I have been experiencing pain in my left shoulder, armpit (pec insertion into humerus), and upper chest after performing pressing movements: bench press, overhead press. I also experience discomfort in that area after pull ups and chin ups.The pain usually increases overtime and as intensity goes up it gets to a point where I have to back off and scale down the intensity on those lifts.
I originally experienced the pain after training heavy barbell bench for several weeks about 2 years ago. I was likely increasing intensity too quickly and I think my form was flawed (elbows flared out too much). The pain did not seem to occur suddenly but more over the course of a few days or week. I noticed it most prominently after attempting a 1 rep max. I didn’t suspect that I torn anything since there was no visual deformity that I could see or bruising. I never had it looked at by a doctor, but as a precaution I took time off from benching(several months) and the pain mostly went away. Due to back pain and other stress going on in my life I ended up taking almost a year off lifting shortly after my return to lifting after my pec strain. After return to training following that period I was able to make decent progress on the bench and worked up to relatively heavy weight. Then I started feeling strain in the same area (armpit where the pec inserts into the humerus). Not wanting to tear something I deloaded and lightened the weight for a few weeks until I worked back up. But at some point I experienced the same sensation again. Now I basically feel stuck in a cycle of re-straining my pec every couple weeks.
I’m currently on week 2 of the bridge and I’m frustrated with how limited my pressing feels. Does any of this sound like a serious concern or injury? How do you recommend I proceed in the gym in order to make a recovery from the pain/discomfort I keep experiencing? Thanks in advance for the help!
Hey @nichols892 , sorry to hear about the ongoing issue(s). How familiar are you with our content on pain and the management of such perceptions during training?
I think you’d get a lot of benefit out of listening to this podcast:
