I was heavy into lifting for about 10 years of my youth and have been working active for the last 20. I'd say Ultramagdan is on the right track. Sounds like an inflamed tendon to me.

You're at the plateau point in your lifting. You need to be highly carefull with tendon problems, because they can take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. I know how it is, you feel fine and try to push it, but you have to resist. No matter how much you try to isolate when you do upper body, your shoulders get a workout.

The better shape you're in, the more stretching you need - and not before the workout. Before workout, a little light stretching and some cardio, (like jumprope), is all you want to do - just enough to break a sweat. Then do your sets with stretch inbetween. For cool down, try for about a half hour of intense stretching. I'll tape a towel, filled with ice, to any sore joint at this time - even my back. (I always find it suprising that someone that wouldn't hesitate to ice a swollen knee, would rather lay in bed and stiffen up than put ice on their back and move around.)

I'd take it easy on the bench for a month or two. Focus heavy into abs work. Just doing situps isn't enough. Find a sadistic aerobics instructor and see if you can get in on one of the abs workouts - you will hurt, but the view is always great! Do the good diet thing for a while. Main point being is to change routine with light upper body for at least 4 weeks. Then try hitting the bench again. If everything feels good, I'm sure you'll surpass the old mark within a few weeks.
And focus on your cooldown stretch. Your body being out of balance causes these problems in the first place.

 

Again. Try to work some on your rotator cuff. Benching will strengthen the front delt. You have to do more than just military presses for the shoulders to keep everything in balance. Like I said in my earlier post, r-cuff problems are very common when lifting. 99% of the time, people misdiagnose it as a tendon, muscle pull, or overuse injury. You may try working those small 'auxillary' muscles. You may find yourself pain free and a lot stronger. Not that I know anything of course. My minor in college was only human performance and I hold a NSCA certificate. (National strength coaching association). Just my two pennies.

 

i usually stretch in between sets, at least every other set.

MATTYD you suggested i do shrugs- is that where you have a barbell held downward at arms length, and just pull upwards with your shoulders? i think im going to have to try that out.

 

I think that Hang10 is on the right track. A few years ago, in my competitive lifting days during high school, I was having the same pain in my shoulder. During one of our lift meets, I was doing the bench, and the pain became worse and worse through the rounds. Then on my final lift, I tore my rotator cuff. Dropped like 450 on my chest! Hurt like a son of a b!!! Luckily the cuff wasn't completely torn, so no surgery was needed. But the only thing I could do were these damn rehab exercises for my shoulder over the next couple of months. Talk to some strength coaches they will give you some tips on exercises that will help prevent/rehab this pain.

 

When I had my aforementioned injury, my coach had me doing this one exercise and I can't remember what it was called. You lay on your back on this bench with your arms perpendicular to your body. put your hands on these pads (which are weighted) and rotate your arm at the shoulder. Whatever it was, it did wonders for me.

 

Good job. Now they sell a device called a shoulder horn. However, there are several ways to do it without equipment. All work. As you probably found, it's better to work this group before it becomes a problem. Not only are you pain and injury free but you soon become noticably stronger in your lifts.

 

yep. i had that pain. it was my rotator cuff, i had that pain when i was bench pressing for 6 months and it just kept getting worse and worse. than i broke my elbow and damaged a nerve so i was out of lifting weights for 6 months. im stronger than i was before it happened and i havent had the problem. if you want to heal fast, the best thing to do is just eliminate benchpressing for 2 or 3 months. and if thats impossible to do, than throw like 135 on there and just do a bunch of reps. you will still keep your muscle tone, your max will go down but your health is more important.

 

Well, I play football, so Im in the weightroom whenever I have free time. I also have shoulder problems, but my shoulder seems to pop out of place then roll a little, then pop into place. Its sore for about a week after, then it happens even if I just cough. But anyways, every so often it hurts when I bench. I talked to the team trainer and he gave me a few lifts to do to try and strengthen it. First, take a 5 pound weight, and while standing, extend your arm out to your side. Keep it straight, and lift it from your side up, like your making a T, but only one arm at a time. Do a couple sets of like 10 or so, whatever you can handle. Then, do the same weights/sets but this time, lift your arm foward from your side. Then, with the same weight/sets, lift your arm, but do it like in between the other two, so if straight ahead was 0 degrees, and to your side was 90, then you would be going a 45. Anyways, i know that sounds confusing, but it does help. You can add more weight if it gets too easy, and if it hurts when you do it, I usually just work through the pain and im fine, no pain no gain. But Im also 17 and invincible , so I dont know if you should do the same. I would recomend you work through the pain unless it becomes extremly bad. Sorry so long, but thats just my experience/advice. I have been coached by weightlifting coaches and have had athletic trainers also help me, so im not nuts or anything!. Good luck!!

 

TRUCKMAN79- im just curious about your "but my shoulder seems to pop out of place then roll a little, then pop into place. Its sore for about a week after, " comment.

i have something similar, doesnt cause pain, but you can feel like something grinding and a slight noise when i rotate my arms around, or move them back or forth, no pain though. do you get that? it feels like something is grinding or hanging up. just wondering...

 

So you are saying that lateral raises helped your shoulder problems? Are you sure they didn't help cause it?

 

BuiltTough- When it happens to me, it feels like I dislocated my shoulder, but then its like it fixed itself. I also get the grinding and little pops when I rotate my arm, from what Ive been told, its because my tendons and everything there have become really loose, and allow my shoulder to move too much, thus pop out of place. The grinding though, im not sure what causes that. I know a bunch of people though that have the same problem, so it must be pretty common and not really anything that bad.
Hang10- No, the lifting didn't cause it. I started having the problem a couple years ago before I started lifting. Just recently Ive started doing the lifts, and they are good for it since your strengthining your whole shoulder, therefore tightning your whole shoulder which then helps keep it from poping out easily.

 

The problem is though, that the deltoid (shoulder muscles) are three headed. Front, side and rear. People think that by doing lateral raises, presses etc. that those will strengthen those muscles and that's all there is to it.

Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple. There are more muscles under those (mainly rear and side). These are small muscles about the size if fingers that actually hold the socket together. When you bench, you strenthen and tighten the front delts (no matter how much you stretch) and this starts pulling the shoulders forward. You can't necessarily see it. This in turn unbalances the shoulder complex (actually called the shoulder girdle). You feel poping and grinding because in relation to your front delts, the small rotator cuff muscles (the finger sized ones) have now been stretched and weakened. Doing other isolation movements like lateral raises, will strengthen the delts but will continue to weaken the rotator cuff and pull it further out of balance.

It is easy to repair and avoid this. Of course, if you get a tear, that won't be as easy to repair. Get a light dumbell, sit by a bench, or stand next to a shelf, kneel, whatever. Get your arm out from your body at 90 degrees. Rest it on the bench or whatever, as long as it is 90 degrees. Grab the DB and just rotate your arm up and down slowly, almost like you are arm wrestling, that is the kind of rotation you should have. After about 10 reps, you will feel it. Try a couple of 10 rep sets on your shoulder day for a few weeks. Don't try and go too heavy, if you can do 15 reps in good form, it's too light. If you have to fight to get the DB up after 6-7 reps, it's too heavy. Just for grins, try it for a few weeks and see what happens.

By the way, your arm should be out to your side when doing this, you can bring it forward slightly but it does not go in front of you.