Shoulder Pain

[Genius]

Recently I started having some shoulder pain. The pain happens if I lift my arms up, side to side sometimes, and when I bench press. The pain isn't terrible, but it does cause some slight discomfort. For the past few years, I've had an addiction to heavy pressing. I enjoy bench pressing with heavy weights. I'm an experienced lifter (over 8 years of experience). The problem just recently started.

My questions are:
1) What are some of the consequences of heavy pressing for lengthy periods of time?
2) What are some methods for helping the recovery process along (external rotations, bands?)

[UConnJulie]

It sounds as though you have impingement, probably from a large muscle imbalance between your pressers and your pullers.

1. Forward shoulder posture, excessive internal rotation, scapular instability, impingement, rotator cuff problems ... etc etc etc ...
2. You probably need to lay off pressing for a good long while ... and implement a postural correction program along with scapular stability exercises, pectoral stretching, and lots of pulling to correct the imbalance.

[Genius]

Is this still true if I'm performing the same amount of pulling exersizes as pushing? I do push/pulls in roughly equal amounts. Since I'm on a full body routine (and have been for the majority of the time the past 8 years), I work upper and lowerbody equally with around the same amount of push/pull exersizes.

[UConnJulie]

Originally Posted by Genius

For the past few years, I've had an addiction to heavy pressing. I enjoy bench pressing with heavy weights.

I guess the above statement led me to believe that you were not doing pulling. If you are much stronger in pressing than in pulling, you will get an imbalance as well ... it's not just the quantity of reps/exercises that helps balance ... it's what you do outside of the gym ... it's your posture ... and it's the strength balance between the pushers and pullers.