Bench Press

#1

I’m starting to get on a regular weightlifting schedule, and I’ve been focusing on upper-body strength. A big part of that is of course, benching and I’ve been encouraged to bring the barbell down to my chest before pushing it back up. I saw somewhere online that doing so hurts your rotator cuff (and maybe some other various areas) rather than when you keep the bar a few inches above your chest. I’d like to see if any of our trusty experts know anything about this.

Please note that I do not weightlift exclusively for pitching.

#2

Bringing the bar all the way down to your chest will put a lot of stress on your shoulder capsules (in both arms). I would not recommend doing bench presses with a bar at all. Use dumbbells or do pushups with your feet elevated.

#3

Solid article with regards to pitchers pressing:
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/overhead_athlete.htm

#4

only go down to 90 degree, its fine for pitchers

#5

my friend goes to Seminole CC in florida and their conditioning coach doesnt let them do anything but incline bench with light weights, the trainer at my school says just use dumbbells and youll be fine, either way they both dont reccomend going all the way down with a regular bar

#6

From what I gathered from that article, as long as you match a push with a pull, spread your arms out at shoulder length, have somebody watching your form and… not be stupid while lifting, then it doesn’t do harm.

Benching is too big a part of our program to just not do it either (we’re a poor public school… sorry), so I’ll just be going down to 90 degrees, BUT, I love dumbells to death and they’re a large part of my lifting anyway.

Thanx for the help guys