Switching

[Mule]

How do you guys feel about switching dumbells for regular flat bench. I've been trying to get back in to bench pressing and its painful. Doing dumbells even heavy ones do not hurt my shoulder like the flat bench does. Or should I just switch to inclines, they don't hurt either. Its weird I know. Its in the mid to rear part of my shoulder.What shall I do people?

 

[Large And In Charge]

I would switch to the dumbbells myself because if the barbell is giving you shoulder pain then that is a red flag. Whenever somebody trains a muscle, they need to concentrate on working that muscle intensely as well as maintaining proper form. When you are in pain or even discomfort, you can't concentrate as well on the muscle as if you weren't. And if you try to ignore the pain. it just might lead to a serious injury!

On the over hand, I prefer dumbbells because you get a better range of motion with them and also, since they work independently, you can not cheat the weight up if one side is a little stronger than the other. As a result, even though you might be able to do more weight with the barbell, you will get better muscular development with the dumbbells.

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If you build it they will come

 

[Scotty the Body]

How wide is your grip on BB?
Personaly, I prefer the BB over DB for bench, I just don't have the nack for getting myself set up with DB. I'm ok once I get flat on my back but sitting back up is a real pain.

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Just another day in the gutter

 

[Mule]

Hey thanks fellas, its hard to get out of the habit ya know.

 

[SKINSFAN]

I prefer dumbells myself, I haven't used a barbell in a long time and I've gotten much better consistant results with them. I personally see better results with a 30 degree incline for dumbell bench and decline bench for dumbell flys, I do superslow pushups to simulate flat bench...Mike