Looking for some help I’m 44 and have been working out for over 25 years mainly for bodybuilding purposes. I’m 5’9" 205 lbs. with a 47" chest, 18" arms and a 33" waist. For the past two years heavy flat benching has become increasingly difficult for me due to shoulder pain.
My current one rep max is 375lbs., raw- no belt, wrist wraps or shirt. I’ve read that a bench shirt might help my shoulder issue and that an Inzer Rage or Titan Fury may best suit me. I bench in a bodybuilder style touching just above the nipple with my elbows out. Any advice you can give me on these or any other bench shirt model which may help is appreciated. I have never used a bench shirt before.
[quote]DBasler wrote:
Looking for some help I’m 44 and have been working out for over 25 years mainly for bodybuilding purposes. I’m 5’9" 205 lbs. with a 47" chest, 18" arms and a 33" waist. For the past two years heavy flat benching has become increasingly difficult for me due to shoulder pain.
My current one rep max is 375lbs., raw- no belt, wrist wraps or shirt. I’ve read that a bench shirt might help my shoulder issue and that an Inzer Rage or Titan Fury may best suit me. I bench in a bodybuilder style touching just above the nipple with my elbows out. Any advice you can give me on these or any other bench shirt model which may help is appreciated. I have never used a bench shirt before. [/quote]
Either of those two shirts would work, a single ply they are good ‘starter’ shirts. However, at some point you are also going to have to correct how you bench, even in a shirt, if elbows out aggravates your shoulders, it will continue too. I am walking talking testimony to this. Also, what are you doing to rehab/prehab your shoulders?
Thanks Pete. I’m not doing anything to rehab the shoulders per say. As far as prehad, over the past year I have started doing some stretching prior to shoulder and chest work and have also started doing several lighter warm up sets which I never did in the past. For over 20 years when I wasn’t experiencing any shoulder pain my “warm up” set for bench pressing consisted of somewhere between 3-6 reps at 225 pounds. Not sure if that was the cause of any of my shoulder issues but I’m sure it didn’t help.