What to do if your shoulder hurts after bench press. Treating Shoulder Pain When Benching

Traumatologist-orthopedist of the highest qualification category, Candidate of Medical Sciences Ivan Valentinovich Elizarov

talks about pain in the shoulder joint, causes and treatment methods.

Patients with pathology of the shoulder joint often come to me at an orthopedic appointment with complaints of pain during movement, at rest, night pain (it hurts like a “sick tooth”), limited range of motion in the shoulder or a feeling of instability, “laxness” and a periodic feeling of numbness in hand. Many have had an injury in the past, a fall on the elbow, shoulder, a dog pulled the leash, the patient sharply lifted a heavy object or unloaded a lot of weights, there was a dislocation of the shoulder, playing sports with loads on the arms (volleyball, throwing objects, martial arts with punches, bench press lying barbells). Some people do not remember the fact of the injury. In the last century, they were given a profound diagnosis of “humeral periarteritis” - which literally means “inflammation somewhere in the area of the shoulder and shoulder blade”, they were treated for many months by a neurologist without a significant positive result, they were injected with “blockades” with hormonal drugs from a surgeon or rheumatologist . In fact, these complaints are associated with damage or inflammation of the ligaments of the shoulder joint, the tendons around it, the joint capsule; they vary in volume, size, and quantity, which affects the clinical picture.

What to do if your shoulder hurts after bench press?

Overall, free weight training is surprisingly safe compared to other exercise routines. This may come as a surprise considering the fact that most gym goers seem to constantly complain about shoulder pain when pressing and similar issues. But in reality, the list only includes two or three common injuries that most of us experience. Perhaps the most common problem, especially for men, is shoulder pain caused by bench pressing.

In this article we will tell you how to avoid shoulder pain when performing barbell presses. The reasons why bench pressing can lead to shoulder pain is a topic for another article, but it is worth noting that such pain is usually not a consequence of the bench press itself, but rather the incorrect execution or abuse of the exercises. Many people experience shoulder pain when bench pressing because they lift too much weight, lift for longer than they should, and all this in combination with poor form.

By making small changes to your training program, you can continue to bench press heavier weights not only now, but for years and even decades to come. If this seems interesting to you, let's look into it further.

Treatment

The most effective way to solve these problems is through surgery. Modern endoscopic equipment makes it possible to perform such operations with minimal trauma, quickly, with a short hospital stay, good functional and cosmetic results; many of them are simply impossible to perform using classical surgery using incisions. Treatment with injections and tablets does not eliminate the problem, it simply masks it, and, especially after the use of hormonal injections, often makes it completely unsolvable.

*Image from website

You should contact your doctor if your shoulder hurts for several days.

You can't constantly progress in working weights, take a break

If you perform a particular exercise for a long time - usually 6-8 weeks - problems can begin, especially if you are a seasoned athlete.

Firstly, your body stops adapting. You are no longer struggling - this probably means that the muscles have stopped growing, which I already described in the article about building muscle strength and size. At this point, most athletes also realize that their PRs are not improving - which obviously indicates that you are not getting stronger.

The next problem is that you keep your joints and connective tissues under constant tension, week after week.

If your shoulder hurts after benching, then after one or two months of training, you are no longer benefiting from them, but are only injuring your shoulder joints due to overuse of training. But, nevertheless, you continue to train.

Can I ask you a question? Why?

Let me guess - you're afraid that if you stop training, you'll lose everything you've gained. It's like I'm looking into water, isn't it?

To be honest, I went through this too. But the truth is that the best way to improve your bench press performance is to take a break. Don't worry, you won't bench press less, just do close-to-press variations of the exercises with repetition. Get the most out of so-called "assistance exercises": close-grip barbell press, incline barbell press (at different inclines, not just 45 degrees), push-ups (with rings or weights), dumbbell bench press, bench press on a sitting machine, barbell-frame press with transverse handles.

If you exercise, for example, twice a week, do 1-2 of these exercises during your workout, but first make sure that they will not harm you. Then, after 4-6 weeks, change 50-100% of the exercises. As soon as the shoulder pain begins to subside, you can also include a standard bench press in the program.

How it works? Just as muscle growth slows down due to doing the same exercise, dexterity is also lost. Most people don't realize this because when you return to an exercise after a while, it feels like it's not “working.” But that’s normal, and even more than that, that’s great. The old ineffective methods you were used to now seem obvious, and after a few sessions your technique will likely be better than ever. And you'll likely recruit more muscles through new pressing movements. This is the beauty of judiciously applied exercise changes.

