Should Pain When Lifting – The Solution!

Shoulder pain, otherwise known as shoulder impingement when lifting weights is a pretty common issue. It could be just when in the gym doing exercises such as bench press, shoulder press or others. But it can also transfer to daily life making what you previously viewed as simple tasks you took for granted, either painful or impossible. And can get to the point where you get a nagging pain in the shoulder pretty much all the time (I have been there myself). But hopefully after following these steps you will o longer have to experience shoulder pain when lifting.

What is Shoulder Impingement?

Shoulder impingement is a nagging pain in the front or down the side of the shoulder. The good news is this there is usually no serious damage caused. At worst there may be some slight fraying/wearing of the tendon, but usually it’s just inflammation of the tendon. This does not mean you should ignore it and it will go away by itself. You need to modify your posture when lifting to stop this happening.

What Should I do About It?

For the purposes of this post I am going to assume your symptoms are minor and you are addressing this issue early. If however the pain is more severe, or you make the following changes and it doesn’t improve you may need a more advanced approach which I will link to.

However I usually find the following solves the problem for most people experiencing mild issues.

As you move your shoulder, we’ll use the bench press as an example, the bones that connect into the shoulder all move. And this means the tendons all move, because tendons are what connect the muscle to the bone. Some of these tendon pass through a relative small gap between the bones. Depending on how small that gap is you may experience rubbing/wearing of the tendon over time. That tendon then becomes inflamed/worn and that’s where the pain comes in.

The good news is there is a simple thing you can do to increase the size of the gap the tendons have to pass through. Retract your shoulder blades and tilt your scapula back. So think about squeezing a golf ball between your shoulder blades. That is retracting your shoulder blades. And if you assume your back is usually straight, try to tilt your back a little. So you are essentially leaning back with your upper back.

The reality is most people do the opposite both in their daily lives and when training. They round their shoulders forward closing up that gap for the tendons to pass and increasing the chance or rubbing occurring. Think about your posture when sitting at your desk or driving. Is it rounded? If so I almost guarantee you will be doing that in the gym as well.

Conclusion – Should Pain When Lifting – The Solution!

So before you do any exercise retract your shoulder blades and tilt your scapula back. It will create far more space for the tendons to move and should fix your shoulder impingement/pain problems.