Joint pain on 205lbs bench after releasing bar.
- Thread starter The Beast1
- Start date
- Status
Truth Teller
Ostrich
What does your back work look like? Do you do bent over rowing, pull ups, high pulls, or snatches?
As I've said in another thread, I don't get the fascination with bench press. Until the 1950s, however, it wasn't a lift most guys did. Take a look at physiques before then. Guys like Grimek and Stanko were ungodly strong and had tremendous development.
Try clean and pressing or, if you have to bench, incline pressing. I have an old shoulder injury from baseball, and I don't feel any pain on an incline bench. If I use a flat bench, it flares up.
As I've said in another thread, I don't get the fascination with bench press. Until the 1950s, however, it wasn't a lift most guys did. Take a look at physiques before then. Guys like Grimek and Stanko were ungodly strong and had tremendous development.
Try clean and pressing or, if you have to bench, incline pressing. I have an old shoulder injury from baseball, and I don't feel any pain on an incline bench. If I use a flat bench, it flares up.
This is not a simple issue that can be diagnosed through your few words of description. You need at least a video, or ideally someone with bench and physiotherapy knowledge to look at your form in person.
As for the "why bench?" debate, I'd learn how to bench properly first before deciding whether it is for you. Bench is a much more complicated movement than press or dips or pushups.
While it's true that there are a lot of injuries in powerlifting, it's the sport with the lowest injury rate, and most injuries are not career ending. Raw powerlifting also has a lot fewer serious injuries than equipped powerlifting, which dominated the last couple of decades until about 3 years ago. The reason is that in raw lifting, few people load up the bar with too much more than what their body can handle, unlike equipped lifting. Joint injuries are rare. Most of the time you get a muscle strain or a minor tear, which will stop you from training at 100% (so no PB possible) but you can still lift more than most gym goers.
I don't get the hate for benching. I hate the press more, fucking thing is so hard sometimes with just an extra 0.5kg on the bar!
Olympic weightlifting hated it so much, it was dropped from the sport in 1972!
As for the "why bench?" debate, I'd learn how to bench properly first before deciding whether it is for you. Bench is a much more complicated movement than press or dips or pushups.
While it's true that there are a lot of injuries in powerlifting, it's the sport with the lowest injury rate, and most injuries are not career ending. Raw powerlifting also has a lot fewer serious injuries than equipped powerlifting, which dominated the last couple of decades until about 3 years ago. The reason is that in raw lifting, few people load up the bar with too much more than what their body can handle, unlike equipped lifting. Joint injuries are rare. Most of the time you get a muscle strain or a minor tear, which will stop you from training at 100% (so no PB possible) but you can still lift more than most gym goers.
I don't get the hate for benching. I hate the press more, fucking thing is so hard sometimes with just an extra 0.5kg on the bar!
Olympic weightlifting hated it so much, it was dropped from the sport in 1972!For starters, I'd personally back off and "practice" with a lower weight for a while. Just because you manage to lift a certain weight doesn't mean you're quite ready to lift it consistently yet, and sometimes it's best to work on your form at a slightly lower weight and let your body adapt more.
It might be that some of your muscles are ready for the weight but that other supporting muscles aren't. There is nothing scientific about this suggestion, of course, but it just seems to make common sense to me that if you're experiencing pain you're not ready for that weight.
I made a thread earlier this year about elbow pain from an arm wrestling injury haunting me. I slowed things down a tad and now am doing dips and chins with a significant portion of my body weight hanging between my legs and have no pain whatsoever.
It's wise to listen to your body when it's signaling that it doesn't want to be pushed quite that far yet. Unless your form is off and you're setting yourself up for an injury, you'll progress in time. Meanwhile, you can ask for people with more expertise than you to critique your form, do a bit of research, etc.
If you worry staying at the same weight is going to stagnate results, there are other ways to make it more difficult and challenge yourself without increasing weight.
It might be that some of your muscles are ready for the weight but that other supporting muscles aren't. There is nothing scientific about this suggestion, of course, but it just seems to make common sense to me that if you're experiencing pain you're not ready for that weight.
I made a thread earlier this year about elbow pain from an arm wrestling injury haunting me. I slowed things down a tad and now am doing dips and chins with a significant portion of my body weight hanging between my legs and have no pain whatsoever.
It's wise to listen to your body when it's signaling that it doesn't want to be pushed quite that far yet. Unless your form is off and you're setting yourself up for an injury, you'll progress in time. Meanwhile, you can ask for people with more expertise than you to critique your form, do a bit of research, etc.
