4 Shoulder Friendly In Season Pressing Exercises

As we’re nearing the month of July, that means baseball and softball are full steam in travel season and sports like volleyball and football are ramping up their work load preparing for the upcoming season. This is a good time to find opportunities to continue to increase strength and power output while minimizing the amount of strain on the shoulders. In 2024, most qualified coaches are aware increasing a one rep max on bench press might need be important to sport, but the ability to perform pressing exercises efficiently and safely can be a huge performance asset. We can ditch the traditional barbell bench press which can add significant amounts of stress to the elbows, biceps, pec, and shoulders when added to the volume in sport practice. Let’s dive into some of the alternatives and how or when to use them.

Football Bar Bench Press

This variation keeps the hands in a neutral position putting less stress on the shoulders and pec muscles while increasing the amount of triceps used during the pressing movement. Most bars will have several grip options, we just recommend the handles closest to shoulder width. This hand grip will also naturally help people keep their elbows into their sides which takes away some risk of a shoulder or pec strain while pressing.

Floor Press

The floor press is a great exercise that we rotate into most programs eery 4-6 weeks. This reduces the range of motion and really challenges the triceps and upper back muscles. I would also argue that it is more sport specific for most sports as the position used to begin the press is closer to where people will need to produce power in their sport. Legs can be straight or bent, but just keep hips on the ground.

Board Press

Similar to the floor press, the board press reduces the range of motion and helps to save stress on the shoulders and pec muscles. I would generally stay between a 1/2,1. and 2 board. The higher boards aren’t applicable to most sports and overloads the shoulders more than necessary to improve athletic performance. One tip for better carry over from board pressing is to hit the same spot you would hit if the boards weren’t there. Many people will have a tendency to hit higher on the boards. This places a ton of stress on the shoulders and takes the triceps out of the movement.

1 Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

This is a great variation because it reduces the weight being used challenges the opposite side of the body to stabilize. That combination makes it an effective exercise for time spent training. These will generally be performed for higher reps around 8-15 reps per set instead of a lower rep range of 1-5 reps. Many times people will find one side is stronger than the other. Once you decide which side is stronger, perform the exercise on the non-dominant side first.

The world of performance isn’t slowing down which means in season is not a time to take off from training and lose previous progress made. In season is simply a time to adjust the training stimuli to continue progress on a constant schedule. If there is a pain from sport or pressing exercises, a Physical Therapist can be your best asset to pin point the issue.

Nick Showman

Showtime Strength & Performance