Chest injury bench pressing

[Henchman]

So I'm back in the gym, getting the weight up again on both military presses and bench presses and now my left shoulder feels sore. It feels less like a sharp, extreme pain, and just like a dull ache on the top of my shoulder directly under my deltoid. My form isn't terrible, but I'm not an expert. I start out with my elbows in front of me and then push up until my arms are behind my ears and my body is locked. Does that sound right? Bench is vertical across the nipples.

Are there stretches or exercises I can do to better prepare my body for heavy barbell lifts? This is annoying as ****. I'm actually glad I made this thread because at first I thought it was the same shoulder and it was going to be permanently screwed up. My right shoulder feels excellent.

One thing that I learned with a lot of over head pressing and bench pressing is that the pecs tend to pull forward, pulling the upper back out of alignment and cause shoulder pain and the bursa sack to swell. Stretching your chest and shoulders seems to help. An easy stretch is to place your hand against a door frame with you arm extended, palm up, and rotate and lower your body until you feel a good stretch. Maybe your left shoulder is sore because you tended to favor that side while you were injured?

[mark5pt56]

I would take a serious look at what you are doing exercise and weight wise. I had shoulder surgery about two years ago, all is well aside from the permanent injury-from heavy bench work. What did that get me? thinking back, nothing but bragging rights while I did it. Years ago, I was told there's two types of injury, the immediate one and the one when you are 60 and all of the dumb things catch up to you. I've had both-about ten years early. Did you have physical therapy and if so, are you listening to the advise?

[Hmac]

I would take a serious look at what you are doing exercise and weight wise. I had shoulder surgery about two years ago, all is well aside from the permanent injury-from heavy bench work. What did that get me? thinking back, nothing but bragging rights while I did it. Years ago, I was told there's two types of injury, the immediate one and the one when you are 60 and all of the dumb things catch up to you. I've had both-about ten years early. Did you have physical therapy and if so, are you listening to the advise?

Some excellent points here. The shoulder only takes so much abuse, and much of the damage is cumulative. You get to be 50-60 and one day find that your rotator cuff has just finally torn away....all that cumulative shredding over the years from weight training will ultimately catch up to you, and trust me, it is shredding with each and every injury. The operation to fix that is one monumental bitch.

As to the damage here being limited to the deltoid....very easy to be fooled about that, especially without an MRI. The pain from most of the shoulder injuries tends to be referred to the area of the deltoid insertion. I'd bet money that Euro's injury is rotator cuff and not deltoid.

Disclaimer: I'm not an orthopedist. The above observation comes from a discussion I just had with my water skiing buddy who is, with a Fellowship in Sports Medicine. He used to be team physician for the Philadelphia Flyers. He repairs about 5 shoulders a week here.

[Eurodriver]

Did you guys notice this is the other shoulder, and not the one in the OP?

[Henchman]

That's why I said I could be from favouring the other shoulder during the injury for daily tasks.

[Devildawg2531]

Personally I wouldn't do any barbell bench pressing. I wish I knew from age 16 - 25 what I know now. I was very focused in ego gratification of how much I could "bench". Instead I would have focused on dumbell's for incline and flat, pushups and called it a day. Also kept as many pulling movements as pushing to keep the posterior muscles balanced with the anterior. My shoulders would have thanked me.

[ABNAK]

Personally I wouldn't do any barbell bench pressing. I wish I knew from age 16 - 25 what I know now. I was very focused in ego gratification of how much I could "bench". Instead I would have focused on dumbell's for incline and flat, pushups and called it a day. Also kept as many pulling movements as pushing to keep the posterior muscles balanced with the anterior. My shoulders would have thanked me.

Spot on dude! I'm about to have my SIXTH (!) shoulder surgery next Monday. This will be number four on the left and two on the right. Lifting regularly since 1988 has been the cause I have no doubt.

I use dumbbells on a low incline now (about 12 degrees) and that's it. It's an awesome angle to hit the bulk of your chest. Gonna get one more session in Sunday before surgery Monday so I don't lose as much strength. I also do a decline press machine later in my workout once I'm a little tired so I don't need massive amounts of weight.

I don't think I'll ever use a barbell again. Dumbbells are the way to go (I've used them for years but always used BB too). IMO they allow for a much more natural pressing motion than being "locked in" to the hand distance/positioning of a barbell.

Ditto on the rear shoulder/back work too. Those are supportive/assist muscles for pressing. One thing that helped some time ago was actually starting chest day with a few sets of light cable pulldowns or rows (depending if I was doing flat or incline) to warm up those rear delt and back muscles. Seemed to work pretty well.

[Double3]

Personally I wouldn't do any barbell bench pressing. I wish I knew from age 16 - 25 what I know now. I was very focused in ego gratification of how much I could "bench". Instead I would have focused on dumbell's for incline and flat, pushups and called it a day. Also kept as many pulling movements as pushing to keep the posterior muscles balanced with the anterior. My shoulders would have thanked me.

I haven't used a bar for at least 10 years.

All I did was hurt myself trying to go heavy. The BB bench is nothing more than an ego lift IMO.

[Airhasz]

I guess 'no pain no gain' should be changed to 'pain no gain.'

[Eurodriver]

That's why I said I could be from favouring the other shoulder during the injury for daily tasks.

I was talking about the other replies, guess I should have clarified.

I used to lift exclusively with dumbbells (except squats), saw great gains, and never once got injured. Maybe I should go back to that route. It seems counterintuitive though - that dumbbells would result in a greater chance of injury than a barbell.