Today is blessed bench day and Iv been hitting PRs frequently. I woke up today with some minor shoulder pain in my deltoid and I'm on the fence about whether or not I should bench heavy today. I work in the 4-5 rep range for 5 sets. Would I still be able to hit a PR even with a sore shoulder or should I lighten the weight for today?
Sore shoulder on bench day
- Thread starter Nicsgear
- Start date
gunther1986
New member
You use a lot of shoulder on chest day. Give it a few days and see how it feels. Go for leg day bro.
Best,
Gunther
Best,
Gunther
If say my shoulders and chest are similarly developed. The problem is, my training partner convinced me to bench not only on push day but shoulder day as well. So I was running a push pull then legs/shoulder day and off. So a 4 day split and repeat and I was benching on the push and shoulder/legs day. Stupid but we were hitting PRs every time. Shoulder didn't like it tho as I had separated it about a year ago. I'm currently doing shoulder mobility 3 times a week now. Any suggestions on how to heal it as fast as possible? It's not terrible pain, it just seems difficult to hit my weight with this pain.
Roush
I am banned!
Personally I would never bench really heavy (setting personal records) twice a week.. I made that mistake myself in the best, shoulder suffered bad, stopped bench pressing for a couple months and only did light weight isolation moves..
You could try doing high rep light weight guillotine bench presses,, that will take your shoulders and tris out of it and will isolate the upper pecs
You could try doing high rep light weight guillotine bench presses,, that will take your shoulders and tris out of it and will isolate the upper pecs
Hypnotix
Well-known member
You wanna be a bodybuilder or a powerlifter?
Unless you need to be breaking records.. stop chasing a number and instead focus on developing a more, well rounded routine. If you really need to know how much you can max bench, check it every month or two, not every workout.
Damaging the shoulder as you're starting to see, will always come back to remind you that you fucked up. Considering you're post injury already you have even more of a reason to back off a bit.
In my opinion, I'd flip to working out with lighter weight and focus on control, form and rep timing. On bench, make sure to never lose your shoulders, smash them blades together and since you're lifting with someone ALWAYS get a lift off to maintain proper posture. Only go down as far as it takes to make your elbow line up with the shoulder, no deeper. Maybe look into pyramid or reverse pyramid training so you'll have more of a build up of weight instead of the same thing 5 times. And most importantly focus on the quality of your repetitions, slow down with the weight, and explode up.
Hope this helps a little bit
Unless you need to be breaking records.. stop chasing a number and instead focus on developing a more, well rounded routine. If you really need to know how much you can max bench, check it every month or two, not every workout.
Damaging the shoulder as you're starting to see, will always come back to remind you that you fucked up. Considering you're post injury already you have even more of a reason to back off a bit.
In my opinion, I'd flip to working out with lighter weight and focus on control, form and rep timing. On bench, make sure to never lose your shoulders, smash them blades together and since you're lifting with someone ALWAYS get a lift off to maintain proper posture. Only go down as far as it takes to make your elbow line up with the shoulder, no deeper. Maybe look into pyramid or reverse pyramid training so you'll have more of a build up of weight instead of the same thing 5 times. And most importantly focus on the quality of your repetitions, slow down with the weight, and explode up.
Hope this helps a little bit
gunther1986
New member
You wanna be a bodybuilder or a powerlifter?
Unless you need to be breaking records.. stop chasing a number and instead focus on developing a more, well rounded routine. If you really need to know how much you can max bench, check it every month or two, not every workout.
Damaging the shoulder as you're starting to see, will always come back to remind you that you fucked up. Considering you're post injury already you have even more of a reason to back off a bit.
In my opinion, I'd flip to working out with lighter weight and focus on control, form and rep timing. On bench, make sure to never lose your shoulders, smash them blades together and since you're lifting with someone ALWAYS get a lift off to maintain proper posture. Only go down as far as it takes to make your elbow line up with the shoulder, no deeper. Maybe look into pyramid or reverse pyramid training so you'll have more of a build up of weight instead of the same thing 5 times. And most importantly focus on the quality of your repetitions, slow down with the weight, and explode up.
Hope this helps a little bit
VERY well said bro.
I lost count of how many guys at my gym bench enourmous amounts of weight and have a flat chest...
Guess their shoulders and triceps are doing all the work.
Good advice. I don't ever test my one rep max, but I understand the 4-6 rep range is still very taxing on the CNI. My form is fairly solid and although I feel my shoulders assisting sometimes, the chest is definitely doing most of the work. By no means do I stick only to 5x5 on bench. I actually usually do Pyramid the weight and include diverse rep ranges including hypertropy ranges as well. I'm focused on bodybuilding, but who's to say I can't have a strong bench also.
I definitely have to realize that lifting is a long term life style, and I shouldnt b in such a hurry to make PRs. But when u get into a habit of hitting PRs it's addictive. Iv backed off and stopped benching on shoulder day. That was a moronic thing to do in the first place. Also the added mobility work is helping a lot and the shoulder is almost painless. Didn't hit my weight today but I was keeping it a bit lighter until pain free.
Well c how it goes but I'm thirsty for more weight. I'm gonna shovel food in and pray the surplus is enough
I definitely have to realize that lifting is a long term life style, and I shouldnt b in such a hurry to make PRs. But when u get into a habit of hitting PRs it's addictive. Iv backed off and stopped benching on shoulder day. That was a moronic thing to do in the first place. Also the added mobility work is helping a lot and the shoulder is almost painless. Didn't hit my weight today but I was keeping it a bit lighter until pain free.
Well c how it goes but I'm thirsty for more weight. I'm gonna shovel food in and pray the surplus is enough
