Twinge of pain during bench.

[Nockian]

When I'm benching I get a pain in my upper back I think in the lat area. It's always on the left. It's like a cramp. I carry on benching and it never gets to the point where I need to stop, but it might as the load increases ? Next day I will feel it is a bit of muscle soreness-again, it's not bad at all, I can only feel it if I do a bit a core vacuuming, otherwise it's a minor dull ache. It isn't impingement and it's not in my shoulder. Any ideas ? Do I just keep going as I am and hope it doesn't pop ?

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Hi,

probably redundant to point this out, but make sure your safeties are in the right place. It's probably nothing, but should the twinge of pain become a sudden failure, you don't to have the bar slamming on your throat.

IPB

[Nockian]

Hi,

probably redundant to point this out, but make sure your safeties are in the right place. It's probably nothing, but should the twinge of pain become a sudden failure, you don't to have the bar slamming on your throat.

IPB

No safeties on the benches, the weight isn't yet that high but I leave the collars off just in case.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

No safeties on the benches

Your neck, your rules. I have no problem with that.

IPB

[Nockian]

Your neck, your rules. I have no problem with that.

IPB

No, I mean there are no safeties provided on the bench in the gym. That's not my rules, it's just how it is. If there were safeties I would use them. I'm loading fractionally and making sure I can really handle the weight before starting the heavy set through the warm up. If anything pops I have the option of tipping the weights.

Weirdly I quite like the danger of bench pressing without safeties. It's the closest I can get to solo rock climbing (without a rope). There's a certain sense of satisfaction that comes from being certain that I can manage the effort. The pain clearly is something that concerns me when doing that-I'm not struggling, nor grinding with whatever weight I'm using.

[Neel Aggarwal]

Could be any number of things. How is your arch when you bench? If you’re arching hard and aren’t yet used to it you could expect some cramping/discomfort but it should improve with time.

And definitely bench w safeties. My gym doesn’t have them on the bench setup either so I just use a squat rack. Saved my ass more than once!

Happy lifting bud.