Back Pain While Bench Pressing

Dealing with back pain while bench pressing can be absolutely miserable. What should be a simple exercise to help build strength in the upper body becomes something you dread doing, do anyways despite the pain or you skip altogether. We already know exercise is excellent for combating low back pain but we still need to be intentional about how we approach each exercise that we do.

Before I share my 4 simple strategies to benching with low back pain I want to explain the 2 biggest mistakes people make when trying to navigate their low back pain in the gym.

Bench Pressing Mistake #1

Benching anyways despite your pain: Listen to me. If you want to have any kind of life as you age you need to start thinking longevity. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re not a competitive powerlifter where your paychecks are written based on how much you can bench. Since that is the case you must be willing to stop plowing through painful exercises and start fixing the root issue.

Just because you have pain in your low back now when benching doesn’t mean you have to forever. Trust me you can fix it with the right coaching!

Bench Pressing Mistake #2

Skipping all the painful bench press variations altogether: Have you ever heard of the saying if you don’t use it you lose it? Well, think about that, if you build your life based around only doing things that don’t cause you pain what does that look like 8 years from now when you have widdled your life down to nothing?

Trust me you can barbell bench and dumbbell bench at all angles without low back pain (even if you can’t right now).

Bench Pressing Mistake #3

Not addressing tight muscles: This goes without saying but if your hips are all wound up I would suggest you spend some time addressing these things!

This is a great article that touches on the essential muscles you should be targeting

Check it out!

Bench Pressing after rupturing a disc…

After rupturing my L5-S1 disc, I know what low back pain is like when you’re trying to bench press.

Some of the most common mistakes I see during any kind of bench press (barbell bench pressing and dumbbell bench press) can easily be applied to someone who has been struggling with low back pain for years or maybe just an acute flair up.

You can use the techniques in this video with both the barbell and dumbbell variations of bench pressing. I personally prefer to dumbbell bench press given the fact that I have more control over the weight and the position of my shoulders (which is key).

Let’s dive into my 4 key bench pressing hacks for low back pain!

Thanks so much for checking this out! If you know someone struggling to get a grip on their low back pain please share this article with your favorite social media platform! Spreading the word of hope for chronic pain sufferers is powerful!

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