Just resist the temptation to perform every pressing exercise known to science in one workout. If you start to feel shoulder pain while bench pressing, it will be difficult to determine which exercise is causing it. And, given the importance of incremental innovation, if you complete all the exercises you know in one session, what will be left for the next?

Harmful exercises

Below you will see harmful exercises and their replacements.

Abduction of arms with dumbbells to the side above parallel with the floor

A particularly dangerous option is lifting the dumbbell to the side while being at an angle to the support - in this position the arm automatically rises above the shoulder line:

A safe option: lifting dumbbells to the sides until your shoulder is parallel to the floor. Raising dumbbells to the sides on an incline bench.

Bench press

Safe: Barbell chest press, dumbbell overhead press.

Close-grip barbell row to the chin

Safe: row with dumbbells with a shoulder-width grip strictly until the shoulder is parallel to the floor.

Sources:

1972. Cunningham's Textbook of Anatomy. Oxford University Press, London.
Almekinders, L.C. 2001. Impingement syndrome. Clin. Sports Med. 20:491-504.
Behnke, R. S. (2006). Kinetic anatomy. (2 ed., pp. 35-56). Champaigne, IL: Human Kinetics.
Bigliani LU, Morrison DS, April EW: The morphology of the acromion and its relationship to rotator cuff tears. Orthop Trans 10:228, 1986.
Morrison DS, Bigliani LU: The clinical significance of variations in acromial morphology. Orthop Trans 11:234, 1987.
Page, P., Frank, C. C., & Lardner, R. (2010). Assessment and treatment of muscle imbalances the janda approach. (pp. 195-207). Champaigne, IL: Human Kinetics.
Sahrmann, S. A. (2002). Diagnosis and treatment of movement impairment syndromes. (1 ed., pp. 193-261). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Wilk, K. E., Reinold, M. M., & Andrews, J. R. (2009). The Athlete's Shoulder. (2 ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Churchhill Livingstone.

Do a warm-up

If your warm-up consists of just barbell bench presses with lighter weights, your shoulder joints won't thank you and shoulder injuries are just around the corner.

Regardless of your training program, I highly recommend learning and performing a warm-up consisting of three exercises with an expander. These are three approaches, a total of 90 repetitions, which will not take more than 3-4 minutes.

I not only recommend this warm-up to my clients not only when their shoulders hurt, but on a regular basis and perform it myself before every strength training - it turns out to be surprisingly effective. Considering how little time it takes, you won't lose much if you try it. It was invented and described in his article “A New Way to Train Your Upper Body Twice a Week” by John Rusin.

Perform the exercise more slowly when lowering the barbell down

It may seem funny that most experienced weightlifters already know that eccentric force when lifting a barbell contributes more to the development of muscle strength than concentric force; however, few people emphasize slow eccentricity.

What's the matter? You already know, but I'll repeat myself because I made the same mistake until recently: it's because you can't lift as much weight when using a slow eccentric. Although this is true, it is worth neglecting your ego in order to open the way for two necessary things.

First, as I already explained, you will feel an immediate increase in muscle strength. Secondly, you will radically change the load on your muscles and joints. In the traditional bench press, the greatest force is used when transitioning from eccentric to concentric force. But this is the same moment when your shoulders are in the most vulnerable position. Slowing down the eccentric phase of the barbell press will help protect your shoulder joints.

More adaptation? Less pain? Yes please!

Save the barbell press for last (or at least don't do it first)

This goes against the fundamental commandments of the barbell press for some people, but take my advice.

When an exercise causes pain, it is likely that it is the first one in your workout. If you're a weightlifter, the bench press is a more likely source of pain than, say, deadlifts or French presses. If you're an Olympic weightlifter, the standing barbell press will likely hurt more than pull-ups or squats. Not always, mind you, but most often.

Why can your shoulders hurt when pressing? I have several assumptions about this:

Typically, the first exercise is the most important (or favorite) exercise, so it comes first. This means that you probably performed it many more times and much more consistently than other exercises in your program. More effort = more pain.
The first exercise usually consumes the lion's share of your energy, especially compared to subsequent exercises. And exercises that you do with more energy usually put more stress on your joints than exercises that you do later that use less energy.
Early exercises benefit less from warming up than subsequent exercises. This is a key point for such a complex and fragile joint as the shoulder.

