Anyone else ever experienced this? I have noticed that most barbell presses incline, flat and overhead pressing has been giving me collar bone pain lately. It’s not really evident on dumbell presses as both arms move independently through the range of motion. Just trying to figure out what the deal is because I hate to scrap all barbell presses out of my training. Oh yeah Dips fucking hurt too, just remember tried doing a set last week with just bodyweight and it was murder.
I’m no doctor, but what you describe sounds similar to an injury I have had. Look for info on an AC joint strain/sprain. There is actually a joint (the AC joint) at the end of the collar bone, sort of on top of your shoulder. If this is where yours hurts, maybe it is a similar injury.
If so, you will likely have to lay off of overhead lifting and possibly bench press varieties. Mine was also irritated by pull ups, though not chin ups so much. Basically anything that causes pain or irritation will have to be avoided and then slowly worked back in.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Yeah I thought that it was possibly a strain near the AC joint, but sometimes its more in the middle of the bone itself than near the joint. I think I am gonna lay off all barbell presses and overhead presses along with anything else that irritates for a week or so. I did some pulling tonight and it was all fine although my elbow was acting up a bit on the rack chins i did. I think I need to up my fish oil intake as well for inflammation control. Thanks for the response though man it was helpful.
[quote]BurnMyEyes wrote:
Anyone else ever experienced this? I have noticed that most barbell presses incline, flat and overhead pressing has been giving me collar bone pain lately. It’s not really evident on dumbell presses as both arms move independently through the range of motion. Just trying to figure out what the deal is because I hate to scrap all barbell presses out of my training. Oh yeah Dips fucking hurt too, just remember tried doing a set last week with just bodyweight and it was murder.[/quote]
I just posted something about this exact same pain in my left clavicle. Felt it out of nowhere doing weighted dips. The advice I got was to strengthen my upper back and avoid dips in the meantime.
You have AC joint issues. I’m going through the same thing and unfortunately it has been weeks recovering. Mine was triggered during flat DB presses, although it hadn’t felt right for some time particularly with weighted dips.
The osteopath has been treating them - both shoulders are incredibly inflexible. Fortunately I am able to train most other body parts, with push ups and angle BB press being the sum total of chest work. I’m also doing plenty upper back and RC work, e.g face pulls.
See thats the thing about me. My entire back is way stronger than my chest is. I can 1 arm tbar row like 175 lbs for 7-8 reps while i can dumbell press 100’s for around 8. Same with vertical pulling vs vertical pushing.
I can chin around my bw + 75 lbs for 3 reps, while my overhead press is probably 175-180 lbs. I think maybe it’s just barbell pressing off pins and not having both arms set at the same distance from my torso.
I messed up my AC Joint and rotator cuff back in 2003, half a year of rehab…take it from one of the Veterans use a lot of ice, ten 10 to 15 mins every few hours avoid heat until it has eased up a bit and if your stubborn use heat 3 min then 1 min ice, 3 min heat, i min ice.
It is a Chronic injury and usually lasts a life time, just take care of it, and Good chance in several years you will get a form of arthitus in it, this can be seen with an X-Ray and if its bad enough they can do surgery…and that where I will be I am sure in ten more years 
Is the pain bilateral or just on one side?
Like the previous posters said, I think it’s AC-related.
I’ve no medical / therapeutic expertise, so you might want to take the following with a grain of salt:
about half a year ago, I had subluxated my shoulder while db overhead pressing. Medical diagnostics only came up with an elongated subscapularis and some general cartilage wear and tear (due to years of heavy behind-the-neck presses with poor external shoulder rotation, methinks). My shoulder started clicking and grinding when shrugging (I’m talking about the physical movement, not the exercise). I’ve also had a lot of pain in my clavicle / AC area.
Nothing seemed to work for my shoulder, until I started to focus on my upper back (trapezius descendens, rhomboids, external rotators) with a side order of internal rotation exercises (prone db internal rotations, subscap band pulls).
