If you are feeling bench press in your shoulders or are experiencing shoulder pain during the movement then we can help you tweak your mechanics to improve form.
We most commonly see that a lot of individuals have a very straight bar path when they perform a bench press. Your bar path is essentially the path that the bar traces during the movement. Most of the time individuals will perform the bench press with their elbows at a 90 degree angle from their abdomen, causing a very straight bar path. This will force a lot of tension to migrate to the shoulders instead of the chest. Instead, the bar path should follow a slight curve. To achieve this the elbows should be at a 45 degree angle from the abdomen and should curve from the top of the movement towards the bottom of the sternum, instead of straight down to the chest. This will isolate the chest more and take off the added stress on the shoulders.
Second common mistake we see is individuals punching their shoulders forward at the top of the movement. This will put too much strain on the shoulders, so instead think about squeezing the shoulder blades into the bench. The shoulders should not extend away from the body at the top of the movement, so being more conscious about pushing the upper back into the bench will take away this added extension at the top.
Same tips should also apply for chest presses with dumbbells. The only difference is that with dumbbells you get this extra range of motion because the bar is not stopping the motion from going past the chest. You have to be more aware with dumbbells to not let the weights drop too far past the chest, and instead stop the elbows at about chest level.
We want to make sure you are doing everything right at the gym so you can prevent injuries and get the gains that you want! Let us know if this helped you out and reach out to us for any other questions or concerns you may have… we would love to help!
