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Bicep Pain when Benching

Jungnaut

Jungnaut

YOLO Kunce
Lately every time when I am trying to bench I feel pain running along my biceps. I am sorta bewildered by this, as I don't do any isolation exercises on my biceps, and my bench is straight after squats as per the SS program.
It feels like it just "gives out" when the bar is a couple inches from my chest, its not unbearable pain but just unnerving.
I can't figure out what could be the cause of this. Even during my warm up sets the pain starts. I find that it is possible to ignore it and push on with my training, but something is not right and I can't figure out what it is. Help!
 
Have you tried posting a video of your bench form on this forum for the pros to pick apart?

Also, dunno if it's relevant to you, but I had a similar thing going on, and it turned out that I had the bar too low with low bar squats (which were done just before benching, just as you do). Plus my form was a bit crap in general. These days, I don't get that discomfort (that became shooting pain, and had me avoiding pressing for a while for fear of serious injury).

Anyway, here's a video that might help if that is a problem for you as well: Starting Strength: Video

I would make damn sure you have form down for all your lifts (always a good idea, regardless) but bench in particular... and maybe squats secondly.
 
We are going to need a lot more information to have any sort of idea what is going on.

What sort of pain is it?
Is it a dull ache, or is it a sharp pain?
Is there any swelling, compared to your other arm?
Is it limited to a local area, or run the entire length of the muscle? If local, where?
Does the pain come on during other chest exercises (flys, push up)?
Does the pain come on during bicep exercises (curls, pull ups, rows)?
Does the pain come on during overhead press exercises?
Does the pain come on when lifting any weight, or only on heavier sets?

Also agree on technique video if possible. Could be a slight variation that you may not even realise that is putting the joints at an obscure and unnatural angle.

Until those answers are covered, have some anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen should help) and rest.

A common injury I've seen a lot of is tendonitis of the long head of the bicep. It joins up and over your shoulder joint and is quite common among guys who lift, usually manifesting as pain on the anterior side of the shoulder or towards the top of the arm. Generally comes from overuse, but can be a result of trauma as well (dickhead who decided to load up double his max weight on preacher, have two friends get to starting position, and attempt to curl - no doubt in the squat rack. Sudden acceleration of the weight and him holding onto it caused similar symptoms when he couldn't control the full ROM).

If it sounds like an overuse injury with similar symptoms as above, knock back some ibuprofen (nurofen) as the tendon will most likely be inflammed. You will have to rest it for a while. Some remedial massage may help the recovery a little bit - but other than that it will unfortunately be a time to suck it up for a while and train around it.

Hope that helped somewhat. It is hard to diagnose anything without the ability to see, compare and manipulate in person. Best bet will always be a physio as they can take the hands on approach - and possibly ultrasound/refer for MRI/X-ray if there is no improvement.
 
Could be something as simple as elbows flared out too wide when benching. Only a video will really give us an indication of what might be happening.
 
Myork85 said:
We are going to need a lot more information to have any sort of idea what is going on.
Click to expand...

Is it a dull ache, or is it a sharp pain? dull ache
Is there any swelling, compared to your other arm? No swelling. Both biceps are sore though
Is it limited to a local area, or run the entire length of the muscle? If local, where? It runs from the shoulders to the head of the bicep (along the tendon)
Does the pain come on during other chest exercises (flys, push up)? No, I can still do MP and also BW+20kg Dips without any pain.
Does the pain come on during bicep exercises (curls, pull ups, rows)? I can still do chinups and rows without any pain..
Does the pain come on during overhead press exercises? No
Does the pain come on when lifting any weight, or only on heavier sets? Just from 60kg and above

Maybe the bicep pain is a secondary problem along to the cuff. That could be.
I'm stretching and foam rolling it like crazy.
I do have a bad habit of flaring my arms out when I bench heavy, but seeing that I only bench once a week, I am not sure how this pain could come about from just that.
 
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