Close grip bench press - shoulder pain

Supercell

I'm really really struggling with close grip pressing.
Apart from the fact that at most I can lift a pitiful 30kg in close grip, its killing my shoulders and not in a good way.

When I'm doing them it feels like I'm tearing my shoulders apart, its quite painful and don't at all feel like I'm building strength positively.
I also notice that my elbows get quite tender doing them too.

I'm trying to replicate the guy on http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Triceps/BBCloseGripBenchPress.html but I really don't feel comfortable at all and the triceps don't feel tender the next day at all - a sure sign they are not getting worked hard enough but believe me I cannot try harder than I am right now, definitely not hitting them as I should be.

Has anyone else experienced this and have any tips to offer?

Hanley

I would say that the guy's grip on exrx is too narrow, it puts excessive strain on the wrists for one thing and isn't very efficent either. A grip of shoulder width or a tad outside is much better (you want your wrists over your elbows).

Make sure you're pinning your shoulders together before you start to press, and keep them that way thru out. Stand up straight, and imagine your trying to hold a coin between your shoulder blades (or preferably get someone to put thier finger right on your spine between you shoulder blades and try to crush it by squeezing them together).

With the actual pressing, make sure you tuck your elbows in really tight to your body. If you're flaring them out it'll cause alot of shouler pain since your grip is so narrow. You want to have them so close that they're almost brushing the side of your body on the way down. Doing this will mean you have to lower the bar to a different position than your normal press, for me it hits upper belly whereas normal pressing hits jsut below my nipps.

I actually tweaked my shoulder on them yesterday because I didn't keep my blades pulled together tightly enough.

This is pretty solid form (but make sure with the grip you have your thumb wrapped around the bar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TInmDdSQX4

Supercell

Thanks Hanley, I'm not doing them at all like that so its great to hear that the current painful way is wrong!

I'll practise that technique next time, the way you describe it sounds like your elbows are not getting twisted like mine feel when doing them so that will probably cure the elbow soreness too.
I think I may indeed be gripping far to close - that guy on youtube is far wider than I currently am.

Thanks.

Hanley

No probs!!

Lemme guess... you're doing them something like this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUA4EFfDaLw&feature=related

Beelzebub

Hanley wrote: »

I would say that the guy's grip on exrx is too narrow, it puts excessive strain on the wrists for one thing and isn't very efficent either. A grip of shoulder width or a tad outside is much better (you want your wrists over your elbows).

Make sure you're pinning your shoulders together before you start to press, and keep them that way thru out. Stand up straight, and imagine your trying to hold a coin between your shoulder blades (or preferably get someone to put thier finger right on your spine between you shoulder blades and try to crush it by squeezing them together).

With the actual pressing, make sure you tuck your elbows in really tight to your body. If you're flaring them out it'll cause alot of shouler pain since your grip is so narrow. You want to have them so close that they're almost brushing the side of your body on the way down. Doing this will mean you have to lower the bar to a different position than your normal press, for me it hits upper belly whereas normal pressing hits jsut below my nipps.

I actually tweaked my shoulder on them yesterday because I didn't keep my blades pulled together tightly enough.

This is pretty solid form (but make sure with the grip you have your thumb wrapped around the bar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TInmDdSQX4

While the weights that the guy shifts in that video are impressive , his form most definitely is not.
As well as not using collars which I recommend and a bad grip technique, he is lifting his hips off the bench.

Much better technique here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkrAB-CWmF4
but thumb grip is again not recommended.

To Longfield:
A question I would ask you is:
Do you experience shoulder pain apart from when executing this exercise?

If so my advice to you is to get your shoulders looked at by a trained professional ASAP.

Hanley

Beelzebub wrote: »

While the weights that the guy shifts in that video are impressive , his form most definitely is not.
As well as not using collars which I recommend and a bad grip technique, he is lifting his hips off the bench.

Much better technique here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkrAB-CWmF4
but thumb grip is again not recommended.

.

No, it's called leg drive. There might be a slight raise on the first single, but on 290x6 there's nothing other than pure leg drive. No hips lifting.

As for the guy with the "much better" technique, I'd say it's a great way to thrash your wrists and elbows. Even trying to mimic his technique without I can feel my shoulders in a bad position and would be damn sure my wrists and elbows would go to sh!t quickly pressing like that too.

davyjose

What kind of warm-up, stretching do you do?

Supercell

Hanley wrote: »

No probs!!

Lemme guess... you're doing them something like this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUA4EFfDaLw&feature=related

A little like that, dunno how he's managing that at all!

Beelzebub wrote: »

To Longfield:
A question I would ask you is:
Do you experience shoulder pain apart from when executing this exercise?

If so my advice to you is to get your shoulders looked at by a trained professional ASAP.

Nope, they are fine, I'm certain its terrible form thats causing the pain, theres not pain on regular benching or incline benching , I think in the main i'm gripping the bar incorrectly and far far to close.

Supercell

davyjose wrote: »

What kind of warm-up, stretching do you do?

