Whiplash from bench!??

AMH_Power said:Anybody injured their neck while benching or similar?

Feels like whiplash, and although I can train, in certain positions (like pulling my head directly backwards) I get what feels like nerve pain radiate into my trap and down to my shoulder which is pretty horrific...

Had it about a month now although it is getting better albeit slowly.

AMH_Power saidAnybody injured their neck while benching or similar?

Feels like whiplash, and although I can train, in certain positions (like pulling my head directly backwards) I get what feels like nerve pain radiate into my trap and down to my shoulder which is pretty horrific...

Had it about a month now although it is getting better albeit slowly.

aaron_lohan said:
I have had problems with my neck when benching, I wouldn't call it an injury but a nagging pain. What happened was that my traps got very tight and made my neck sore, I had to get them loosened off and do extra upper back work, you see your traps can be used as a stabiliser if your upper back muscles aren't doing the job

AMH_Power said:
Interesting this. I actively use my traps on bench, I try to put my shoulders in the back of my ears. I used to pull them down until I learned about torque on the front delt! Insta 10kg onto my 1RM from applying this... but it appears it isn't without risk pmsl. That said, done it for 3 years now so I suppose given I bench 3x a week, my injury incidence is like 0.2%... just so happens that this one is a nightmare, sleeping is a no no.
Also interesting is upper back work, how would you suggest I self-evaluate if my upper back is weak? I feel strong with my upper back... but I suppose strength doesn't give a s**t about opinion; whats a reliable test/result?
Cheers

aaron_lohan said:
When I said upper back work I mean work for the rhomboids and the other small muscles around that area. I only find out I have weaknesses in those muscles when I hurt another part such as shoulders, pecs or neck. For me when one of those starts hurting it means the rhomboids etc haven't been working properly to stabilise the shoulder which can cause shoulder pain or the pecs to tighten and pull the shoulder out of place and get sore, or as I said earlier my traps can get overworked and cause neck pain. When this happens I do more upper back exercises and the pain goes in a week or two.
So I guess that I only know when upper back muscles are weakened when something else starts hurting. When I benched 3-4. Times a week I accepted that something would become sore once in a while and would act decisively when that happened, even machines break down every once in a while.
One point to note is that many lifters will have fairly strong traps and lats, but that doesn't guarantee that the little stabiliser muscles are strong. I don't know how to test those muscles partly because most of the exercises I do to work them are unweighted and aren't really possible to progress in the same way as adding weight to a barbell, indeed adding weight to some exercises can be detrimental. I should add what I say applies to me and is what I have learned about my body over the last 13 years. Things get quite individualised with experience, my physio could often tell what would be wrong with how I described something or how I sat.

JonA81 said:Yes a couple of times, from overhead pressing also. Entire trap goes into spasm at the top of the rep.
Worst crick neck ive ever had, took a few of weeks to go off completely.

AMH_Power said:
Interesting this. I actively use my traps on bench, I try to put my shoulders in the back of my ears. I used to pull them down until I learned about torque on the front delt! Insta 10kg onto my 1RM from applying this... but it appears it isn't without risk pmsl. That said, done it for 3 years now so I suppose given I bench 3x a week, my injury incidence is like 0.2%... just so happens that this one is a nightmare, sleeping is a no no.
Also interesting is upper back work, how would you suggest I self-evaluate if my upper back is weak? I feel strong with my upper back... but I suppose strength doesn't give a s**t about opinion; whats a reliable test/result?
Cheers

JackRevans said:I seem to have somehow done almost the exact same thing to my neck while doing cable curls

SteBennett said:Been suffering with this now for a few weeks. The last 2 days have got severely worse. Can't even drop my right shoulder to normal level.
I was told my lower lats aren't working when pressing, I also have zero range of motion in my neck.

Interesting about the tear next to the shoulder blade as I've got a lot of discomfort in that area, feels all knotted up