There is tons of stuff on the internet on this. In fact… maybe too much I’m at total information overload so I wanted to see how some ya’ll approach this. I’m not ‘injured’ yet, but my left shoulder/pec tie in is getting very cranky and is headed that direction and required a focused intervention.
For warm ups I was thinking a BB complex with just the bar of OH squats, muscle snatches/cuban press, wide grip presses behind the neck (keep in mind this just the bb), and OH shrugs. And then some scap push ups. I figured this will activate everything in the shoulder girdle and open up my pecs a good bit. Maybe even before squats especially low bar squats. Maybe even do a prefatigue for my lats and triceps to help me really emphasize those muscles to try to take my shoulders and pecs out of the motion.
I also figured I’d do less volume with the bb for pressing off a bench at least for now.
For exercises I was thinking crazy-bell bench pressing, one arm bench pressing, db bench pressing off of a swiss ball, seated db muscle snatches, push ups against bands, and db raise triset but instead of lateral raises I’ll do neutral grip scap plane raises.
Do you have any idea what caused this problem in the first place? I ask because I had something that, based on your description, was probably similar.
I developed a ton of pain in the pec-tie/shoulder area last year. It flared up especially bad everytime I bench pressed. Some days were worse than others, and one side was worse than the other. Anyway, I eventually suffered a minor tear. I was probably lucky it wasn’t worse.
Anyway, the cause of the pain was a result of poor bench press technique. I could have done all the bb complexes, rehab work, etc in the world, but at the end of the day, I had to fix my bench press. Something to think about. I’m back to benching what I was last year when I was at my strongest but in a world of pain, and now I have zero pain.
For a warmup, I like just taking a light plate 2.5 or 5lb, and doing straight-arm shoulder circles with them, 10 forward, 10 back, rest, repeat a few times. Small circles seem to work a bit better for me than large circles.
Kettlebell halos (or dumbbell) also work well to warm things up, although those usually cross a bit into more of a strengthening exercise since my lightest KB is 35lbs. Not that that’s a bad thing.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Do you have any idea what caused this problem in the first place? I ask because I had something that, based on your description, was probably similar.
I developed a ton of pain in the pec-tie/shoulder area last year. It flared up especially bad everytime I bench pressed. Some days were worse than others, and one side was worse than the other. Anyway, I eventually suffered a minor tear. I was probably lucky it wasn’t worse.
Anyway, the cause of the pain was a result of poor bench press technique. I could have done all the bb complexes, rehab work, etc in the world, but at the end of the day, I had to fix my bench press. Something to think about. I’m back to benching what I was last year when I was at my strongest but in a world of pain, and now I have zero pain. [/quote]
I was just fine, but my pecs were just a little tight from the last bench session and I didn’t quite have full shoulder ROM so I did a light to moderate pec stretch and I felt a mean pop between my shoulder and chest. After the pop I got my full ROM back but it’s been aching since.
Over use and unbalanced can be a significant issue as well.
Do at least 50 pull-ups daily. People would be surprised how this simple addition can solve many shoulder issues. Don’t go wide, and do mostly hammer or underhand chins.
Pull more than you press rep for rep and you’ll probably be fine as long as your pressing mechanics aren’t trash.
I don’t really know what your workouts look like but anytime I’ve had issues I back the volume way off and make sure I haven’t developed any bad technique along the way. Sometimes I don’t focus enough on individual reps in a multiple rep set and focus more on just moving the weight which has led to issues before. Generally, I get it from too much volume or not focusing on individual reps and making sure of good form.
I’m leaning to too much volume on the bench with the straight bar. That’s biggest difference between now and how I’ve been doing things. I’ll still see if I can post a video up tomorrow. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to get that checked out.
