Shoulder pain while benching

[Benreturns]

Dear Rip

My friend is getting some serious pain in his left shoulder when benching. The injury came on gradually over a period of a few weeks so he eased off the benching as we didn’t think it was muscular in nature (ie: no need for the Starr protocol) However, 6 months later he still cant bench above 80kg without the pain. The pain occurs at the top of the movement and is pretty hard to pin down as sometimes it seems to hurt across his clavicle, other times it feels quite deep within the joint towards the front of the deltoid. The heavier the weight the worse the pain is – a dull ache at 80kg, but pretty acute at much heavier weights.

This came on while doing the Texas method bench 5x5 at around 110kg and with a 1RM of 125kg. He doesn’t get the pain in any other movement at all, in or out of the gym. The pain subsides within a couple of minutes of getting off the bench.

Heres a vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiS3X0QVqEg

I was wondering -can you see anything obviously wrong with his technique?

Thanks
Ben

[Mark Rippetoe]

Nothing is wrong with his technique, so something is wrong with his shoulder. Either get it checked, or quit benching for a while and see if it settles down.

[ihatemoney123]

Just curious....I attained a shoulder injury 4 months ago benching. I got the MRI late ( based said joint effusion and minor subscapularis damage). I took 4 months off and the pain went away. I started benching last week and felt pain doing flat bench press. Took 5 day a off and pain was gone. Yesterday I tried incline bench press and there was no pain yesterday and none today. I'm not sure why incline is fine but flat is not. The same is true when I use dumbbells. Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Both of these injuries are probably partial-thickness cuff tears. They will behave oddly.

[Kevin99]

Just curious....I attained a shoulder injury 4 months ago benching. I got the MRI late ( based said joint effusion and minor subscapularis damage). I took 4 months off and the pain went away. I started benching last week and felt pain doing flat bench press. Took 5 day a off and pain was gone. Yesterday I tried incline bench press and there was no pain yesterday and none today. I'm not sure why incline is fine but flat is not. The same is true when I use dumbbells. Thanks.

I used to have a lot of pain in my shoulder, especially when doing dips and bench. I took a lot of time off, then tried again and had more pain. This was all before SS.

The article I read that led me to SS -- Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie -- mentioned an exercise for strengthening the cuff. I did those, massaged my arm with a lacrosse ball afterwards, and carefully read the SS chapter on benching. In the past few months, I've had no shoulder pain at all, while benching more than I ever have before.

Purely anecdotal, and not intended to diagnose other people's issues, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to try the rotator cuff exercises.

[easylifter]

If I may make a suggestion, have you guys tried different grip widths? A narrow(er) grip bench with elbows tucked closer to the body might relieve the pain, and should still allow decent weight.

At least Konstantinov thinks so (emphasis mine):

When I was young, I listened to “wise” people who said that grip should be maximally wide – 81 cm. The range is shorter and to press heavier is easier like that. But over time, I understood that this does not work for me. My arms are long, and in the bottom position I was not able to engage muscles of the back. As a result I constantly had injuries of shoulders and pecs. But my close grip bench press has always been good. At 17 years of age, I benched 200 kg with a close grip, but with glutes off the bench. I decided not to think too much about this, and I switched to close grip. After that I had no injuries, no pain and strength has been increasing slowly but constantly. But triceps must be very strong for such benching!

[strong_over_matter]

Ben, Based upon your friends symptoms (specifically “seems to hurt across his clavicle, other times it feels quite deep within the joint towards the front of the deltoid”) and the fact that a period of 6 months has produced no improvement with continued “acute” pain I would suspect distal clavicle osteolysis (“DCO”). He should probably have it evaluated given the duration of the pain. The good news is that it is one of the few shoulder issues that can be seen with just an x-ray. The bad news is that it usually requires surgery to correct. I had surgery myself at the end of 2009 to fix this issue in the left shoulder, but have made a 100% recovery and have competed in two strongman competitions recently. I could be wrong about the symptoms but it is exactly how I would describe what I went through – just wished I had not waited 7 months before I had it fixed. Good luck.

[cmreis]

I follow on here periodically so I apologize if chiropractors are shunned and I've just never seen it brought up. I'd start by seeing your chiro, my shoulder was really hurting on bench, press and pushups and when I was in to work on my back I asked him if he could check it out. Mine was in a bit of a different area, but he did a few tests and determined my bicep tendon was out of whack where it connects to my shoulder joint. Did a bicep tendon adjustment(didn't even know that was such a thing) and I've blasted away my previous stuck point on the bench. Might be something similar causing it for you.

[ihatemoney123]

Hmmm. I have tried rotator cuff exercises but to no avail. They actually exacerbated my symptoms. I have been strict pressing behind my neck ( wide grip). Someone told me this strengthens the tendons and ligaments ( not sure if this is true...would like some insight here).

[Clay84]

A narrow(er) grip bench with elbows tucked closer to the body might relieve the pain, and should still allow decent weight.

My experience is similar. Recurrent shoulder pain when benching goes away with (or at least isn't aggravated by) the close-grip bench, with elbows tucked close to my body.

Also, in another thread Mark has said...

I don't think you're going to lose much, if anything, off your bench while doing close grips and presses. The elbow position in the close grip obviously agrees with your shoulders better, and that may be your permanent position when benching from now on. This will be just fine with you when you get it up to 400.

http://startingstrength.com/resource...nch#post245873