Bench Press Shoulder Pain: What Your Form Is Doing Wrong

Fix these form errors before they wreck your shoulders.

Shoulder pain from bench pressing is incredibly common. Ask around any gym and you'll find plenty of lifters dealing with nagging shoulder issues—impingement, rotator cuff problems, chronic inflammation. Most of them assume it's just part of the game.

It's not. Shoulder pain from bench press is almost always a technique problem. Fix the technique, fix the pain. Keep the bad technique and eventually you'll need to stop benching entirely.

Here are the three biggest form mistakes that cause bench press shoulder pain, and exactly how to fix them.

1. Flared Elbows (The Shoulder Killer)

If your elbows flare out to 90 degrees from your torso—so your arms form a straight line at the bottom—you're putting your shoulders in the most vulnerable position possible.

This position internally rotates your shoulders while they're under load and maximally stretched. Your rotator cuff is working overtime to stabilize a position it's not designed for. Over time, this leads to impingement (pinching of the tendons), rotator cuff fraying, and chronic shoulder inflammation.

The messed up thing is that 90-degree flare feels powerful in the moment. You can move weight this way. But you're trading short-term strength for long-term shoulder damage.

The fix: tuck your elbows to somewhere between 45 and 75 degrees from your torso. At the bottom of the bench, your forearms should angle inward slightly, not point straight out to the sides.

This feels weaker at first. Your numbers might drop temporarily. That's fine—you're saving your shoulders. After a few weeks, you'll rebuild strength in the safer position and likely surpass your old numbers.

A good cue: "bend the bar" as you lower it to your chest. This engages your lats and naturally brings your elbows in.

2. No Shoulder Blade Retraction

If you bench with your shoulder blades flat against the bench, your shoulders are doing way more work than they should. They're also moving through a larger range of motion and ending up in compromised positions.

Proper bench press setup involves pulling your shoulder blades together and down—pinching them tight behind you and driving them into the bench. This creates a stable platform for pressing and keeps your shoulders in a safer position throughout the lift.

Signs you're not retracting: your shoulders roll forward at the bottom of the lift, you feel the movement in the front of your shoulders instead of your chest, and you can't keep your upper back tight throughout the set.

The fix starts before you even unrack the bar. Lie on the bench, pull your shoulder blades together hard (imagine squeezing a pencil between them), and push them down toward your hips. Arch your upper back slightly. This is your locked-in position—maintain it throughout every rep.

Your shoulder blades should not move during the set. If they do, your setup is collapsing and your shoulders are taking over.

3. Bar Touching Too High on Your Chest

Where the bar touches your chest matters more than people realize. If you're lowering the bar to your upper chest or neck area, you're putting your shoulders in an extended, vulnerable position at the bottom of the lift.

The optimal touch point for most lifters is somewhere between the lower chest and the base of the sternum. This keeps your elbows in a better position and reduces shoulder stress.

Touch point varies based on your build, grip width, and arch. But as a general rule: if you're touching high (upper chest or collarbone area), you're probably hurting your shoulders.

The fix: Let the bar come down to your lower chest naturally. Don't force it high to feel more "chest activation." Your pecs work just fine with a lower touch point, and your shoulders will thank you.

Film yourself from the side. Watch where the bar actually touches. If it's hitting near your collarbone, adjust your bar path to come down lower.

The Bar Path Problem

These three issues are connected through bar path. With flared elbows, no shoulder blade retraction, and a high touch point, you end up with a bar path that's basically straight up and down—and that's a shoulder destroyer.

Proper bench press bar path actually has a slight curve. The bar moves down and slightly toward your face, then back up and slightly toward the rack. This J-curve path keeps your shoulders in safer positions throughout the lift.

If your bar path is straight up and down (or worse, curves the wrong way), your form needs work.

How Form Degrades Under Fatigue

Here's what catches a lot of solo lifters: your form might be fine on rep one and terrible by rep eight.

As you fatigue, your technique breaks down. Your shoulder blades start sliding out of position. Your elbows flare more. Your touch point drifts higher as you struggle to press the weight.

This is why the last few reps of your sets are often where shoulder damage accumulates. You're fighting the weight with deteriorating form, and your shoulders pay the price.

This is also why every-session form feedback matters. Not just checking your form occasionally when you're fresh, but catching the breakdown that happens when you're grinding out your work sets. Gymscore analyzes your form after each recorded set, showing you when your elbow angle started flaring or your bar path went off track—so you can fix it on your next set.

What Shoulder Pain Is Telling You

Pain is information. Different types of shoulder pain point to different problems:

Pain in the front of your shoulder during the lift usually indicates impingement—your rotator cuff tendons are getting pinched. This is classic flared-elbow damage.

Pain deep in the shoulder joint suggests you're stressing the joint itself, often from poor shoulder blade position or too much range of motion for your current mobility.

Pain that lingers for days after benching indicates inflammation from accumulated stress. This is your signal that something in your technique needs to change now, not later.

Don't train through shoulder pain. Find the form issue, fix it, and let the inflammation settle before loading back up.

The Recovery Path

If you're already dealing with bench-related shoulder pain, here's the path forward:

First, stop doing the thing that hurts. This might mean taking a few weeks off bench press entirely, or it might mean lightening the load significantly while you fix your form.

Second, identify which form error is the main culprit. Film yourself, use Gymscore's AI analysis, or get a coach to look at your technique. You need to know what's wrong before you can fix it.

Third, rebuild your bench press with correct form, starting light. Yes, this is frustrating. But trying to maintain your numbers while fixing technique doesn't work—you'll revert to old patterns under heavy load.

Fourth, implement ongoing form monitoring. The point is to catch form breakdown before it causes pain again. Film your sets, use AI analysis, whatever works—but don't go back to benching blind.

Your shoulders can recover from a lot of abuse if you give them the chance. But that requires actually fixing the problem, not just resting and then going back to the same bad patterns.

Bench Press Should Not Hurt Your Shoulders

This is the main point: chronic shoulder pain from bench pressing is not normal and not inevitable. It's a sign that your technique needs work.

Fix your elbow angle. Lock in your shoulder blade retraction. Adjust your touch point. Get feedback on your form so you can catch problems before they become injuries.

You can bench press for decades without shoulder issues. But only if you do it right.

Related Reading

Shoulder pain on bench is just one of the common form-related injuries. If you're training alone, also check out 5 deadlift form mistakes that cause back pain and how to verify your squat depth without a coach. And for the bigger picture on why ongoing monitoring matters, read why one form check isn't enough.