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Bench Press Pain Solution (ONE SIMPLE DRILL!)

Build muscle and fix your joints at the same time…
http://athleanx.com/x/bigger-muscles-stronger-joints

The bench press is one of the best chest builders and biggest sources of shoulder pain. In fact, bench press pain can prevent many people from doing the exercise and can make it hard to do all other upper body exercises if the pain gets bad enough. In this video, I show you a quick drill you can do before your bench press that will help to dramatically decrease your shoulder pain.

The first thing you have to do is take a band and drape it over a pullup bar while setting up a bench beneath it. Take your hands and turn your pinkies inward while your thumbs are pointing outward. This will externally rotate your shoulders and help to engage the scapular stabilizers that are needed to safely perform the bench press.

Complete 20 reps from this position and make sure to squeeze your shoulder blades down and back throughout each one. Don’t speed through these repetitions as it is important that you perform them properly.

This movement will help you to keep your shoulders in the right position to maximize the space in your shoulder joint. If you suffer from impingement, you will likely feel pinching in either the supraspinatus tendon or the biceps tendon while you do the bench press or any other overhead pressing exercise for that matter. The joint space needs to be increased in order to allow for the tendons and structures to have more room to operate.

To make sure this happens, you want to nueromuscularly turn on the muscles that are likely very dormant in most people watching this. Finish your underhanded 20 reps and move immediately into your overhand reps. Each row is done with the intent of keeping those shoulder blades pulled back and down. This should be done from your normal bench press grip width. I personally like to bench from a slightly narrower position to help include the horizontal adduction needed to maximally activate the pecs.

As soon as you are done with the forty reps, go grab your dumbbells and perform your regular bench press. Doesn’t matter if you are doing incline bench or flat bench press. If you had shoulder pain before doing this, much if not all of it should be temporarily removed. This will allow you to bench and get the benefits of it without the pain.

For a more long term fix, you’ll have to include some dedicated rotator cuff work and scapular stabilizer work into your workouts. The ATHLEAN-X Training System found at http://athleanx.com is one of the easiest ways to do this. With the entire program created by a professional sports physical therapist, you have access to the top level training tips and strategies that will get you pro caliber results in record time.

For more videos on how to get rid of shoulder pain when bench pressing or how to avoid common workout injuries, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24

27 Replies to “Bench Press Pain Solution (ONE SIMPLE DRILL!)”

  1. sir how would you do bench pressing or incline pressing when your having problems with your sternocleidomastoid muscle/s? thank you so much!

  3. I have had pain in my right bicep, mainly around the bottom half of the muscle, while pressing for 3 months now.

  6. I already warm up my external rotators body weight before pressing so this video is good for people who didn’t know

  9. Hi
    Thanks for your the video about the back strengthening. I use to have neck and upper back pain after cycling. I am doing good now.
    Kindly help me I feel neck pain during bench press.

  10. GREAT THING YOU POSTED I AM A PRO BODYBUILDER AND WHEN I BENCH I GET A CRAZY PINCH IN MY REAR LAT/DELTS WHICH PREVENTS ME FROM BENCHING.  I SOMTIMES THINK ITS THE BENCH THAT CAUSES THIS, SO I DO IT ON THE FLOOR. ONCE I ADD WEIGHT I COMES BACK AGAIN.  I WILL DEFINATELY TRY THIS ON MY NEXT CHEST DAY.  THANK YOU JEFF

  15. Trying this tonight! If it works……Jeff i could kiss you!!!!! Fingers crossed. Hands down the best strength/fitness vids on YouTube!

  16. I get pain under my armpit when I bench–I can actually feel something poping out of place before it retracts back into its normal. would these drills work for something like i have?

  18. I know this video is old, but i have a couple questions im hoping you can help with.
    How long after your tear were you able to bench press again?
    Did you have surgery done to fix the tear?
    And were you able to get back to or surpass your previous level of bench press strength prior to your tear?

  19. Thanks for this. Been having shoulder pain after only moderately heavy bench for a few years now. I thought trying to push past the pain would work, but it only made it worse. I can't wait to try this out.

  20. Should I worry about shoulder pain after benching? I'm new to this and I'm doing strength training and always end chest day with some shoulder pain when lifting my arm over head but never when I'm actually in the gym. Is this just recovery pain?

  21. What about sternum pain? I never had to search for videos like this cuz I’m healthy and have good form/habits, and they’ve been forced become even better since my sternum started hurting. But still, the pain hasn’t fully gone away. Any tips?

  23. We don't have access to bands or a pull-up bar over our benches, but we do have a seated row machine. Would that work in this situation?

  24. too much talking not enough showing dammit I never get this time back in my life again

  25. I'm a old guy, "58" and just started lifting again in January after 20 year layoff. I tried this yesterday. Definitely was a lot of help.

  26. Yep! At this point these exercises seem to be working for me. Pinkies up way. You know your stuff! I am very impressed! Endorse something…if I need it…I will buy it. I hope you get millions of dollars in endorsements and consultations! Fan for life! It is obvious you care about our progress!

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