Well, as shown in this paper that analyzed shoulder pain in the bench press:. Touching the bar too high on the chest with the elbows flared out increases the compressive forces at the clavicle and increases the net torque placed on the shoulder. And as a result, this quite obviously increases the likelihood of you experiencing shoulder pain when benching. In fact, a proper bench press bar path should:. Start above your shoulder: 2. Come down to around the level of your sternum or nipple height: 3.
Curve diagonally back towards the starting point over the shoulder: Simply meaning that the bar path should be curved diagonally, and you'll be pushing slightly backwards rather than straight up and down. And to achieve this without harming your shoulders, you need to tuck your elbows to roughly a degree angle: Such that your elbows remain closer to the body and more or less directly under the bar throughout each rep.
A harder to catch yet very common bench press form mistake is not properly aligning the elbows during the press. Meaning that the elbows are not in line with the hand and not stacked under the bar: This creates unnecessary torque on both the elbow and the shoulder joint, likely contributing to your shoulder pain when benching.
As shown below, gripping the bar too wide will inevitably cause the elbows to be unaligned: And, as stated in this review paper analyzing the shoulder joint, is problematic since it increases the demand placed on the rotator cuff.
Whereas gripping the bar too narrow will also cause the forearms to be misaligned and will turn it more into a triceps dominant movement: Thus, you want to play around with your grip width until you find the width that feels best and enables your elbow to remain stacked under the bar:.
This mistake is often a result of "overtucking" your elbows too close to your sides when you press. But luckily, fixing this is quite simple.
You basically just want to adjust the angle of your elbow during the press by flaring them out a little more such that they remain relatively underneath the bar: You'll likely have to play around with the degree of your elbow tuck in order to find what both feels best and enables your elbows to remain stacked under the bar. I'd also highly recommend videotaping yourself performing the bench press from the side and from the back.
This can help you visually see small errors you're making and correct them. But regardless, try implementing the tips I mentioned as they lead to not only a safer press, but a stronger one as well.
At this stage the focus is working on overhead mobility. Again, stay within the mild range for pain during these exercises. Pulling out the sword. Chest and overhead press with kettlebells. Use a light lbs kettle bell for this exercise. Perform a chest press by holding onto an inverted kettle bell. The inverted kettle bell will require you to focus on balance and perform this exercise slowly. Chest and overhead press with dumbbells.
Progress to using dumbbells for chest and overhead shoulder presses. Using dumbbells rather than a barbell at this point allows you to vary your shoulder position during the movement for increased comfort. This eBook will review the six most common causes of shoulder pain when bench pressing, as well as discuss the appropriate treatments for each cause.
This gradual increase of stress put onto the body during weightlifting is termed progressive overload. Muscle growth aka hypertrophy as well as bone, ligament, tendon, and cartilage strength are stimulated via progressive overload. Circulation and nerve connections between the brain and the involved muscles are also increased via this principle.
Create progressive overload by increasing the weight that you lift slowly, do not jump up more than five pounds each benching day. Yes, that means busting out those wimpy 2. You may feel silly putting those onto the ends of the barbell, but your patience will pay off as you make slow, steady gains.
Ramping up more quickly than that is recipe for injury not to mention frustration once you quickly hit a plateau. In terms of volume, three working sets is plenty to build strength. Adding additional sets can cause acute shoulder pain during bench pressing, as well as unnecessary pain or soreness hours later DOMS aka Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Periodization is one technique that can help stave off overtraining, and incorporates such methods as varying the weights of an exercise over time, allowing for adequate recovery, and mixing up the strength training program so that the athlete is not doing the same exercise too often.
If the only chest exercise that you perform is the bench press, you may want to incorporate some of these principles of periodization, or work with a coach who is familiar with programming and can help you design a healthy weightlifting program. Four possibilities to prevent the terrible twos include:. The strength and volume of a muscle are not created during bench pressing. The strenuous contractions actually break-down the muscle fibers, whereas it is the recovery time that allows for the muscle cells to repair and grow.
Skeletal muscles need between 24 and 48 hours for proper recovery, which is why it is common advice to avoid performing exercises that work the same muscle group on back-to-back days. In addition to rest, nutrition plays a critical role in muscle recovery. Eat adequate protein especially in the one hour post-workout window to allow the muscle fibers to repair themselves during their resting period. Animal protein sources could include eggs, chicken, turkey, fish, beef, or pork.
Non-animal sources of protein usually come from dairy or grains or questionably healthy protein powders. While some athletes feel just fine after drinking a glass of milk or eating some cottage cheese or a bowl of quinoa, others discover that they feel bloated, lethargic, or heavy after consuming those foods. There is fair evidence that grains and dairy may contribute to systemic inflammation in the body, so you may want to experiment with eliminating these foods and beverages if you suspect you are sensitive.
A functional medicine specialist can help you identify which foods you might be sensitive to, and can help you develop an individual nutrition protocol that will help you recovery more optimally. Drinking plenty of water is also important to helping your body stay hydrated during the recovery process.
If you were to view this on a molecular level, the biochemical pathway that drives protein synthesis, requires the building blocks found in water, do proceed efficiently. This may not apply to every weightlifting session, but since most people who strength train also engage in cardiovascular activities, it is good to know that you may need to replenish your sodium stores after a sweaty workout.
Other crucial factors to muscle and joint recovery include getting enough sleep, managing your stress, and engaging in some variation of mind-body activity yoga, meditation, tai chi etc. If you allow your elbows to flare out to your sides, you place your shoulders in a more internally rotated position.
Plant your feet on the ground. Just plant them firmly on the ground! Place two 45 pound plates on the ground, and then plant your feet atop the plates. You will want to use your legs to help drive the movement so you need to feel secure in your ground contact. Next thing, arch your back as much as feels comfortable; there will be space between your low back and the bench, and your glutes and shoulder blades will remain in contact with the bench.
Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your arms all the way back into their sockets. Having trouble picturing this? Lie on your back, and then reach your arms up so your fingertips reach for the ceiling.
Now, reach two inches higher! You get this extra reach by protracting your shoulder blades. This is sometimes the position that novice weightlifters will adopt when reaching up to unrack the bar, but it is the exact opposite of proper form for the lift! From here, find proper position by keeping your arms straight, and imagining that you could drop the top of your arm bone directly into the cup of your shoulder.
Finally, squeeze your rhomboid muscles to pinch your shoulder blades together underneath you. A final cue is to think about pulling the bar apart just before you lower it. This also prevents the top of your shoulder from rolling anteriorly forward , which would shorten the pectoralis minor muscle, creating aberrant shoulder biomechanics. TIP 1: You will benefit from receiving a lift-off hand-off from a spotter so you can maintain this close-packed shoulder arrangement.
Place it lengthwise along your spine. Keep your arms straight.
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