Chest Workout with a Bad Shoulder

Because of a pain in my right shoulder, i cant follow my usual chest workout. ( weighted push ups, weighted dips, incline and flat dumbbell presses )

i tried all exercises and can only do the following ones without pain.

-hex dumbbell squeeze press
-floor dumbbell fly
-one arm dumbbell floor press

have you ever tried one of these exercises? what do you think of them?

Work on fixing your shoulder.

Even before my shoulder surgeries, I always felt that flat BB presses were just horrible for your shoulders the way most people perform them. I always got better results from angled work with Dbs and cables… things that let me personally focus more on feeling the stretch, contraction, and work in the muscle, not in the joint (how many guys walk around the gym on “chest day” rubbing one or both shoulders?)

Out of the exercises you mentioned, I’ve tried the DB squeeze press, and it was always a good feeling, but I don’t know how much of a foundation it creates for a routine.

Have you had your shoulder issues checked out? Is it an actual injury, or just maybe a spur, or some scar tissue in the area?

S

Any idea what caused the shoulder pain? I would back off the chest work and try to fix that before anything. 1-2 weeks isn’t going to hurt your chest growth in the grand scheme of things. Some extra back work and band pull aparts have been amazing for my shoulder health.

try doing lots of arm circles and warming up.
I do face pulls and lat pulldowns . I haven’t had shoulder issues + make sure you don’t lean on your shoulders when you sleep.

thanks for the replies.
i think its an overuse strain. i always do dumbbell presses with a neutral grip and today i noticed that i can press with a pronated grip with zero pain.
when i switch to neutral grip, it hurts.

Shoulder pains that arise while doing bench presses usually go away after a few months provided one also works on strengthening the shoulders. I compare these pains to those niggling shin pains experienced by runners especially the ones who are just starting out. These pains usually run their course after a few months after the body has become stronger and recovered from its earlier weak points.

[quote]Atin wrote:
Shoulder pains that arise while doing bench presses usually go away after a few months provided one also works on strengthening the shoulders. I compare these pains to those niggling shin pains experienced by runners especially the ones who are just starting out. These pains usually run their course after a few months after the body has become stronger and recovered from its earlier weak points. [/quote]
I am going to disagree with this. Shoulder pain from benching is usually related to bad position causing some form of tendon impingement. Repeatedly allowing the impingement to occur will cause microtrauma, inflammation and scar tissue buildup. Fix the problem, don’t fight through it.

Are you in a position to request an MRI through your doctor? Shoulder pain can be caused by so many different issues - bicep tendonitis, rotator cuff tendon tear, pec issues, super tight lats, scapular balance issues, arthritis, bursitis, just to name a few - that any effort to ‘fix’ the problem is guess work at best without having a look in there to see what the problem really is. Rather than wasting effort or potentially exacerbating the problem I would request imaging of the shoulder so you know what you’re dealing with if that is an option for you.

If the imaging shows a tear or some type of ‘itis’ then that is one thing. If none of that shows up then it may just be a matter of allowing some rest and then re-evaluating your exercise selection and maybe fixing a strength imbalance.

I have had numerous issues with shoulders from benching and overhead presssing.
Rest is good for getting rid of issues. I am wondering if all the arm cicling I do might break up scar tissue.
Since adding this and face pulls and a pulling movement I don’t have issues.
Horizontal grip pressing worked for me for a while to.

I have the same problem certain chest exercises bother my right shoulder therefore I only stick to the ones that don’t try different ones and see which ones u can do and baby ur shoulder from there

I had the same issue, after chest day my shoulder was on fire for two to three days. I finally broke down and went to the doctor.

After some X-ray and Predisone shots, it was determiend that I had stage 3 arthritis in my joint between the collar bone and scappula,

I went ahead and had surgery done on it, they cut back the collar bone, to increase the distance, cleaned out all the torn up cartilage, and removed a bone spur.

The first work out I had was horrible, 8 weeks after surgery I could barely bench press the bar without it hurting.

I have a buddy that is an orthopedic surgeon, he recommend the following.

Warm up your shoulders really well, with a 5 pound weight, sit at a table and raise and lower the effected arm, similar to arm wrestling, this strengthens the smaller muscles in the shoulder joint responsible for stabilizing the joint.
He gave me a whole slew of joint exercises to do.

When doing flat bench presses, place a 25 pound plate under the foot of the bench, this slight decline, takes a lott of the stress off of the shoulder joint, also grip the bar in a suicide grip, ( Don’t wrap the thumbs) ths places the wrists and arms in the proper position.

When completing the actual press, don’t flare the elbow out and contentrate on lowering the weight to your nipples and then up in a “J” motion.

Alos hand position is key, too wide and you place the joint in a bind.

After a few weeks, the pain went away.

The surgery sucked, the re-coup sucked worse, but now I can press and don’t have any pain.

[quote]Atin wrote:
These pains usually run their course after a few months after the body has become stronger and recovered from its earlier weak points. [/quote]

that’s really bad advice

Kardeşim,

before anyone can think about a recovery and training strategy, we need to know what’s wrong with your shoulder (and mebbe other parts of your body), exactly. Maybe it’s just a temporary thing. Maybe not.

Unless you have sufficient knowledge about biomechanics and human anatomy, chances are you’d be better served consulting a healthcare professional. I’d choose a chiropractor over an orthopedist every day - unless you can find an orthopedist who’s also a chiropractor.

This isn’t specifically directed at you, Gorilla and I’m not trying to hijack your thread:

  • the past couple of years there’s been a trend to give out ill-suited medicinal advice.
  • in strength sports circles, most people will suffer from shoulder ailments (it’s inevitable for most peeps, really).

The typical blanket recommendations?

  • “Yo, bro, do Smitty Diesel’s stuff”
  • “Shoulder Dislocates, all the way, bro. Ignore the pain: it’s of the good sort”
  • “work on your external rom, brah”

Most of us know that shoulder anatomy and biomechanics are complex.
What’s often looked-over, though: shoulder problems might stem from other parts and gross misalignments of the body (e.g. hips, leg length difference and what have you).

What caught my eye in the OP’s case:

If impingement was the case, using a pronated grip would lead to more discomfort (less space under the acromion).
Not ruling out impingement, but that little fact just stuck out.