Shoulder Pain When Bench Pressing: Causes & How to Fix It

”In the bench pressing realm, where metal shines bright,
Bro’s and sis’s dream big, aiming for new height.

Yet, in the quiet, a protest begins to ignite,
Shoulder pain whispers in the dark of the night.”

A big bench press is a divine and chakra-unblocking goal in the strength training world.

It’s also one of those exercises that could mean the difference between a Johnny Bravo or a Johnny not-so-Bravo chest development.

But while the bench press is a valuable chest exercise, some poor individuals may be unable to explore their full PR potential due to shoulder pain somewhere along the way.

And perhaps even worse, as we all live in our own self-created worlds of what optimal chest training needs to be, it’s also easy to end up feeling that it’s impossible to develop that desirable chest appearance.

We at StrengthLog want to help you escape this unsustainable reality.

So, come along to the real, still complex but hopefully, after you read this, easier-to-navigate, world of bench pressing without shoulder pain!

Understanding Shoulder Mechanics in Bench Pressing

Before unraveling the intricacies of shoulder pain, it’s crucial to understand the biomechanics involved in the bench press movement.

First, although the bench press is most often described as a chest exercise, you should know that its dynamic interplay with other muscles like the anterior deltoid, triceps brachii, and a whole package of smaller stabilizing muscles makes it a complex movement and not just a chest exercise.¹

Secondly, the shoulder is not all muscles. Even though we often train like we want it to be. The shoulder complex includes a lot of different structures like bursas, ligaments, joint capsule, labrum, biceps tendon, and smaller associated joints like the acromioclavicular joint and so on.

Thirdly, since the shoulder is a complex structure and the bench press is a complex movement, it’s hard to execute the exercise without distributing some of the load through all these other smaller, non-muscle structures just mentioned. If not impossible, even.

And this means that, as a fourth statement, we have to take into consideration all the shoulder structures when discussing shoulder pain.

First Thing First, Distinguish Between Pain and Injury

Pain and injuries are not the same thing.

They may exist at the same time, but also not.² ³

This is important knowledge for you to be able to understand the different ways you should tackle pain versus injuries.

It’s also important knowledge to avoid an actual injury by paying attention to what your body is warning you about.

Pain Definition:

A subjective, sensory, and emotional experience, typically (but far from always) associated with tissue damage/injury.

Pain Characteristics:

Pain can be acute or chronic.
It is a personal and subjective experience, varying from person to person.
It may be sharp, dull, throbbing, or achy.
Pain intensity can fluctuate and may not always correlate with the severity of the or an underlying condition.

But, pain’s main purpose is in modern literature described as a protective mechanism, alerting the body of potential threats that could lead to a potential injury.

Just like a fire alarm’s purpose is to alert you of potential threats, like the smoke before the house is in actual flames.

Injury Definition:

An injury refers to physical damage or harm to the body’s tissues, organs, or structures.

In the context of physical activity or exercise, injuries can range from minor strains to more severe conditions affecting bones, muscles, ligaments, or tendons.

Injury Characteristics:

Injuries may result from trauma, overuse, or a combination of factors.
They often present with specific signs such as swelling, bruising, reduced range of motion, or visible damage.

So, in the case of an injury, something is actually damaged.

Some NOT So Common Causes of Shoulder Pain When Bench Pressing

Four commonly believed reasons for shoulder pain when bench pressing are:

Too strong chest muscles compared to back muscles
Shoulder impingement
Forward rotated or rounded shoulders
Unevenly distributed load when pressing

The common denominator for these believed reasons are often that they usually are directed more towards factors that occur when executing the bench press.

… Which is in total oblivion or neglect of all other contributing factors that are both too complex and too many to discuss one by one in this article.

But I can’t hold myself from addressing some of the above according to modern science.

Belief #1: Too Strong Chest Muscles Compared to Back Muscles

There is no evidence to support this relationship.

Enjoy your overly strong chest.

Belief #2: Shoulder Impingement

Theory: Shoulder pain comes from structures getting squeezed and pinched inside the shoulder joint when doing shoulder movement.

