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Barbell bench and shoulder pain...

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So I have stayed away from barbell bench for a while due to shoulder discomfort and mild pain when performing the bench. Has anyone else had this issue? Maybe it's my form. I have been doing a lot of dumbbell bench and hammer strength bench (wide and such) along with some other chest exercises. So I have been reluctant to go back to bench for three reasons: don't want the shoulder pain again, always afraid of going heavy and not finishing, I have gotten great results with dumbbell bench.
Thoughts?
 
Yeah I had that problem. Also when I did any type of heavy shoulder pressing. Bench press definately is brutal on the shoulders. All I can say is it took a while for me to work back up to getting back under the bar (like 4 months). Could be a number of things but without a MRI who can be sure. I took the same approach you did by doing exercises I could do without further causing any more damage or pain. You did the right thing in my opinion. If you listen to your body and then take smart precautions you are one step further to a full recovery. If pain continues then by all means seek medical advice. Be safe.
 
If you're not a competitive powerlifter, there's really no reason to go back to barbell bench. If for whatever reason you want or need to, then I can tell you 3 things that really worked for me: a lot of reverse PecDec flyes as a warm up for bench; split up the top half and bottom half of the press for a few sets of warm ups; before benching do a few sets of overhead presses with the bar - this is what worked for me. Hope this helps.
 
When was the last time you did an exercise for your rotator cuffs? If you have to google "rotator cuff exercises", then that answers my question, and yours as well.
 
When was the last time you did an exercise for your rotator cuffs? If you have to google "rotator cuff exercises", then that answers my question, and yours as well.

Good point, I'll check into that. But that begs a question: if I can push the weight with dumbbells without problems, why would I want to push the barbell with issues I will need to address? Does that mean its bad for the shoulders? My rotator might be stronger now anyway. I suppose I'll need to hit the barbell regardless when I reach the dumbbell limit of 120 or so (right now I'm at 90 to 100)
 
BB impinges the shoulder joint differently than DB press. Plus, most folks I see pushing DBs don't use full ROM, so there's less impingement. And I know a lot of people don't tuck their shoulder blades when doing DBs, but they do for BB press.

I sometimes get a bit of pain when BB benching. When I feel it during a warmup I stop adding weight at 10-12RM. Going light seems to let whatever is causing the slight pain heal, so the next time I bench I usually have no pain. I tried DBs, but if I use full ROM they still hurt, although a bit differently.
 
As fatso said, unless you're a powerlifter there's no reason for you to do the bb bench. You've found alternatives and seem happy with your results. Many strongman competitors don't train bb bench presses.
 
When was the last time you did an exercise for your rotator cuffs? If you have to google "rotator cuff exercises", then that answers my question, and yours as well.

That's what I thought was wrong with my shoulders too so I did rotator cuff exercises for a year but never got better. Found out a week ago it's actually bicep tendonitis.
 
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