Bench Pressing with Shoulder Pain

Feeling some shoulder pain in the bottom of the bench press and it hasn’t gone away after a few weeks? Worse yet, is that pain lingering for a few months and simply resting it hasn’t fixed the problem once you build back up in weight? Here are a few strategies I work on with patients experiencing this common shoulder pain presentation. After having done an in-depth evaluation, many people benefit from the below:

1. Modifications: find a modification that’s effective to keep training the pressing pattern. I prefer a floor press as an immediate option that avoids any irritated end ranges. After that, I like to play around with using dip variations, dumbbell bench press, and pushups. Tempos to control speed can be helpful, as well as pauses at crucial points to manage irritability. Scaled appropriately to meet someone’s current capacity and symptom irritability, these variations keep effective and fun training in their weekly routine.

2. Restore Relevant Ranges of Motion: Ensure full range of motion into extension and internal rotation, then loading up using bench press and dip variations (sensing a common theme here?). Crab walks are an easy starting point to wade into exploring extension range of motion, either using 1 or 2 arms in that position and adjusting which way your fingers point.

3. Setting the Shoulders Effectively: The basic cues I focus on are to pull the shoulder blades down to the back pockets, tuck the chin to the chest and chest to the chin. This creates a stable base and keeps the rotator cuff in a mechanically advantageous position. Most of us were historically told to squeeze the shoulder blades back together, which creates a lengthened resting position for the posterior cuff, thus a weaker leverage when at the most challenging part of the bench press. 

4. Load that Shoulder Up: Below is a condensed, straightforward loading of the rotator cuff with an emphasis on reaching near failure then progressing to a greater range of motion in that 90/90 range. I opt for 2-3 sets 1-2x/week taken to within 1-3 reps of failure. 

   
   

Sidelying ER 

Sidelying IR 

90/90 ER 

Seeing some changes but still want a more individualized approach to your rehab? If you want to learn how to take control with some expert guidance and treatments to optimize your performance and longevity, then that’s exactly what we provide at Zenith Performance Physical Therapy. Call or text us at 562-502-1767 to schedule a free phone consultation and come in for an evaluation!