Soft Tissue/Rotator Cuff

[nos_efx]

Hey Guys,

After working out for a year I'm beginning to find that when I workout on the benchpress my shoulder automatically begins to kick in when bringing the weight up. I am not doing weight that I haven't done before and its starting to get quite frustrating. I spoke to a guy at the same gym that I workout at and he said it could be your soft tissue within your shoulder that isnt keeping up with the amount of weight on the benchpress.

Does this sound correct? If so, how can I go about getting those muscles/tissue stronger? On shoulder days, I do do rotator cuff exercises, do you guys have any other suggestions/exercises that are good for this?

Thanks.

[~Leah~]

How often are you doing everything -- what's your workout schedule?

[nos_efx]

I won'te get into specifics:

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Shoulder
Thursday: Arms
Friday: Legs

Cardio is done 3 times a week for 30 minutes

[~Leah~]

Can you maybe describe what you mean by "my shoulder automatically begins to kick in when bringing the weight up"?

[nos_efx]

^

When the bar reaches my chest, my right shoulder will contract much like you are doing standing lifts with your front deltoid. Difficult to explain but it seems like my shoulder wants to do the work.

[Gorilla]

search on bb.com bodybuilding.com for rotator cuff excercises

[~Leah~]

Forgot about this one... just sounds like you're compensating for the extra weight with other muscles. I might suggest for a change and a challenge, to try doing your chest press with free weights and just really focusing on squeezing your chest together. It's something you have to keep clear in your head (which muscles you are activating and using). I know you're not female, but I used to tell my clients to try to "make cleavage" when they were doing chest press just so they got the idea of where they were trying to squeeze.

[TrevorK]

Are your elbows tucked in or are they pointing outwards?

My money is on the elbows not being tucked in. With them pointing outwards your body is able to then recruit the shoulders to help with the lift. Tucking your elbows in will bring the focus more on the chest.

[kaput]

.

[nos_efx]

If you tuck your elbows close to the side, they then tend to focus a lot on the triceps correct?

I've switched to dumbells for the next month to layoff the benchpress. I think its a mental thing :rofl:



Originally posted by TrevorK
Are your elbows tucked in or are they pointing outwards?

My money is on the elbows not being tucked in. With them pointing outwards your body is able to then recruit the shoulders to help with the lift. Tucking your elbows in will bring the focus more on the chest.

[TrevorK]

Originally posted by nos_efx
If you tuck your elbows close to the side, they then tend to focus a lot on the triceps correct?

Those are one of the muscle groups recruited when you tuck your elbows in. The other major one is your lats.

If you've ever been taught to play football at a somewhat professional level, you'll notice that the players tuck their elbows in when going into other players, then storm through them. You can get exert more force with your elbows tucked than without.


But, keeping your elbows tucked also takes some of the effort off of the shoulders, which is what you are saying you have problems with.

[Unknown303]

dumbells are the way to go for chest workouts. Give to way more control over what muscles you are engaging. Really easy to make cleavage with dumbells.

[bbcman]

if you have done any damage to the rotator its a quite a serious thing. the best thing that i can suggest is make sure that you do lots of warm up exercises for each rotator light weight and keep the reps for them at least 15 pert side. make sure that you stretch out after each set to.

[writhen]

If its a rotator cuff issue, then as stated above, warm up like hell and keep the weight down. I'd even go see a good physical therapist or certified trainer.

If your shoulders are just compensating, try to doing some machine chest presses to compound the exercise into only hitting your chest. My guess is that your shoulder is taking over from your chest (since it is weak) and doing the stabilizing work. With machines you nullify the need for stabilizing muscles. This will help your chest gain some strength. I'd still get it checked out first though.