Shoulder Pain

So for as long as i can remember, maybe 15 years, i've had a strain in my right shoulder on and after bench days. Not sure if its a torn tendon, or kinked rotator cuff, or something else. I was a pitcher when I was young, but I believe the injury came from overdoing the bench press. I'm a long skinny guy and the bench press has always been my most difficult lift, flat chested and long arms I tend to put a lot of emphasis on my shoulders and triceps. I do a lot of stretching during a 10 min warm up jog prior to lifting to help warm me up, when I rotate that shoulder it pops about 10 times before it starts loosening up.

...anyone deal with this as well? thoughts? suggestions?

Bench has a long history of fucking up shoulders, even experienced dudes with good form. Switch to DBs unless that winds up being no better. See a sports doc to find out what the deal is and don't risk a major tear.

I strongly recommend that you get the paperback book titled; "The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution" by Joseph Horrigan, D.C. I believe it's out of print, but it's still being sold on Amazon. It's easy reading, and it gives you three stretches you can do, as well as a few exercises specific to rotator cuff muscle and tendon health. These specific exercises are not anything that you ever find in a typical BBing book, nor do you usually see guys in the gym doing them.

In addition to the few stretches and exercises that the author of the book recommends, he also instructs you to avoid doing a few movements, all of which cause shoulder "impingement" which over time can really mess up your rotator cuff, the surrounding tendons, and muscles. These are smaller muscles located underneath the larger Deltoid muscles. To give you a primer of the book, I'll briefly share with you here the four excercises it tells you to avoid. All of which cause shoulder impingement which can lead to both major and minor injury....

Exercises to avoid:

#1. Front dumbell Laterals, (side Laterals and bent over rear Laterals are good, but NOT front Laterals)

#2. Upright Barbell rows

#3. dumbell pull-overs

#4. The Butterfly stroke when swimming.

I forgot to make mention of one other thing that the book mentions..... when bench pressing, do not lower the bar to a high point on your chest, (in other words, to a point closer to your neck). Doing so puts increased strain on your rotator cuff tendons. Always lower the bar to your nipples. Same goes for inclined bench presses. BTW, the book I mentioned in my last post above was written by a guy who was the founder and head of a sports injury rehab center in CA a couple decades ago. I'm not sure if that rehab center is still in biz or not.

Good info Tall Deck, much appreciated!

Ehh...stretching is going to do shit. Get dry needling done in every rear rotator cuff muscle. Especially the infraspinatus. Get the traps and rhomboids done too.
95% of shoulder pain is from rear rotator muscles referring pain to the side or front shoulder. Even into the bicep or forearm.
Ive been dealing with it for years. Got prolo therapy, ART, deep tissue, acupuncture, you name it.
The trigger points need to be manipulated and acupuncture won't do it.
Get a pic of the rear muscles and have somone apply thumb pressure at a lot of different spots and hold it. Once you find a spot that refers pain to the place your having it that's the spot to dry needle. May be multiple spots.
I ordered pins and my wife does me now. .5" 30g pin. In and out like you're feeling around for something (not coming all the way out) in the spot until you get that electric shock type feeling then she leaves it be and moves to the next spot(s). Once all areas have hit the right feeling she leaves me for 30 min then comes back and removes them. Instant relief. Sometimes its 2 pins, sometimes a dozen.
Beats paying someone $75 for a few min.

people often overlook the rotator muscles and eventually they get stressed as people push heavier and heavier loads with the primary movers.