bench press

I lift three times a week. Of all the lifting I do, which isn't a ton to begin with, I do the least amount of bench presses. Something about it makes me think it can't be good for swimming and/or I'm likely to rip something and hurt my swimming. Plus, I'm pretty weak.

My understanding of swimmer's shoulder is that muscle imbalance aggravates impingement of the rotator cuff tendons. The anterior muscles, including pectoralis major, are larger and stronger than the rotator cuff muscles and the other posterior muscle groups that stabilize the scapula and suppport the shoulder. So bench press could increase this imbalance, making the situation worse. Additionally, depending on how you perform the exercise, you may be impinging the tendons when you lower the weight (same problem with dips). Gull, you are right on the money.....once again! :bow: I don't do bench presses for all the reasons you listed. Anytime I've done it, I've been in pain afterwards. I have very muscular pecs....don't laugh. This is no way reflects the size of other nearby parts! :rofl: My doctor told me that was a big cause for my shoulder problems.....the muscle imbalance combined with loose joints. I say avoid the bench press if you have shoulder problems....and if you do bench, do so with lots of reps and low weight.

So what do can be done to restore balance? RC stabilisers, rows? Doorway stretches are huge for anyone who is blessed with a chunky chest. I don't do dips or push ups either. Anything really where my shoulders are supporting my body weight. To restore balance, you should do RC exercises and scapular stabilizers, plus any exercise that strengthens the back and anterior muscles, especially the teres muscles. Rowing is good, although shouldn't be overdone. Any machine with a pulling motion that causes you to retract and protract the shoulder blades is effective. There are also dryland exercises that help strengthen the scapular muscles with retraction and protraction like the prone hitchhiker, etc. I'm not sure about doorway stretches ... I'm leary of stretching my tendons. But I can see where you would want to stretch the muscles in the front of the shoulder, but NOT the back. Presumably the tendons are loosey goosey back there from all the repetitive motion on fly and free. Or genetics. Or both.

I'm with you Ande. I do not bench or do weighted dips anymore. I competed in power lifting and benched my whole life. Now that I have been swimming for several years 5 to 6 times a week, I no longer bench because I feel strain inside my shoulders. But I can do more pushups now than before. That tells me something. The big surprise for me was the devlopment of all my posterior muscles from swimming. Tri's, Back, upper shoulders and especially lats. My upper body is bigger now than when powerlifting (definately not the glutes and legs though). If you want to swim fast, there is no substitute for swimming. If I were to do any lifting it would be pull ups and rows. These don't seem to put the same strain on my shoulders as benching and dips. If your shoulders can handle benching go right ahead, but I don't see the need.

Interesting view point...but bench pressing can't be all that bad for swimming. By default, the abdominal muscles will get a work out...along with all the smaller muscles which are straining to push the weight upwards. Bench pressing in itself will strengthen your triceps (good for swimming). However, the best muscle building for the triceps will come from doing dips. Another muscle group to target are the lats. Lat pull downs on a weight machine and pull-ups/chin/ups will strengthen these back muscles. Very good for swimming. Maybe it all depends on how these exercises are being done. Bad form will cause damage. That is true but... so will bad anatomy...even with good form! We've had this technique vs anatomy discussion many times on the shoulder problem threads. I believe its not always technique problems at fault!

Terry Laughlin tore a portion of his rotator cuff doing bench press and was faced with a long recovery that involved surgery as I recall. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that bench pressing is outright bad for swimmers. I do think that bench pressing with shoulders that are already overworked from swimming is an invitation to a disaster though. That's fair enough Matt but you can also sneeze and tear muscles or blow out discs...risk vs reward is an individual assessment. I want X result from doing Y. Something can go wrong anytime, TL was obviously very unlucky.

I'm addicted to dips, nothing seems to burn the triceps like them. Any good substitutions?

When developing upper body strength for swimming purposes, you want to concentrate on swimming specific muscles ...When you are pushing a large amount of weight (greater than 60% of your body weight) away from your body, you are destroying the rotator cuff muscles. When performing the bench press, too much of the weight is supported and stabilized by the rotator cuff muscles. These are the most important muscles for swimming. Isn't this a little contradictory? First he says to work the muscles you use in swimming, then he says bench is no good because you work a muscle used in swimming. So which one is it going to be? If I may, bench press like squats and lat pulldowns are a good basic exercises that hit the main areas. Doing these in a safe, good form way with weight won't do anything bad. Exactly.

When we were teen agers...doing dips were as easy as touching your toes. Not saying these aren't good exercises. Just saying they're not terribly advisable if you have shoulder issues. And even if we're the same weight, aren't we a bit creakier? Plus, if it's an ab workout you want, there are many easier and safer ways to get it then bench pressing! Geek: Try assisted dips or tricep kickbacks or planks. I do lat pull downs and lat presses. You can also do hammers or bicep curls on a bosu -- then you get the arms and the core. Although I really have yet to master doing a superman streamline on a stability ball. That is hard!

My understanding of swimmer's shoulder is that muscle imbalance aggravates impingement of the rotator cuff tendons. The anterior muscles, including pectoralis major, are larger and stronger than the rotator cuff muscles and the other posterior muscle groups that stabilize the scapula and suppport the shoulder. So bench press could increase this imbalance, making the situation worse. Additionally, depending on how you perform the exercise, you may be impinging the tendons when you lower the weight (same problem with dips).