Lifting with Wear and Tear

I’ve been lurking on this site for quite some time and people here are such a great inspiration! I was hoping that someone may have the same type of issues as I’m having in that I cannot do any bench press without shoulder pain. I have worked hard at adjusting form but I just cant seem to do it. Consequently, my chest development is terrible. at present I do dumbbell presses and some decline but even a plate a side hurts on flat bench. I am coming up to my 40th birthday and I just dont seem to be recovering the same way and physio did nothing at all for me. Anyone have any ideas? I seem to be able to do dumbbell press with not much pain but they stop at the 100’s

present weights and program:

Bench 100lb dumbbells x 12
deadlift 400 x 6
squat (smith) 400 x 8

Mon HIIT
Tue shoulders, tris
wed off
thu back, bis
fri HIIT
sat chest, calves
sun legs

I still can’t get my bench over 185#. My shoulder just won’t do it. I can however do push-ups until I’m exhausted. Won’t help if you’re a power lifter but it’s great other wise. Stay strong, anyway you can!

Welcome aboard.
Nice numbers.
Plenty of people here have issues,
I have to do a “ton” of rehab,prehab warmup.

If you are not doing these you should be,
I do them almost every time I train.

shoulder dislocates

YTWL

and face pulls.
and try looking for some articles here
by Eric Cressey- shoulder savers.

good luck
kmc

Definitely check out those vids that kmcnyc posted. I’ll warn you now though, he turned me into a youtube junkie for like a week.

Try the article search funciton of this site, and type in shoulder health, or shoulder rehab. You’ll find several good articles.

You might have to quit benching for a while to give the shoulder time to heal up.

Also, you might search the articles for some pointers on bench press technique. You might be lifting more with the delts than the pecs. Thibadeau has several articles where he talks about how some lifters have problems activating their pecs with the bench press. Maybe back off on the weight and really concentrate on activating the pecs while the shoulder heals, then build back up?

If you aren’t taking fish oil, you might find it helpful. Also, glucosamine/chondroitin may help.

I’ve managed to injure my shoulder several times, from bench presses or from shoulder exercises like overhead presses. Those “YMCA” exercises with baby weights have really helped me.

Any

Thanks a lot for those videos kmcnyc. I appreciate the help and advice from everyone, this site and members seem so informative and helpful its great!

We only seem that way. We’ll all hit you up for favors and rides later.

[quote]skidmark wrote:
We only seem that way. We’ll all hit you up for favors and rides later.[/quote]

Word of advice: Don’t borrow Skid’s underwear! :slight_smile:

[quote]mathineer wrote:
skidmark wrote:
We only seem that way. We’ll all hit you up for favors and rides later.

Word of advice: Don’t borrow Skid’s underwear! :-)[/quote]

Who wouldn’t want underwear with “character” and “flavor?”

HAHA, I’ll skip the underwear, but thanks :slight_smile: