Bench press and shoulder pain together never goes well.
Take it from someone who at one stage in his 20’s had debilitating shoulder pain just from benching the bar.
Not fun.
It’s ok though, I’m better than fine now.
One of the crucial exercises to getting over it was cultivating a good seated row, which in turn helped me to not only help with my shoulder pain.
But also build a better and more solid foundation that could handle a lot more weight.
If you don’t know how to stabilise your shoulders during the bench press you’re in trouble.
Not only are you going to lose power and strength but you’re also putting your body at risk of injury and pain in the near future.
If we all treated the bench press more like a rowing movement rather than a pushing movement, a lot less people would have pain in their shoulders.
The row is great because it works all those muscles we need to keep our shoulders stable and intact.
Once we’ve got all those muscles like our Lats, Rhomboids, middle/lower traps working, all our body has to worry about is pushing the weight off the bench.
Add my version of the seated row between your bench press sets and watch the gainz grow and the pain shrink.