If you worry staying at the same weight is going to stagnate results, there are other ways to make it more difficult and challenge yourself without increasing weight.
Scorpion, how many injuries have you seen from benching? Have you been a personal trainer for a long time?
I mainly do bodyweight workouts, but I think that lifting heavy weights is great too. I can see how it is harder on your joints but I've never had any injuries and I'm careful to lift with good form. If you have weak wrists, I can see how that would be asking for an injury benching a lot of weight.
I've read both sides of the argument and I think it actually is a natural movement, I don't believe it actually does put your body in an unatural position. I don't ever feel in an unnatural position while benching.
I mainly do bodyweight workouts, but I think that lifting heavy weights is great too. I can see how it is harder on your joints but I've never had any injuries and I'm careful to lift with good form. If you have weak wrists, I can see how that would be asking for an injury benching a lot of weight.
I've read both sides of the argument and I think it actually is a natural movement, I don't believe it actually does put your body in an unatural position. I don't ever feel in an unnatural position while benching.
A good pair of wrist wraps take care of most if not all wrist issues. Apart from equipped benchers, I've never heard of any serious wrist issue in powerlifting.
I've only ever heard of one case (Russian powerlifter) which is an equipped bench, the rack had no safeties (Russian meets are dodgy) and the spotters were not trained.
In an equipped bench, the bar can suddenly pop out of groove and fall towards your face or your belly.
A raw bench just doesn't fail like that, ever. You won't have an out of control bar falling on you.
I'd say the vast majority if not all bad bench accidents you see on Youtube would be equipped benching.
I've only ever heard of one case (Russian powerlifter) which is an equipped bench, the rack had no safeties (Russian meets are dodgy) and the spotters were not trained.
In an equipped bench, the bar can suddenly pop out of groove and fall towards your face or your belly.
A raw bench just doesn't fail like that, ever. You won't have an out of control bar falling on you.
I'd say the vast majority if not all bad bench accidents you see on Youtube would be equipped benching.
Thanks for the advice gents. Over the weekend I massaged both of my arms with a tennis ball. Today I did a movement to warm up my shoulders by moving a long stick from the front of me to behind me.
I also had a trainer friend of mine watch my form. No issues there as well.
Sure enough, did my routine and no pain. I'm going to chalk this up to weak tendons adjusting to the weight.
I also had a trainer friend of mine watch my form. No issues there as well.
Sure enough, did my routine and no pain. I'm going to chalk this up to weak tendons adjusting to the weight.
Tendons and ligaments do adapt slower than muscles, and some progressions might be too fast for this reason. Could be your body telling you to back off slightly or slow down for a bit. Drop down to a slightly lower weight and increase the reps/volume you do.
i.e. Assuming you are at 200 lb. for 3x5 work sets. Drop down to 190 or 185 and do 5x5 or 3x8 for a while, or you could do 2x5 followed by an AMRAP set.
Also, if you are bulking some high volume work could be good. Look up the Wendler 5/3/1 Boring But Big protocol. After your 3-5 heavy bench sets, drop the weight down to 50% of your 1RM and then do 3 to 5 sets of 10. Forces some blood into the area.
Are you doing overhead presses? You should be doing them as often or more often than you bench. Also chin-ups and rows. And do shoulder dislocations (the stretch you do with a broom handle) in between sets.
i.e. Assuming you are at 200 lb. for 3x5 work sets. Drop down to 190 or 185 and do 5x5 or 3x8 for a while, or you could do 2x5 followed by an AMRAP set.
Also, if you are bulking some high volume work could be good. Look up the Wendler 5/3/1 Boring But Big protocol. After your 3-5 heavy bench sets, drop the weight down to 50% of your 1RM and then do 3 to 5 sets of 10. Forces some blood into the area.
Are you doing overhead presses? You should be doing them as often or more often than you bench. Also chin-ups and rows. And do shoulder dislocations (the stretch you do with a broom handle) in between sets.
Yup my routine is a mix of the overhead press, deadlift, squat, and bench. I also have some supporting moves in there such as pull ups, DB bent over rows, incline DB press, and some tricep pull overs.
Probably progressed too quickly. The weekend rest with the massaging and stretching did the trick as well.
Probably progressed too quickly. The weekend rest with the massaging and stretching did the trick as well.
Also, if your gym doesn't have them, get some micro-plates to use on your presses. 1.25lb plates or smaller. This way you don't jump up too fast.