Reality: Pain-free and painful shoulders have the same amount of squished structures.

Impingement should, therefore, be described as a normal, biomechanical event that occurs naturally during movement.⁴ ⁵

Shoulder impingement does not = pain.

Belief #3: Forward Rotated / “Rounded Shoulders”

This is mostly a retrospect to impingement through the thought that forward rotated/rounded shoulders decrease the “sub-acromial” space. Which it doesn’t (at least not in cadavers).⁶

Studies even show that increasing external rotation (“not rounded shoulders”) can decrease the “sub-acromial” space (albeit in cadavers again).⁷

Which kind of debunks the “risk for impingement through forward rotated shoulders” theory.

But maybe more importantly, there has been no association found between the size of sub-acromial space and the amount of pain, pathology, or disability.⁸

So, in this case, size really doesn’t matter.

Causes of Shoulder Pain When Bench Pressing

Trying to explain why someone ends up in pain is more complex than finding the right gym wear for your next social media post-gym video.

We have to consider A LOT of different, both direct and indirect, factors that all contribute to the unpleasant outcome.

But since the bench press exposes the shoulders to high physical demands through training, sometimes several times a week, it has been suggested that bench press shoulder pain might be related to:⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ ¹²

Excessively heavy loads
Insufficient resting times between training sessions
The large range of motion during the exercise
And/or “faulty” lifting technique.

What You Can Do To Avoid Shoulder Pain When Bench Pressing

With the above described and imaginable reasons for pain it could be a good idea to explore:

Workload management in relation to rest
Technique / Range of motion

For this, consider the following strategies:

Shoulder Training Workload Evaluation

First of all, evaluate your overall workload of shoulder-focused exercises in your training routine.

Shoulder workload could be described as:

Sets of shoulder involving exercises per week x reps x sets x weight = workload of shoulder exercises per week

And as with everything, too much is too much.

Just like too much alcohol is a fun way to spend your evening it could have some direct or delayed consequences.

Too much bench press or a combination of bench press and other shoulder loading exercises together could give you a parable to hangover headache.

But what is too much?

Well, that depends on the specific individual’s tolerance for workload. Or alcohol.

Bench Press Workload Management

The best theoretical way to manage your workload for as desirable results as possible is to be a minor alcoholic: A moderate dosage spread out over time.

Since this will progressively build up your tolerance for alcohol and decrease your risk for a weekend black-out.

Or in terms of bench pressing. With a foundation of continuous training at more manageable and moderate workloads over time, you will be able to tolerate the occasional and acute spikes of higher workloads without suffering overload pain.

Basically, build up a tolerance for load that allows you to lift at your capacity, without pain.

So How Do I Know What’s a Moderate and Useful Workload?

An attempted proposal to find out your tolerance level is: Do, experience, and learn.

By doing you have the opportunity to experiment with different training workloads.
From doing you will either have the possibility to or be forced to experience all the different intended or unintended consequences.
Regardless of the consequence you experience, it’s smart to take note and learn for future workload adjustments in relation to your shoulders’ tolerance.

(Just like you hopefully learned a lot after your first total black out experience with alcohol.)

A helpful and quite easy principle to follow is “the three rule pain principle”.

Finding as direct a relationship as possible between your workload and the consequences might ensure a positive trend in pain (or rather, not pain) outcome.

Firstly, keep track of your shoulder-loading workload. How much and how heavy do you regularly lift?

Secondly, evaluate “The three rule pain principle” described below:

Rule 1: Pain during a workout is okay, and you decide how painful an exercise might be when executed.
Rule 2: Pain after exercise is okay; again, you decide how much, but the pain should revert back to “your normal” (depending on how much pain you usually have) within 24 hours.
Rule 3: Disturbed sleep due to increased pain over the night is not okay.

If your shoulder health follows all the rules above, you can probably increase your workload progressively for your next training session.

If not, it’s probably smart not to increase or maybe even decrease (plus cry for a moment) and evaluate your next lighter session by the same three rules.

And then repeat for life.

With this as a template, you can hopefully ensure that your shoulders stay pain-free or within the same pain intensity over time.

