Lately I have been experiencing a dull but significant pain in my right collarbone while bench pressing. I have been benching as part of my routine since January with no pain, until very recently. I have significantly lowered my weight, but the pain is still there.
I also feel the pain (but not as much) when I do dips. I have varied my grip from wider to narrower with no significant improvement.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I really don’t want to stop bench pressing as I have been making significant improvements to both my body comp. and my strength with the strong-lifts 5x5 program. However, I don’t want to turn a minor injury into a lifelong problem.
Please note, I’m 32 years old so age may play a part in this.
I started experiencing similar pain three weeks ago, I ignored it. Last week something ‘gave’ and I haven’t been able to do any kind of push without excruciating pain. I’m slowly getting the inflammation out and getting some mobility back, but I’m still waking up sore every morning…and out of the gym.
Moral to the story, don’t do what I did. From talking to folks, it sounds like it may be the AC joint, and that I may have hurt it by extending my shoulders on the rack out at the top. I don’t have access to a doc at the moment, but if you do, stop the pain causing activities and get it checked out.
Remember, tendon strength increases much slower than muscle strength. So even though you improved alot, your tendon is still catching up and you’re damaging the hell out of it.
Ice every day, and wait for it to dissappear. I would say don’t do any exercise that hurts it, do others like shoulder press or something.
Thanks for the input. I’ll drop flat bench pressing and dips from my routine for now. I will experiment with different movements and find out what I can or cannot do without aggravating my collarbone.
Any suggestions for compound movements that work my chest and tri’s?
Might want to try flat bench DB benching. Its not much different from a BB bench, but I had a similar problem. DB’s seem to hit the shoulders a little harder (stabilization). Use a neutral grip as well … it might be worth a try.
Could this pain have something to do with my form? When I first started my elbows would stay at 90 degrees to my body. After a lot of reading and watching others at the gym I came to the conclusion this was wrong and started keeping my elbows at around 60 degrees.
This change happened about 4 bench pressing sessions before I noticed the pain. Other than that, there has been no other changes in either exercises, injuries, etc. - other than a steady 5-10 pound weight progression with the occasional stall.
Rus, BB pressing may be the way to go. I’ll try it with different grips and see if I can complete the exercise w/o the pain. I am also going to try incline bench pressing.
Edit:
After much thought, I think it WAS the change in form that led to this pain. I just noticed the pain in my other collar bone. Another explanation would be that I only recently started doing unassisted dips.
[quote]Stuyou wrote:
Could this pain have something to do with my form? When I first started my elbows would stay at 90 degrees to my body. After a lot of reading and watching others at the gym I came to the conclusion this was wrong and started keeping my elbows at around 60 degrees.
[/quote]
It could have a lot to do with your form. Bench with arms at 90 degree is supposedly bad for your shoulders. Benching with elbows tucked or at 45 degrees (ish) is the “correct” way to bench.
Other points:
-your upper back needs to be tight. As in, if you’re back isn’t tired from staying tight after benching, you probably didn’t do it right.
-Pull the scaps back and down.
-It helps me to think of contracting the lats (like you’re doing a lat spread) on the lowering portion of the lift, helps me set up a nice solid base or something.
-Drive your feet into the ground hard, and you want some arch in your lower back. Don’t try to flatten it out.
-Tuck those elbows towards your body.
Good luck! Do a search on this site for articles on bench pressing. There’s a great one by Dave Tate.
[quote]boyscout wrote:
It could have a lot to do with your form. Bench with arms at 90 degree is supposedly bad for your shoulders.
The funny thing is that I probably have 5 years worth of bench pressing experience (10 years ago) with my elbows at 90 degrees…either I was to stupid to realize I was doing it wrong or nobody was rude enough to tell me I was doing it wrong.
Benching with elbows tucked or at 45 degrees (ish) is the “correct” way to bench.
I read this a couple months back and started noticing other peoples form in the gym. Turns out I was the only dumbass benching with my elbows at 90 degrees
Other points:
-your upper back needs to be tight. As in, if you’re back isn’t tired from staying tight after benching, you probably didn’t do it right.
Ding, ding, ding…my back has NEVER been tired from bench pressing. I think you just zeroed in on a problem with my form. I’ll keep this in mind next time I’m under the bar.
-Pull the scaps back and down.
-It helps me to think of contracting the lats (like you’re doing a lat spread) on the lowering portion of the lift, helps me set up a nice solid base or something.
Luckily I have been doing this
-Drive your feet into the ground hard, and you want some arch in your lower back. Don’t try to flatten it out.
-Tuck those elbows towards your body.
Good luck! Do a search on this site for articles on bench pressing. There’s a great one by Dave Tate. [/quote]
Thanks for your help…I’m off to look up some articles.
Unfortunately I’m going to have to take a break from bench pressing for a while.
I’m a little late to the party on this topic - but have experienced the same thing. I too, feel that it is because of form…
Now a question for the folks on here - is there an easy way to translate weight from BB to DB? In other words, if you are benching 225 with BB what is the equivalent with DB’s? (Waiting for the 112 lb db comment).
up-right rows and dips gave me the same crap a few months back . centered over the collarbone , radiating outward to the shoulder , trap , upper-pec , and neck .
hurt like hell .
I think I took a week off…and never did UR rows again
[quote]JCredible wrote:
I’m a little late to the party on this topic - but have experienced the same thing. I too, feel that it is because of form…
Now a question for the folks on here - is there an easy way to translate weight from BB to DB? In other words, if you are benching 225 with BB what is the equivalent with DB’s? (Waiting for the 112 lb db comment).
Thank you.[/quote]
Well, if you’re clip, our resident Thug, you would be able to push 140 lb DB’s.
There is no mathematical formula that I’m aware of. Obviously, your DB presses will be significantly lower than your BB Press.
[quote]JCredible wrote:
I’m a little late to the party on this topic - but have experienced the same thing. I too, feel that it is because of form…
Now a question for the folks on here - is there an easy way to translate weight from BB to DB? In other words, if you are benching 225 with BB what is the equivalent with DB’s? (Waiting for the 112 lb db comment).
Thank you.[/quote]
Like others have said, there is no formula to get the answer. Trial and error is the way to go.
For me, I can do 205 5x5 BB and I can do 90/95 5x5 DB (90 3sets,95 2sets). Hope that helps you.
translating your bb bench into db bench is going to depend more on the stabilizer muscles around your shoulders. just start off a little lighter (if you bench 225, maybe around 65 or 70) and work up from there. trial and error for sure.
Do exercises that don’t cause pain in your shoulder.
Give neutral grip DB bench press a try.
You could drop all chest work for a few weeks and double up on back exercises.
Up your fish oil to help reduce inflamation.
You could have anything from tendonitis, rotator cuff issues, or distal clavicle osteolysis.
I’d alter the training and give it a few weeks. If you still have the pain let an orthopedic diagnose you, he’ll probably send you for a X-Ray and/or MRI.
Did you start to mix in other exercises with the stronglifts 5x5 ?
I’m on stronglifts and completed Workout A (squat/bench/row) and then foolishly decided to do a few sets of curls. For whatever reason, that I don’t understand, I got a pain in my shoulder on the second set of curls. Put me out of any kind of dips, presses or curls for the next 2 weeks. It’s fine now. but moral of the story is don’t mix in other exercises after doing compounds.