Benching form with Shoulder injury
Hi Guys, I am really struggling with bench due to shoulder issues. I have a near full-length tear in the supraspinatus tendon (right shoulder), a smaller tear in the same tendon on left shoulder but with very bad bursitis which makes it nearly as painful as the right shoulder. I'm basically buggered, and am booked for the first shoulder surgery first week in Jan, then when recovered from that am intending to get the left one done too. So I'm also looking for tips on recovering from this kind of surgery from those who have also gone through this. But this will be the subject of another post!
For this post, I'm after some bench-specific advice. I haven't trained shoulders for about 5 months now and the only work they have been getting is from bench. Which brings me to my benching concerns!
I'm not flat benching any more, instead I am trying to incline bench which I find is less painful. I've narrowed my grip by a good 6 inches, dropped the weight right off (started from an empty bar again), concentrating on pinching shoulder blades together and am trying real hard not to flare my elbows. Using this techique I can get very close to touching my upper chest with light weight, however when I progress back up in weight about the best I can do is get my arms to a 90 degree bend. This leaves the weight about 6 inches from my upper chest. I don't feel a real stretch in my pecs at all, but this is about the best I can do!
I'm resigned to the fact that I can't progress in strength in my current situation, but I am trying to hold on to what I have for as long as possible hence why I'm trying to persevere with 'some' type of bench, even if it is far from optimum. However going forward I also think my form will be forever compromised.
My question really is with the depth of my bench. Is an arm-bend of 90 degrees (bar 6 inches of the chest) with heavy weight worth it? Or would I be better going to a light enough weight that I can get deeper on. Bearing in mind this light a weight would be about 50% of my normal bench weight and probably won't progress, as the limitation is shoulder pain and not strength.
Any advise, suggestions, or insights that anyone would care to share would be highly appreciated!
Cheers,
Darren