Finally, it's worth considering changing your exercise routine: if you always do certain exercises first, you're likely to end up with an aesthetic or performance imbalance. So, performing the bench press a little later in your workout than usual, or at least not first, will not only protect your shoulder joints, but also improve your overall performance and fitness.

Sources of injury in kettlebell lifting exercises

Many people, not just athletes, can remember the time when, accidentally approaching a kettlebell and trying to train on their own, for a long time they experienced pain in the forearm, in the back, in the knees, not to mention the lower back.

Despite the external simplicity of the exercises, such as the push of two weights from the chest, the push of two weights in a long cycle (with both weights lowered down after each rise), the jerk of one weight with each hand, they are very complex in their internal content.

The dynamics of a kettlebell lifter’s movements require a high degree of coordination in space and time of the processes of tension and relaxation of working muscles with breathing. The kinematics of movements strictly obeys the laws of Universal Gravity and Lever of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd kind. In order to lift weights about 30-40 times, you may not need to think about the complexity of the exercises. However, if we are talking about regular training, then it is necessary to think about eliminating unnecessary stress on the joints and spine, as well as about the effectiveness and efficiency of the equipment.

Many examples can be given indicating the extreme loads experienced by weightlifting athletes. So, if an athlete participating in a competition weighs 64 kg and performs a clean and jerk exercise with two 32 kg weights, then the pressure on the support already in the starting position is 200%!!! However, leading weightlifters in Russia, even in light weight categories up to 60 kg and up to 65 kg, perform 100 or more lifts of two 32 kg weights in the push exercise in 10 minutes of competition time. How??? The study of such a phenomenon and the answer to this question would lead to the elimination of the causes of injuries in kettlebell lifting and, especially, among beginner kettlebell lifters.

Currently, scientific works, articles and studies on kettlebell lifting are rarely found in print. As noted by A.I. Vorotyntsev (2002), sports science still remains in great debt to thousands of fans of kettlebell lifting. There is not enough specialized literature, and what exists does not always correspond to reality.

A.I. Vorotyntsev (2002) expresses regret that the health-improving effects of kettlebell lifting on the body of different ages have not yet been studied, therefore any experiments carried out on one’s health are not always justified: some, by doing kettlebells, become healthy and are convinced of the benefits of these classes, others, due to haste or inability to properly grasp weights, get injured and are convinced of the opposite. The problem of injury is acute in all sports, especially in youth and youth. It is young people, trying to achieve high results as quickly as possible, who do not put enough effort into studying and improving movement techniques, neglecting the principles of gradually increasing loads, optimizing the ratio of volume and intensity of load. Some young athletes overuse pharmacological agents, both to stimulate muscle activity and to quickly restore the body. This path can really lead to significant results in a short time. However, the musculoskeletal system does not always have time to prepare for increased requirements to achieve high goals in a short time.

Our studies of the characteristics of motor actions of more than three hundred weightlifters of various qualifications, carried out over several years, starting in 2002, using video recordings of all participants in the Russian Cups, Russian and World Championships and other competitions held at the regional level, allowed us to find some criteria for the effectiveness of exercise techniques kettlebell lifting and factors for increasing the efficiency of kettlebell lifters’ motor actions. Without being able to describe all of them within the framework of our article, we will present those that relate to the initial position before the next ejection. The correct starting position is one of the important prerequisites for the effective execution of subsequent movements (L.P. Matveev, 1991). Starting position, using the expression of A.A. Ukhtomsky, can be called a state of “operational rest”, in which, although there are no external movements, purposeful readiness for action is concentratedly embodied.

This or that version of the starting position before the next push-out is generally determined by the morpho-functional characteristics of the kettlebell lifter, as well as the athlete’s ability to rationally compensate for the effects of gravity of the weights, torso and head (V.N. Gomonov, 2000).

In the case of rational I.P. the spine is free from load due to the fact that the projection of the gravity forces of the weights through the elbow joints goes directly to the pelvic bones. The athlete receives a kind of rest interval (V.N. Gomonov, 2000).

Let's consider the effect of gravity of the kettlebell and the resulting gravitational force of the head and torso in the variant typical for beginner kettlebell lifters (Fig. 1) and highly qualified athletes (Fig. 2) in the starting position before the next push-out.