After about 4 months, I started to work in some overhead pressing (on machines). Now I’m back to doing db overhead pressing, albeit with care and not using a full ROM (I don’t let my upper arms go below parallel and avoid full lock-out).
My shoulder isn’t 100%% back and I’m not sure if it’ll ever be. So I’m seconding Vulf here concerning the possibility of it being a pretty nagging and persisting matter.
Good luck!
This is exactly the pain/discomfort I experienced before I separated my right shoulder. It has taken a looooooong time to heal (still not 100%), and if I could go back in time I never would have ignored the warning signs.
Lots of upper back work, and rotator cuff work, seems to be what helped the most.
[quote]BurnMyEyes wrote:
Anyone else ever experienced this? I have noticed that most barbell presses incline, flat and overhead pressing has been giving me collar bone pain lately. It’s not really evident on dumbell presses as both arms move independently through the range of motion. Just trying to figure out what the deal is because I hate to scrap all barbell presses out of my training. Oh yeah Dips fucking hurt too, just remember tried doing a set last week with just bodyweight and it was murder.[/quote]
I occassionally get a ‘locking’ feeling with my collarbone and all my muscles in that area cramp up, it’s usually from not setting up correctly on the exercise and jumping into the reps too quickly.
One another example is on incline barbell presses, if my form is off ever so slightly i’ll get some bad pains in my shoulders, most of the time though I can go as heavy as I want without any discomfort what so ever.
I’m not saying that this is what is causing your problems, but it’s something to think about (and worth trying).
Thanks for all the responses fellas. My Shoulder is better off and on as of now. I honestly think It was mostly from shitty setup on presses from the power rack. I am taking it easy on the chest pressing for a while. I really need to start icing it and see how that helps. The other weird thing though i have noticed more recently was a weird pain from my Ac joint area down into my scapular area. Almost feels like a nerve and not a muscle or tendon. And Fatty it’s only on my right side. My left side is completely fine.
@OP
I’ve once had a PT training at my gym check my shoulder (associated with shoulder clicking) because of my AC pain. He did some impromptu palpating in the gym and showed me an exercise. Doesn’t qualify as a rear lateral raise, methinks. I just went along and taped it for you.
No matter how awkward it might look (you can clearly see my shoulders are misaligned => hips sit at different heights): it has helped me a LOT. I’m not claiming it’s a general fix for AC issues, though. At the beginning, I’m having too much upper trap involvement.
I really had a hard time ‘learning’ this exercise: I simply didn’t have a good enough ‘mind-muscle’ connection for pulling the scaps together.
[quote]FattyFat wrote:
@OP
I’ve once had a PT training at my gym check my shoulder (associated with shoulder clicking) because of my AC pain. He did some impromptu palpating in the gym and showed me an exercise. Doesn’t qualify as a rear lateral raise, methinks. I just went along and taped it for you.
No matter how awkward it might look (you can clearly see my shoulders are misaligned => hips sit at different heights): it has helped me a LOT. I’m not claiming it’s a general fix for AC issues, though. At the beginning, I’m having too much upper trap involvement.
I really had a hard time ‘learning’ this exercise: I simply didn’t have a good enough ‘mind-muscle’ connection for pulling the scaps together.
Hey thanks a lot for the help Fatty. It looks like that exercise is a mixture of a scapular retraction and an external rotation for the rotator cuffs. I will definitely try that next time I hit shoulders. I noticed the old broomstick behind the head stretch started to make my shoulders feel better as well. I think returning more range of motion will definitely help along with more upperback and rotator cuff work.
[/quote]
Yeah I used to get this. Popped that thing straight out. Very uncomfortable, but having a free clavicle hasn’t done me much harm. I don’t do dips any more.
I went to a physio. She basically told me I was fucked for life. While getting a boxing medical I went to a doctor that worked with the South African rugby team. He thought this was hilarious, said half the boys had the same problem and it never stopped them.
I used to get the same pain, stopped pressing for a week or two and haven’t had a problem since so you should rest up now instead of pushing through and making it worse. Make sure your pressing form is good too.