Arm pain from benching

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hi,

I’ve been running powerbuilding 2 and as soon as the programme called for singles i would get gnarly arm pain radiating through the arm. I believe it could be from the elbow however im slightly unsure as the scapula sorta feels bothersome too.

I’ve had no problems during the block with all the benching volume and squatting etc until literally the second day of each week where I do comp bench first and as the weights move up so does the pain.

Anyways, people to tend to allude to the squat being a culprit. I’ve never had the bar moving around on the back and keep a neutral wrist and carry the weight on my back. No pain from it.

I’m wondering if the pain is due to the bench and tucking in my elbows too much from touching a bit too low on the chest as i press? I do the usual set up of getting under the bar digging traps in and pulling feet back in for the arch. Perhaps when unracking my shoulder ends up moving forward and touching the sternum area my elbows tuck in too much?

Hopefully can share some thoughts on my issue as it has been holding my bench back for quite some time whilst my other lifts fly up. Can post form check if necessary.

Thanks

2

Hey @lilazngrlx3 - thanks for the questions. We would need a consultation to give individualized advice and tease out what is going on with the arm issue you’ve been dealing with (see HERE for our intake paperwork). If you haven’t already, check out this article written by Dr. Baraki for our general process in programming modification for dealing with pain based issues in training.

In regard to your technique, your execution looks pretty solid here. One thing you could try is slowing down your descent speed and think about ‘touching your shirt’ instead of your chest as a way to stay more active in the bottom position and not allowing the bar to sink as much. The bar will still touch your chest of course, it’s just a way to cue the movement differently. However, this is speaking more from a performance perspective rather than an injury risk perspective. For a more thorough discussion on the topic of technique and injury risk, see HERE and HERE.