Shoulder/Chest targeting

smunky

New Member
Certain chest exercises have highlited weakness in my shoulder joint/area. Benchpress and pecflys particularly seem to cause the section connecting my arm to my chest some issue, mainly on the concentric/pushing part of the exercise. Specifically, as I push the weight up in the benchpress, I feel a lot of stress on the joint, so I'm trying to find a proper exercise to target that problem.

I checked the t-nation.com website about rotator cuff issues that was posted in the keeper thread and figure this is probably the problem. http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459577
The suggested exercises look good (I already do a good amount of shoulder targeting: lateral raises, 1 arm rear delt raises, and incorporating a military press), but was looking to see if there are more beneficial exercises that would help. Are there any other specific programs/exercises people have done that have helped them strengthen the joint? Is military press beneficial to the problem I have outlined? (and is it better to do it without the back support of a bench?)

Thanks to anyone who can offer assistance
 
Have you tried using dumbells? I'm assuming you use barbells, you're probably inflexible, so stretching the shoulder daily will help. As for you rotator cuff, if you do more pulling than pushing exercises it may be internally rotated. Here's a link.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0812.htm

Hope it helps
 
For me, it's not the bench press movement itself, but the lift-off , that hurts my shoulders. If I have somone do a lift-off on the count of 3 I get more reps, and no shoulder pain.

Also, If I arch PL style, legs wide, glutes tight, traps against the bench, I get no shoulder pain. if i flatten my back out, shoulders hurt like hell.
 
i spent quite a while benching painfully and then it just went away. i like to do my bench strict ie: legs on the bench back flat,but if im finding it a little painful i have my legs on the bench as i said and then i raise my head 45 degrees(roughly)which i find tenses my whole upper torso and it relieves the discomfort,it feels strange at first but if b/p is important to u just give it a try.good luck.
 
Flyes have just always caused me pain, so I cut them out. Not every exercise suits every lifter.

I'm not known for a massive bench, but changing the way I bench has both decreased my shoulder pain and upped my max.

I used to perform the bench press with my upper arms perpendicular to my torso, or elbows flared way out. I've since changed to keeping them close to my ribs at the start of the lift.
This brings the tri's and delt's into play and seems to alleviate some joint pain.
 
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