Pain in shoulder blade area closest to the middle line of the body from bench press

[anzel]

This is an injury that manifested 2 yrs ago while benching heavy. It went away with increased rest and stopped going heavy. The injury has re-emerged as of recently while doing BB bench and DMB bench... if I raise my arm I can feel it, pain and inflammed. When I bench I seem to feel it most at the top of the movement when Im trying to really squeez my pecs. When I limit my ROM it seems to feel better.
I know that when lifting improperly during bench press we can affect areas in the shoulder negatively. But this pain is occuring in my back. I did my back workout this morn and all was good. Only hurts when I bench press. I have no prob doing dips tho (thank god). So Im wondering if you guy have any insight/wisdom about what Im describing. Essentially its painful enough to really limit my bench press to very very light weight.

Also I was doing bench on the smith yesterday when I got the pain.

 

[A.B]

If you have physio benefits I would definitely take advantage of that. I used to compete in grappling and had back to back shoulder issues. What you described sounded exactly like my injury. Shoulder "impingement". Get some anti inflammatory and stretch. Don't work out for a few weeks to let it heal. This specific injury caused the muscles and the bone to run together so you want the separation. Best stretch. Bend over at the waist 90 degrees so you're facing the ground. With one arm grab a dumbbell. 15-30 lbs. with the other side prop your self up against the wall or dumbbell rack. With the shoulder that hurts. Hold the dumbbell and rock it slowly and loosely like a pendulum. Back and forth for a minute. Really relax the shoulder and feel the stretch. It opens up your shoulder nicely

 

[drewdunkin1992]

This is an injury that manifested 2 yrs ago while benching heavy. It went away with increased rest and stopped going heavy. The injury has re-emerged as of recently while doing BB bench and DMB bench... if I raise my arm I can feel it, pain and inflammed. When I bench I seem to feel it most at the top of the movement when Im trying to really squeez my pecs. When I limit my ROM it seems to feel better.
I know that when lifting improperly during bench press we can affect areas in the shoulder negatively. But this pain is occuring in my back. I did my back workout this morn and all was good. Only hurts when I bench press. I have no prob doing dips tho (thank god). So Im wondering if you guy have any insight/wisdom about what Im describing. Essentially its painful enough to really limit my bench press to very very light weight.

Also I was doing bench on the smith yesterday when I got the pain.

often improper internal rotation of the shoulder via over developed anterior delts and insufficient strength in the rear delts can cause create a situation where the shoulder itself does not have the strength to properly support and stabilize itself. since the shoulder is a floating joint and requires stability, the body will often seek homeostasis, often the upper traps/levator scapula will become permanently partially contracted/elevated in at attempt to hold the shoulder in a "safe"fixed range of motion... this can cause the rhomboids/seratus antior and mid traps to become overstretched and weakened. does this sound like you??

plz check out these links

Overcoming Chronic Neck Pain: Postural Causes and A Unique Exercise Fix

The Dynamic Duo of Shoulder Impingement | Breaking Muscle

View attachment 562208

 

[drewdunkin1992]

mace swing rehab exercises, i use a sledgehammer -skip to 3:35

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vw-haEUWhQ

 

[49ER]

Bench is horrible on the body I only do them to show off my strength once in awhile. Took me forever to recover from pain in shoulders and and elbows, remember our body's don't know if we use machines or free weights better to just do something less stressful on our body's. I avoid anything that brings discomfort as long as I get a killer pump I'm good.

 

[anzel]

Wow great responses from everyone on this ! Thanks a lot! You guys nailed it. The stretches look good and I will get back to you after Ive done em for a while. Hope it works.
Im just gonna avoid the bench for now and do dips and flys. Then when it starts to feel better with the stretching I will start with push ups and rebuild from there.
But yeah definitley feels like an impingment there.
Thanks again!