Well, I leave close grip benches to the end of my bench day - I'll have done several sets of flat and incline benching with bar and dumbbells by this point.
Then will do about 8 reps just with the bar and no weights before even putting the puny weights on it.
Don't think its warming up thats the problem, first one hurts as bad as the last one, just shít form (until now - hopefully), or is there any specific warm up exercises you would recommend to do in addition ?

I've a pretty good idea now whats been wrong with my form, will put this into practise tomorrow night and hopefully wont feel so bad (or will feel bad in a good way, if you know what i mean).

Beelzebub

Hanley wrote: »

No, it's called leg drive. There might be a slight raise on the first single, but on 290x6 there's nothing other than pure leg drive. No hips lifting.

As for the guy with the "much better" technique, I'd say it's a great way to thrash your wrists and elbows. Even trying to mimic his technique without I can feel my shoulders in a bad position and would be damn sure my wrists and elbows would go to sh!t quickly pressing like that too.

I disagree that he uses pure leg drive.
He can clearly be seen to lift his hips numerous times, his hips are not totally clearing the bench each time, I'll grant you that, but he's definitely lifting them, as opposed to contracting them in conjunction with leg drive.

"As for the guy with "much better technique""
I didn't say it was perfect. His grip may be a little narrow.
I use a width of 18" - 15" in my CGBP technique and have never had wrist, elbow nor forearm problems- I am speaking from my own experience on this particular exercise.
It's a very effective triceps exercise for me.
Though I guess this is a case of different strokes...

If an exercise hurts - or if it's not benefiting you, then you should stop doing it , examine your technique, and or seek professional help, whichever is the appropriate course of action.

Hanley

Beelzebub wrote: »

I disagree that he uses pure leg drive.
He can clearly be seen to lift his hips numerous times, his hips are not totally clearing the bench each time, I'll grant you that, but he's definitely lifting them, as opposed to contracting them in conjunction with leg drive.

I didn't say it was perfect. His grip may be a little narrow.
I use a width of 18" - 15" in my CGBP technique and have never had wrist, elbow nor forearm problems- I am speaking from my own experience on this particular exercise.
It's a very effective triceps exercise for me.
Though I guess this is a case of different strokes...

If an exercise hurts - or if it's not benefiting you, then you should stop doing it , examine your technique, and or seek professional help, whichever is the appropriate course of action.

Longfield, the following is highly technical and extremely hard to do right, and the majority of people have no need to ever even work on it, so don't worry about it...

I'm not sure of your exp. with leg drive, but done properly that's exactly how it looks. As you drive thru your butt can slide along the bench, this forces you up higher onto your upper back, and gives the impression that your hips/abs/belly is lifting higher because your arch is tightening up.

Watch this vid of Ryan K. You should be able to see what I mean. His arse moves along the bench, but his shoulders stay put and his ass stays down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph-HzTomYhE&feature=related

I just measured my grip width there, it's right around 17 or 18 inches, I doubt the guy in the vid that I originally posted is much wider. I think the difference is that with an extreme elbow tuck your forearms will stay prependicular to the ground and put a hell of a lot less pressure on your wrist.

Grab something 16 or 17 inches wide, bring it to your chest and keep your elbow flared. Then with the same grip tuck your elbows really tightly and try to keep your arms perpendicular to the floor as your lower it.

It'll go down much lower, probably toward upper abs, but that's not my point. Check out how the wrist position changes with the elbow position. With an extreme tuck your wrist stay over your forarms instead of having to bend outwards like they would if you had your elbows flared.

Beelzebub

Hanley wrote: »

Longfield, the following is highly technical and extremely hard to do right, and the majority of people have no need to ever even work on it, so don't worry about it...

I'm not sure of your exp. with leg drive, but done properly that's exactly how it looks. As you drive thru your butt can slide along the bench, this forces you up higher onto your upper back, and gives the impression that your hips/abs/belly is lifting higher because your arch is tightening up.

Watch this vid of Ryan K. You should be able to see what I mean. His arse moves along the bench, but his shoulders stay put and his ass stays down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph-HzTomYhE&feature=related

I just measured my grip width there, it's right around 17 or 18 inches, I doubt the guy in the vid that I originally posted is much wider. I think the difference is that with an extreme elbow tuck your forearms will stay prependicular to the ground and put a hell of a lot less pressure on your wrist.

Grab something 16 or 17 inches wide, bring it to your chest and keep your elbow flared. Then with the same grip tuck your elbows really tightly and try to keep your arms perpendicular to the floor as your lower it.

It'll go down much lower, probably toward upper abs, but that's not my point. Check out how the wrist position changes with the elbow position. With an extreme tuck your wrist stay over your forarms instead of having to bend outwards like they would if you had your elbows flared.

I remain unconvinced - I'm seeing him raising his hips up, parallel to the floor and not sliding along the bench.

It's difficult to see what you're talking about in that RK video, you'd need to be side on to see it. Especially because of the video quality and as his lifting suit is the same colour as the bench.