Another so often accused reason for pain across the whole training universe is the ever blamed “incorrect technique”.

The loudly expressed technical reasons for pain when bench pressing often, if not always, include:

Shoulders too high up
Shoulder too low
Shoulders too asymmetrical
Elbows too flared out
Elbows too close in
Too much arch
Too shallow arch
And so on …

Though all these are often confident bro-stated risk factors for nearly any form of gym failure, pain included, the whole “bad technique equals pain” hypothesis is still very uncertain.¹³

So, are technique refinements totally unnecessary?

Probably not.

If you recall the workload management section, a solution could be to choose more shoulder-friendly bench press variations. Like the close-grip bench press, for example.

This could potentially unload your shoulder muscles by distributing more of the weight to the triceps.¹⁴

If you have muscle-related shoulder pain, this could be an effective strategy.

But shoulder pain rarely comes directly from the shoulder muscles, more than general post-workout delayed onset muscle soreness. So, it might not be the best solution for all types of shoulder pains.

Due to their complexity, pains that are related to what happens inside or around the shoulder joints are difficult to calculate pain-free loading patterns for.

It’s often a lot easier to test different movements and loading patterns to see what works best for you and your pain.

It might actually be one of the variations that are described as poison for your shoulders that results in your favor.

Shoulder in, shoulder out, shoulder up, shoulders down, asymmetrical shoulders, and so on. Try them all and more and evaluate according to the “three rule pain principle” described earlier. See what fits your shoulders the best!

“Okay, I’ve done as you say, but I’m still in pain. What do I do?”

Well, another well-known technical instruction that is described to prevent shoulder pains is to retract your shoulder blades in your bench press set-up.

This could actually be a good idea since one of the adopted risk factors for pain was long range of motion. ( see Causes of Shoulder Pain When Bench Pressing)

With retracted shoulder blades (and maybe an arched back if you dare), the bar doesn’t have to travel as far down to your chest, equaling a shorter range of motion for the shoulder joints.

You also position your chest muscles in a stretched position, which still allows them to express the movement in a beneficial range for your chest gain. Win-win?¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷

So should you start retracting your shoulder blades when bench pressing?

I don’t know.

Regarding pain: If it ain’t broken, maybe don’t fix it? But if you do get shoulder pain when bench pressing, try to retract them and see if it feels better.

Regarding performance: In general, people perform the same regardless of shoulder blade position, but on an individual basis, people are stronger with the technique they usually train.¹⁸

So yet again, maybe it all comes down to what suits your shoulders the best.

Shoulder-Friendly Alternatives to Bench Pressing

I hate the bench press.

Mostly because I’m not very good at it but also because it’s the one exercise that gives me pain regardless of how I try to incorporate different workloads and/or lifting techniques.

Therefore I’ve decided to use other variations of chest exercises to train my mediocre developed chest muscles.

Here are some examples:

Close-Grip Bench Press

As mentioned earlier, this variation involves a narrower grip, placing less load on the shoulder muscles (and chest muscles) in exchange for more triceps engagement.

Dumbbell Press Variations

Dumbbell presses allow for a more varied range of motion, accommodating individual shoulder mechanics.

You could also experiment with flat, incline, and decline dumbbell presses to find variations that are comfortable on your shoulders.

Machine-Based Pressing

Machines provide stability and a guided range of motion, minimizing the need for shoulder stabilization. Maybe that is what your shoulders need?

By exploring these alternatives, you may not only find relief for sore shoulders but also introduce valuable variation into your training plan!

In Closing: The Road Ahead

The path to a pain-free life of bench pressing can involve an ongoing commitment to understanding your body, individualizing your technique, and maybe adapting your training program.

If you want to sign up for this, I recommend the StrengthLog App, which offers you all the necessary tools to stay bench press active, such as many different chest exercises and bench press programs.

Regardless of shoulder pain or not, it’s also good to approach your future bench press journey to maintain optimism and continuous curiosity.

For more guidance along the way, you are more than welcome to join our Facebook group StrengthLog Community, where you can discuss any training-related progress or setback with like-minded and strong people.

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