Advice / Input / Insight regarding Bench press issue

As long as I can remember I have had a bad left shoulder from being a goalie in hockey, now in recent year with weight training, I have always struggled when it came to shoulder exercises and bench pressing. After a few years I have strengthened my shoulder a lot and don't notice much pain, although my lifts still suffer from the lack of strength in the shoulder.

This one in particular I have been struggling with for some time. When I do chest incline with dumbells, my max as of today is 110lb bells, so 220lbs total for 6 reps. If I switch to flat bench with dumbells I max out at 80lbs a side, but usually only 75lbs. Bench press with a barbell max is 180lbs (which is embarrassing) and my shoulder hurts like a bitch. A lot of guys I know say its weird I can push so much more in incline.... Thing is, I don't feel the shoulder pain with incline as much, only when I am bringing the weights up from my knees.

Has anyone suffered from this problem before? Does anyone have some tips to help me increase my shoulder strength and my flat bench weight limits?

Looking for any and all insight

P.S

I've tried to get cortisone shots and my doc is a bitch and doesn't think I need it.

shoulders are complex.. so it all depends on WHAT the injury was. I personally only go down to about 2-3" from my chest when i bench as i feel anything further only causes more stress/pain with no more serious gains.. i am assuming you can do incline more because your delts are coming more into play, but i would have thought that would make it more painful for your shoulders not less.

I've personally always been better at the incline than flat bench myself. I feel that some people are just more shoulder dominate than others and incline pressing comes more natural. What's your shoulder pressing look like? Are you naturally strong in that department or no? Pain isn't always an indication of strength.

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Originally Posted by MACHINE5150

shoulders are complex.. so it all depends on WHAT the injury was. I personally only go down to about 2-3" from my chest when i bench as i feel anything further only causes more stress/pain with no more serious gains.. i am assuming you can do incline more because your delts are coming more into play, but i would have thought that would make it more painful for your shoulders not less.

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No specific injury... just years of abuse. I have tried only going down to about 2 to 3 inches from my chest.... I have tried all the way down and bouncing it off my chest. I even moved the bar further down below my nipples to take strain off my shoulders, all with the same result.

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Originally Posted by BigBuck6

I've personally always been better at the incline than flat bench myself. I feel that some people are just more shoulder dominate than others and incline pressing comes more natural. What's your shoulder pressing look like? Are you naturally strong in that department or no? Pain isn't always an indication of strength.

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My shoulders are good now.... I do 45lb dumbell front raises and do 95lb a side over the head shoulder press.

ive tore both my rotator cuffs but with a full recovery, i couldnt lift a baby blanket without pain. have you looked into your cuffs being the injury? i seen you said no specific injury but im just curious bro

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Originally Posted by BUTTERYGOODNESS

ive tore both my rotator cuffs but with a full recovery, i couldnt lift a baby blanket without pain. have you looked into your cuffs being the injury? i seen you said no specific injury but im just curious bro

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I was in physical therapy for a while because of it and the therapist never said anything about an injury that serious. I think he was a pretty good therapist too. That was about 2 years ago and all I got was some stuff call Pennsaid that I rubbed on it, which is actually pretty amazing stuff for any sort of pain or inflammation after the fact, but thats about it. I don't know what it feels like to have tore a rotator cuff but mine doesn't feel too painful.... maybe I should get another opinion.

Have they done an MRI on you? I am now assuming that you went to an Orthopedic Specialist not just any old MD or OD. Have they done an xray to rule out bone spurs? With all of that done I would assume it's either chronic inflammation in a bursa or an AC separation but chances are the latter would show up on the tests.

^^ true, u wanna consider that nething could be a possibility so u wanna make sure u rule out everything u can

My advice, if you're not a powerlifter, don't bench. Case closed! I'm a powerlifter/strongman so with powerlifting, it's obvious, I have to bench. But many strongmen and pretty much all olympic lifters, never bench because it's not necessary in those endeavors. I know many bodybuilders who don't flat bench either. There are ways to build the chest without benching. Explore those options.

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Originally Posted by BgMc31

My advice, if you're not a powerlifter, don't bench. Case closed! I'm a powerlifter/strongman so with powerlifting, it's obvious, I have to bench. But many strongmen and pretty much all olympic lifters, never bench because it's not necessary in those endeavors. I know many bodybuilders who don't flat bench either. There are ways to build the chest without benching. Explore those options.

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i havent flat beched since my injury except maybe four times

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Originally Posted by BigBuck6

Have they done an MRI on you? I am now assuming that you went to an Orthopedic Specialist not just any old MD or OD. Have they done an xray to rule out bone spurs? With all of that done I would assume it's either chronic inflammation in a bursa or an AC separation but chances are the latter would show up on the tests.

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I've never had it that thoroughly checked out.... I'm pretty sure my physical therapist did an MRI, but now that you bring it up, I can't recall. Maybe I should have more specialized doctors take a look at it

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Originally Posted by BgMc31

My advice, if you're not a powerlifter, don't bench. Case closed! I'm a powerlifter/strongman so with powerlifting, it's obvious, I have to bench. But many strongmen and pretty much all olympic lifters, never bench because it's not necessary in those endeavors. I know many bodybuilders who don't flat bench either. There are ways to build the chest without benching. Explore those options.

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That's a real good point, maybe I should just drop the bench entirely.

I had a similiar injury from a car accident. It took my shoulder almost two years to heal. I had to stick to dumbells weight machines and could only go to 90 degrees on them. Never had surgery on it, also it felt alot better when I did incline dumbell movements no idea why. I'm very carefull with my shoulders now I warm them up extensively when I work out.