When dealing with high intensity exercise injuries are still, sadly, common-place even when you are using bodybuilding supplements. Building muscle involves first pushing hard and breaking down muscle, of course there is a risk involved. If you want to build muscle you should always be running close to or at your maximum capability. Bench press shoulder injuries are one of the 4 most common injuries, along with lower back, knee and wrist injuries. Of course, since you are always trying to up your weights, you can find an injury to be a real block to your programme.
Hard though it can be, the main thing when you get an injury is to take things slowly and not rush. Attempting to just push through the pain and keep going can turn a minor setback into a lifelong injury that holds you back for a lot longer.
You will always get the best advice from a sports doctor or physiotherapy. It is best not to just go on the advice of people at your gym, no matter how knowledgeable they may appear.
If you gym has machines as well as free weights, it is a good idea to start with them when you come back to training. Because the machine forces you to follow a specific movement they are great for stopping you from injuring yourself.
When you do return to your regular bench press exercises, you will need to strengthen each muscle required to perform the task. If you have been out of action with your injury for an extended period, your muscles will not be used to the strain. Start off slowly. Try using barbell exercises; this will prevent your uninjured muscles from doing the work of the injured ones. Barbells can help you work on all 3 deltoid parts of your shoulders and help to develop each muscle equally.
If your shoulder starts hurting again you need to stop, don’t try and push through it. This is your body telling you that there is still something wrong and you should wait a bit longer. Pain during lifting is not right, even if you haven’t trained for a long time. It goes without saying but you should always use a spotter when lifting heavy weights, particularly when coming back from injury. You may find that the weights that you could comfortably lift before an injury actually cause pain that leads to your dropping it.
Sarah Haines has a lot of interest in general fitness and particularly bodybuilding. New developments such as bodybuilding supplements, like whey protein powder, are of great interest to her and she finds it an enjoyable topic for her articles.