My shoulder hurts when I bench press

Will holding my shoulder blades closer together help?

I am sure I've been rolling my shoulders forward

This post was edited by Mastermule on Dec 20 2023 02:52pm

You're old. My shoulders hurt every morning I wake up now from years of weighted dips and bench I presume.

All is not lost though, to reduce ongoing issues I keep pretty tucked in these days, narrower grip, more stress on the tricep less pressure on the shoulders. That keeps any pain away for myself personally when I bench.

I also do a decent warm up. Face pulls, pushdowns, few chin ups/ pull ups. Nothing heavy, just sets of 20-30 on face pulls to warm things up.

Bench is generally pretty hard on the shoulders. For this reason I don't try to max out on bench and stick to 3 reps max.

Shoulders not far enough back could be an issue - you may need to stick your sternum up more (should be as high as possible) to try to take pressure off the shoulder

Bench should not be hard on the shoulder. If it is, you’re doing it wrong.

Tight back, focus on scapular retraction, arms about shoulder width, keep your elbows tight to the body during the eccentric portion, drive your feet into the ground and explode out of the hole. Aim for either nipple line or slightly below. And keep every rep the same.

Lots of nuance to bench to maximize the lift. Including vertical forearms, straight wrists, pretending you’re bending the bar, etc.

This post was edited by ozzyarmy3 on Dec 23 2023 06:09am

Not true. Bench is always hard on the shoulders even when done properly - for this reason Olympic weightlifters avoid the exercise as it is typically detrimental to the high level of shoulder function necessary for the Olympic lifts.

Still alot better when done properly

weird been doing heavy bench press with dumbbell presses well over 15+ years no problem and I'm 37. Go closer Grip i use elbow wraps helps a lot keeping them warm and pain free.

I don't have any pain with dumbell presses!

But I am maxed out at 80 pounds

While I think in silo you can keep your shoulders healthy and bench regularly, but for many of us, the shoulders are an area that take a beating in life doing other actives and those little issues compound and it carries pain into the bench press.

That's why I personally load my triceps, also don't max out on 1 rep maxes, don't do a lot of military pressing anymore.

Like many exercises, it depends on what you do outside the gym too and shoulders are such a tight grouping that its prone to injury, and most people don't do that much mobility or exercises to release problem areas.