T Nation

Delt Pain While Benching

Powerlifting
#1

I’ve looked at the forums and several articles (mostly by Cressey), but I don’t see a problem similar to the one I’m having addressed. Or maybe I do, and don’t recognize it. Anyway, thought I’d see if someone has had a similar problem, and has some tips on how to correct it.

My left shoulder is killing me during the top 1/5 of my BP. Specifically, I get a shooting pain about where I’d guess my delt inserts into my upper arm, about a third of the way down. It doesn’t matter if I close grip, regular grip, or reverse grip – at the top of the movement I get an icepick-like pain.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Any would be greatly appreciated.

#2

I had this exact problem when doing any pushing lifts, where it felt like the nerve right in the middle of my arm was just being crushed (from shoulder to elbow). I saw a PT, and he saw that I had some scapular winging, and also that I had basically no left rotator cuff strength. Let me direct you to this, which worked WONDERS for me and solved the problem within a few workouts:

The program at the bottom is great, try it out. Do some serratus activation too, like push-up plus/scap push-ups.

I’d also recommend foam rolling your lats and pecs, and using a lacrosse/tennis ball to hit the rotator cuff muscles when doing external rotation on the floor, and also for your posterior shoulder capsule.

#3

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
I had this exact problem when doing any pushing lifts, where it felt like the nerve right in the middle of my arm was just being crushed (from shoulder to elbow). I saw a PT, and he saw that I had some scapular winging, and also that I had basically no left rotator cuff strength. Let me direct you to this, which worked WONDERS for me and solved the problem within a few workouts:

The program at the bottom is great, try it out. Do some serratus activation too, like push-up plus/scap push-ups.

I’d also recommend foam rolling your lats and pecs, and using a lacrosse/tennis ball to hit the rotator cuff muscles when doing external rotation on the floor, and also for your posterior shoulder capsule.[/quote]

Thanks for the tip. I’ll definitely check this out.