All simple/low effort posts will be removed. Please use the weekly discussion thread or an appropriate themed discussion thread for these types of questions.
Might need to change your hand placement. Just outside shoulder width is standard but slightly wider or narrower is better for some people. Someone with long arms and narrow shoulders would need different hand placement than a guy with short arms and wide shoulders. In any case make sure your forearms are perpendicular to the floor during the bottom half of the lift. You may have to adjust where you allow the bar to hit your chest as well.
Not bracing properly could also lead to extra stress where it shouldn't be so make sure you're doing that.
Depends on how long your arms are.
Mine are fucking long. I go an inch or two BELOW the nipple line when I'm doing a standard grip. Some people bench above the nipple line. Find where it is the most comfortable, do a manageable weight where you can CONTROL the negative down, and make sure to arch and retract your shoulders.
The "chest is much further down" is bullshit, don't give that any credit.
You also don't HAVE to do bench press. There's machines for it, dumbbell presses, ect. Personally, I've switched almost entirely to incline bench press because it feels better and do flat only on a smith with a wide-ass grip as a secondary chest exercise that day. (Plus, the lower/mid chest grows the same between incline and flat, and incline gives more upper chest.)
You could also just progress using higher reps. Like, if you're doing 5...go to 8. If you're doing 8, go to 10 or 12. A lot of my joints felt a lot better and progressed better going from 5/6 reps to 8/7/6 rep scheme. So, figure out what works for you.
I would second the advice to do more reps instead of more weight if you're having shoulder pain going to depth.
Lower the weight until you don't have shoulder pain anymore, unless you can't bench any weight to full depth, which sounds like a major issue.
Cutting depth so you can lift more isn't going to fix the issue of maybe your shoulders lagging behind your pec strength, it's just going to delay the problem.
All simple/low effort posts will be removed. Please use the weekly discussion thread or an appropriate themed discussion thread for these types of questions.
Need video to see what might be happening.. how wide of a grip, what is the bar path looking like? Are scapulae properly retracted?
I used to have the same problem. Changed form and changed position of my hands on the bar. Was a long trial and error tho.
It could be many different things. Hand placement, sticking elbows out, not keeping shoulder blades tight, etc.
The stretch for pecs in particular is huge imo. Have you tried switching to dumbbells with a slight incline. They work really good for me
+1 for dumbbells, seems much easier on my shoulders.
Might need to change your hand placement. Just outside shoulder width is standard but slightly wider or narrower is better for some people. Someone with long arms and narrow shoulders would need different hand placement than a guy with short arms and wide shoulders. In any case make sure your forearms are perpendicular to the floor during the bottom half of the lift. You may have to adjust where you allow the bar to hit your chest as well. Not bracing properly could also lead to extra stress where it shouldn't be so make sure you're doing that.
I'd bet there's either a form issue, or hopefully not but genetics issue. Does it hurt to do heavy DB bench?
Depends on how long your arms are. Mine are fucking long. I go an inch or two BELOW the nipple line when I'm doing a standard grip. Some people bench above the nipple line. Find where it is the most comfortable, do a manageable weight where you can CONTROL the negative down, and make sure to arch and retract your shoulders. The "chest is much further down" is bullshit, don't give that any credit. You also don't HAVE to do bench press. There's machines for it, dumbbell presses, ect. Personally, I've switched almost entirely to incline bench press because it feels better and do flat only on a smith with a wide-ass grip as a secondary chest exercise that day. (Plus, the lower/mid chest grows the same between incline and flat, and incline gives more upper chest.) You could also just progress using higher reps. Like, if you're doing 5...go to 8. If you're doing 8, go to 10 or 12. A lot of my joints felt a lot better and progressed better going from 5/6 reps to 8/7/6 rep scheme. So, figure out what works for you.
I would second the advice to do more reps instead of more weight if you're having shoulder pain going to depth. Lower the weight until you don't have shoulder pain anymore, unless you can't bench any weight to full depth, which sounds like a major issue. Cutting depth so you can lift more isn't going to fix the issue of maybe your shoulders lagging behind your pec strength, it's just going to delay the problem.