Sooner or later it happens to almost everyone. You start your bench workout with the empty bar and your shoulder feels a bit off. Probably just cobwebs, you think, because usually it is. But then you go to your first warmup at 135 and it doesn’t get better as you warm up like it usually does, but instead gets worse. Eh probably just needs a little more warmup. So you do an extra warmup set then move on to your next warmup at 185, but now it feels even worse. OK, now you know something is wrong. But it’s not so bad, not so painful, that it’s a serious injury for which you need to stop altogether. You figure you can still do something today, but your planned 3x5 at 265 isn’t gonna happen. What should you do? It’s worth a shot to see if you can do something, if there’s some work you can get in without exacerbating the pain. But what?
Options to adjust and still get some work in:
Adjust Grip - narrower/close grip bench instead of regular grip, dumbbell bench press with angled hands, swiss bar/neutral grip.
Adjust Load - reduce, obviously.
Adjust ROM - try pin bench / bench blocks from various heights and see if shoulder is happier.
These adjustments aren't mutually exclusive, but may be combined. It's possible that each adjustment on its own is still too uncomfortable to train, but, i.e., a combo of close grip pin bench at 70% of planned work weight is doable, to still get some work in for the day without making the pain worse or further irritating whatever is irritated in there.
What are “Angled Hands” on Dumbbell Bench?
A lot of my clients don't understand what I mean when I say "angled hands" in the dumbbell bench press, but usually get it when they see a picture. The idea is, unlike a barbell where your hands are fixed in pronation, dumbbells allow you to rotate your hands to this angle.
You then keep your arms at this angle too, in this groove, for the way down and back up. A healthy shoulder can handle the bench press prone grip just fine as long as you tuck your elbows a little, but an already irritated shoulder sometimes - not always - needs a little time off the barbell bench to get un-irritated. This is one good option to still get some work in, until you can go back to the bench press.
The angled hands bench is also great for more advanced lifters to use as a bench press supplemental lift, as I do myself. It could be just for the slightly different stimulus you get from dumbbells once you’re advanced enough to need such things, but older guys with cranky shoulders who still want or need to bench, can reduce volume and/or frequency on the bench press proper, while still training it hard, and make up some of that work with this kind of angled hands dumbbell bench, which tends to be easier on the shoulders.
What do you think of this?
https://startingstrength.com/training/dumbbells