In Fig. 1, the line of projection of the gravity force of the weights passes down through the hip-femoral joint and, further behind the knee joint, to the support. Considering the effect of the moment of gravity of the weights relative to the joints, we see that with irrational IP, in the hip joints the effect of the moment of gravity of the weights is zero, since the shoulder of this force is zero, and in the knee joints this moment force bends the athlete's legs. The resulting gravity force of the torso and head creates a tilting moment at the hip joint and a bending moment at the knee joint. To maintain balance, the athlete is forced to constantly strain the back flexors and quadriceps muscles of the thigh. Beginners instinctively begin to bend their backs and tilt their heads forward and down, taking a position in which the lines of projection of the gravity forces of the weights and the resulting gravity of the torso and head are as close as possible, reducing the effects of the moments of these forces. The inability to relax the deltoids and trapezius muscles prevents them from placing their elbows on the iliac crests. Therefore, beginner weightlifters experience excessive bending of the back and legs at the knees. This results in excess tension in the back and knee joints.

What happens in a rational initial position before the next push-out (Fig. 2)? Ideally, the condition of balance is satisfied in the hip joint, as on a simple swing. Since the line of projection of the gravity force of the weights passes in front of the hip joint, the moment of force is equal to the product of the gravity force of the weights and the arm of this force. This moment of force tends to tilt the torso forward or straighten the arms. The projection line of the resulting force of gravity of the torso and head, passing behind the hip-femoral joint, creates a moment of force that tends to tilt the torso back. In other words, highly qualified athletes bend and tilt their torso back not because the gravitational force of the weights acts on it, but so that the shoulder of the resulting gravitational force of the torso and head becomes such that the action of the pair of forces is in equilibrium.

Balance in the knee joints is also achieved by the balance of a pair of forces: 1 – the force of gravity of the weights, the projection of which passes in front of the knee joints, is directed towards extension and 2 – the resulting force of gravity of the torso and head, the projection of which passes behind the knee joints and is directed towards side of leg flexion at these joints. When the moments of this pair of forces are equal, the tension in the quadriceps muscles of the thigh decreases, and in the case when the extension moment of the weights’ gravity force exceeds the moment of the force of bending the legs at the knee joint, they are completely relaxed.

The placement of the arms of the weights on the pads of the thumbs, the installation of the elbows on the crests of the iliac bones with straightened legs and maximally relaxed arm muscles, reduce the excessive effect of gravity forces and the moments of these forces in the joints, and also increase the efficiency of motor actions. As a rule, athletes who do not pay due attention to developing flexibility and the necessary mobility in the joints do not achieve outstanding results. Most of them remain at the CCM level. Excessive tension in the quadriceps muscles of the thigh and torso flexors, difficulty breathing due to an irrational starting position before the next push-out limit the athlete’s capabilities. There is also a theoretical justification for this. Sports science knows that maximum physical effect is achieved only under conditions of optimal levels of muscle tension (i.e. when none of the muscles produces its maximum). This is explained by the fact that their activity levels are interconnected and interdependent with each other. Therefore, an excessive increase in the level of activity of any muscle leads to a decrease in the activity of others and a decrease in the overall effect of motor actions (I.P. Ratov, 1994).

Our research allows us to draw the following conclusions:

1. The main source of injuries in kettlebell lifting is solving the problem of fulfilling discharge standards using force methods. In this case, the exercises are performed under conditions of excessive tension in the knee joints and lumbar spine.
2. Prevention of various spinal overstrains, injuries of the knee joints, sprains of tendons and muscles at all stages of preparation is carried out by rationally compensating for the effects of gravity and optimal alternation of the processes of tension and relaxation of muscle groups involved in motor actions when performing kettlebell exercises sports;
3. The solution to the problem of preventing injuries in kettlebell lifting lies in improving the technique of training kettlebell lifters.

Literature:

1. Gomonov, V.N. Individualization of technical and physical training of weightlifting athletes of various qualifications: Author's abstract. dis....cand. ped. Sciences (13.00.04) / V.N. Gomonov. – Smolensk: SGIFK, 2000. – 26 p. 2. Vorotyntsev, A.I. Kettlebells. Sport of the strong and healthy / A.I. Vorotyntsev. – M.: Soviet Sport, 2002. – 272 p.: ill. 3. Matveev, L.P. Theory and methodology of physical culture / L.P. Matveev. – M.: FiS, 1991. – 543 p. 4. Ratov, I.P. Motor capabilities of a person (non-traditional methods of their development and restoration) / I.P. Ratov. – Minsk: Minsktip-proekt, 1994. – 116 p.