I have recently bought a power cage and having some difficulties benching.
My shoulders go beyond parallel and click when lowering the bar. I do not have a very thick chest. I have been using proper form, although i do not have
First of all, big win on the username. Well played.
Secondly, can you grab a video of a decent working set?
Is there any pain or is it just clicking? Any other exercises cause an issue?
Plenty of articles break down how to bench. This one’s a good place to start.
Ha thanks for the reply
No i dont have a video but i can arrange one.
There is mild pain in my left shoulder only, i warm up thoroughly i have been strength and conditioning for many years, only recently getting into power lifting training. my shoulders are also sore towards the end of my squat workouts. My legs have much more in them but my shoulders start to strain when holding the bar.
My form is good, i think the problem lies in my flexibility and thickness of my chest. i weight 96kgs at 187cm. next bench workout i will drop the weight and not lower the bar as far see how that goes. i bench slighly wider than my shoulders with a high grip.
Check out articles & vids from EFS especially on ‘tightness’ on bench, it may be your not holding yourself tight on at the bottom of the bench?
The squatter’s shoulder might have some ideas to address that, which might also carryover to the bench issue.
At your height, and with likely longer-than-average arms, this seems like it could be a relatively-close grip depending on exactly how “slight” the “slightly wider” really is. Consider nudging your grip width a bit further out, but not to the point where it’s a legit wide-grip bench.
Again, a video would definitely help. That’d also show what Boffin. If you’re losing tightness at the bottom, that’s where a ton of stress would be getting thrown right on the shoulder joint.
Ok thanks for that information. Boffin-what is EFS? Cheers Chris for the Squatters Shoulders article, I will be searching this site more.
To correct my issue I will work on:
- shoulder mobility
- bench press grip and technique
- maintaining tightness throughout bench pressing
- strengthening upper back
- hand positioning on squats
As far as getting a video out, i dont have a set up to record and im not really comfortable putting my face out there. Overall i think my grip is far too close on both exercises straining my shoulders.
Likely you have excess internal rotation on your shoulder.
And your form probably isn’t good, regardless of what you tell us.
Plus, benching just isn’t a good exercise.
So you think you can bench by Dave Tate is an awesome and very throughout video series about correct benching technique.
This bench video from Powerlifting To Win is also very good.
Check out these and post that video of your technique. Without it it’s very hard to tell what’s wrong.
Dave Tates video is awesome that really clarified a lot.
Update:
Benched today hit 1rm of 100kgs for 4 sets
focused on keeping tight, pulling bar apart and unracking with lats.
Major improvement and was pain free.