Reducing Shoulder Pain on Bench

No pain no gain, right?

…Sort of, but not really... no.

Your workout gains depend on the amount of stress you put on your muscles, and the amount of good food you feed to them to make them grow. If a joint is constantly causing pain, continuing to lift the same way may do more harm than good.

Here are two quick tips that will help you improve your upper body lifts, and reduce the risk of shoulder injury while performing the bench press:

1. Squeeze your shoulder blades together - Improper bench form causes a large number of shoulder injuries. Make sure your shoulders are squeezed together throughout the lift. This should cause a natural arch in your back, and should also raise the amount of weight you press up by allowing you to unlock more power from your pectorals and triceps. Squeezed blades also remove a large amount of the stress placed on the shoulders and put your rotator cuffs in a happy place. Here is a good website that shows the benefits of squeezing your shoulder blades.

2. Avoid flailing your elbows - I see this often. A lifter flails his elbows at an angle perpendicular to his body and gets up from the bench position with an extremely pained expression. Keep your elbows close to your body when the weight is falling, and when the weight is being pushed up. I'll admit it, I was an "arm-flailer". When I first discovered this, I had to lower the weight substantially, but after a week or so, my bench press had raised, and my shoulder pain was gone!