Shoulder pain only affecting bench press, random flare-ups.

Good afternoon docs! As somewhat of an epilogue, your advice on my hip pain some months back was put to use and has nearly vanished as of yesterday. So for that, thank you greatly.

My question today has to do with pain on/in the anterior portion of my right shoulder. This has been been an on and off deal since roughly September, though at the time I was cutting a good bit of weight (therefore the insufficient recovery). Fast forward to January, I begin bench pressing with the same grip width you’d see with Dr. Feigenbaum or Matt Wenning, for example. It felt quite nice and I was able to progress consistently as I increased calories as needed. After a couple months, the pain started to creep back regardless of progress made or weight on the bar or grip width used.

About 4 weeks ago, I started using a wider grip like Dr. Baraki (pinky or ring finger on the ring depending on the bar) and I was still experiencing the shoulder pain, though like before, I am progressing. I have noticed that the pain does not manifest during strict pressing, squats, or lateral raises. The only other movement I know of that bothers it is placing the back of my hand on my lumbar spine as if I were bowing to an audience after a performance or if I were to do dips.

I’m not sure what to do about it as it has never been unbearable/inhibited performance nor has it prevented me from increasing weight over time, but today following PB II: week 8’s 1 count pause bench press session where the bar speed was not up to par and it flared up, I wondered if it was related to the pain (or maybe the drowsiness of FL pollen season haha).

I appreciate your time as always and I hope all is well.

Hey @IanES - glad to hear prior advice was helpful. Sorry to hear about the ongoing shoulder symptoms. Have you checked out this article? https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog…ining-what-do/

The article should give some guidance on how to manage through your current experience.

We’d also be happy to consult for individual advice: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…ilUWA/viewform

Yessir I have, and it has been wonderful to use for other problems. I was curious about this particular issue because it has never impacted performance outside of the mental front, and I was sure BBM has mentioned that if pain arising from whichever movement doesn’t negatively affect performance or daily life then it’s probably nothing to worry about.

Gotcha. So from the sounds of it, you experience symptoms and change your biomechanics with the lift (grip for example). I encourage you to find a comfortable/tolerable movement pattern that fits you and the goal of doing the movement, vs mimic say Jordan or Austin. Then if that is symptomatic, spend time working through that experience by adjusting load accordingly. As a caveat, this is obviously generalized/broad information/guidance without having consulted with you individually.

Seems you were right, I had 2 count pause bench press shortly after your reply and I did the first few sets with my new-ish grip and the backoff sets were done with an adjusted width, closer to my CG bench width.

It felt quite nice and didn’t feel any less powerful. I will have to acclimate to it but I appreciate your insight and I’m glad it worked out well. Thank you again Dr. Ray!

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