Hey hermanation! Yesterday i was doing some incline bench press and felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder. I was not going overly heavy for myself (155 3x10) but i still ended up hurting myself. Right when i felt the pain, i instantly stoped and ended my workout there to prevent more damage do be done. I have worked obessively at correcting my form over the past few weeks, so im confused as to how this happened or what happened. This morning, i regained full range of motion,  but now i get pain when i try to externally rotate my arm or stretch it out all the way. I have felt some pain in the top of my tricep and shoulder but thats it. I would love it if someone could give me some ideas as what this could be. I dont want to have to sit out of my training and possibly lose my spot on our team so any advice on what it could be/stretches to help would be much apreciated!

Sounds like a call for Daniel Meyer or "Impulse" Eric to answer this one. Anyways, you were smart to stop what you were doing when the pain started. You mentioned you have been focusing on correcting your form recently. I am not sure what you mean here but if you were originally not doing full range of motion - all the way down to touch the upper chest then all the way back up - you could have caused a slight shoulder impingement or you could have strained one or more of your rotator cuff muscles (Teres Major, Teres Minor, Supraspinatus, and Subscapularis). They control the movement and flexibility of the shoulder joint. If you are doing an exercise or movement in a manner that these muscles are not accustomed to, regardless of the amount of weight, you can injure them. The degree of injury depends on the type of movement and the force applied.

I would have a sports medicine or physiotherapist take a look at it just in case. The LAST thing you want is shoulder problems. Outside of training legs, your shoulders are involved in exercises for all other body parts. Not a good joint to have issues with :-)

John

ANy chance you can post a short video of your form from a side view so we can see what is going on? Just do like 3-5 reps with super light weight so we can see the range of motion.

hope you feel better soon!

Where exactly was the initial pain in your shoulder? Which motions hurt your shoulder: Flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, horizontal adduction, internal rotation, external rotation?

thanks for the info guys, as of today, only external rotation is painful. I see this pain near the rear deltoid. its only been a few days sence it started and it already feels better except for the external rotation. Thanks again

Actually, sounds more like a mild upper-triceps strain to me. Any swelling in the area and / or is it also painful to the touch?

What I'm curious about is where in the range of motion in the exercise did the pain originally occur? Midway-on through the lockout of the movement, or from the bottom to the midpoint of the movement? Given the movement and the location of the pain, the time at which it flared up will present a much clearer idea as to what muscle group is actually strained.

It occured midway-lockout of the movement. it is not sensitive to the touch. i had a theory that it was my tricep but i never got any pain or other motives to think it was there.