RexImperator said:
After finding out how expensive these micro plates are (comparatively), I decided to make my own. I ordered up a set of 8 industrial washers totaling $15 with shipping, and jb welded 2 sets of 2 together. After a bit of sanding just spray paint and you're good. You can use the washers as is, but I wanted to finish them up.
The pair of washers on each side weighs in at 2.3lbs.
Follow up on this topic. I injured my forearm benching my 1rm about five months ago, the initial symptoms were the same as the OP. Burning pain In forearms as I released my grip off the heavy bar (240lb was my max).
For a few weeks I thought It was a muscle pulled, after that I read on here and suspected it was a stretched ligament. After 4 months later I still could not use my wrist properly when lifting things at odd angles without pain, so I went to a physio therapist. He diagnosed it as a TFCC tear in my wrist, and after much reading in the internet I am sure he is right.
I've started ultrasound and electrical pulse treatment, and am getting a special TFCC wrist brace.
From the sounds of it the recovery will be slow and long, particularly since I stupidly waited 4 months to seek treatment, and continued to lift weights through the pain the whole time.
It's nearly impossible to do any real lifting without putting tension or compression on you wrists. I'm pretty much stuck doing machine leg exercises, pec flys with the weight against my forearms instead of my hands, and sit ups. It fucking blows.
Turns out it was all due to bad form. I self assessed the situation and realised my grip was too narrow, as a result my arms were tilted inward towards my torso, instead of being vertical, at the down position of the bench. This caused increased tension on the outside of the wrist while pushing the bar up, and lead to the tear.
I guess the only good thing that came from it is that I didn't hurt both wrists (just my dominant arm). In the future I will not be doing 1rm anymore at all, and i will cautiously stop any activity that is causing pain whatsoever.
For a few weeks I thought It was a muscle pulled, after that I read on here and suspected it was a stretched ligament. After 4 months later I still could not use my wrist properly when lifting things at odd angles without pain, so I went to a physio therapist. He diagnosed it as a TFCC tear in my wrist, and after much reading in the internet I am sure he is right.
I've started ultrasound and electrical pulse treatment, and am getting a special TFCC wrist brace.
From the sounds of it the recovery will be slow and long, particularly since I stupidly waited 4 months to seek treatment, and continued to lift weights through the pain the whole time.
It's nearly impossible to do any real lifting without putting tension or compression on you wrists. I'm pretty much stuck doing machine leg exercises, pec flys with the weight against my forearms instead of my hands, and sit ups. It fucking blows.
Turns out it was all due to bad form. I self assessed the situation and realised my grip was too narrow, as a result my arms were tilted inward towards my torso, instead of being vertical, at the down position of the bench. This caused increased tension on the outside of the wrist while pushing the bar up, and lead to the tear.
I guess the only good thing that came from it is that I didn't hurt both wrists (just my dominant arm). In the future I will not be doing 1rm anymore at all, and i will cautiously stop any activity that is causing pain whatsoever.
christpuncher said:
Burning isn't the correct pain I was experiencing. It was more sharp and electric than a burn. It slowly dissipated after de-loading weight from the bar. I've experienced this pain before from moving up weights too quickly without letting my tendons get used to the weight i'm moving.
Nowadays, i'm more concerned about tendon strength than muscle strength. My muscles can move a lot, those damn tendons not so much.
I've learned boron does wonders for joints. Its concentrated in joints and boric acid is a very unique lubricant, its lubrication ability increases with pressure and is a motor oil additive. Fluroide seems to be antagonistic to joints and boron. Anyways when I read one study treating fluorosis in china with borax, and that the number one symptom the patients were having was shoulder pain. It almost exactly matched my own symptoms so I started hitting the boron hard at 30 mg/day(maybe too aggressive). 3 days later the pain was 90% reduced. Shortly thereafter I could bench with no pain again.
Also when talking about collagen for tendons, silicon is essential for improving the quality of your collagen, and vit c for the quantity. Most people do not get enough silicon.
Also when talking about collagen for tendons, silicon is essential for improving the quality of your collagen, and vit c for the quantity. Most people do not get enough silicon.
Slimjim what's your experience supplementing those two? Any recommendations?
RichieP
Pelican
scorpion said:
Yes! Bench press is a shoulder-wrecker, it squashes your shoulder blades into an unnatural movement. No reason to do it unless you're competing in bench press - you can get immense pressing strength without it.
Good alternatives:
-Pseudo-planche pushups (yes, they will be hard enough with just bodyweight)
-Overhead barbell press
-Dips, if they suit you
- Status