesn't mean anything either.
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