Hello FB Family! I've been absent from here for a little while. I figure it's time to quit lurking and come roaring back! And, what better way is there to do that than to bring to you some simple advice for stronger shoulders.
Guys especially tend to fall into the trap of the old standby for shoulder growth and strength gains - High rep sets of boring old shoulder presses and military presses. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that these are not effective exercises. They are. But, there are a lot of people who feel like their shoulders just don't respond.
As is the case whenever you're lifting, contraction is key. A lot of lack the mind-muscle connection for peak contraction in various parts of our bodies. I know, that sounds like a gymbro term but trust me, it's a thing. It's been around in lifting for a long time, before jabronis and gymbruhs, all the way back to the strongmen of old. In fact one of those strongmen wrote an entire book on it, but I'm not going to go into all that. I'm drifting here. Back on topic.
If you ever felt like your shoulder lifts weren't as effective as they could be, or feel like you can never achieve DOMS and are seeking that elusive sore muscle feel the chances are you're not getting a good enough contraction on each head of the delt. The solution here is actually really simple - Slow it down.
And I mean deliberately slow. You're going to take a nice, comfortable weight. Nothing super heavy, nothing you have to cheat to lift, nothing that's going to potentially injure your shoulders. Next time you're working out with Daniel or Kelli and it comes time to do lateral raises or front raises, I want you to focus on grounding yourself. I want you to feel like you're pushing your body down, down into your feet. I want you to feel STUCK to that ground, like you're pushing everything down.
You're going to take that weight then, and do your reps slow. Deliberately. Focus on that muscle. Really concentrate on it as you slowly and steadily bring that weight up, completing the motion with JUST that muscle in isolation if all is going well. Same thing goes for a lateral raise. Whether or not you lift with your arms fully extended or with a slight bend. All you're moving is that upper part of your arm, the long head of the delt, from A to B. You're not lifting your arm. You need to be contracting that shoulder and lifting with it. The stretch of arm just determines how much of a lever you've got going, which can make it easier or harder depending on the length.
Rear delts are a little tricky. K&D don't do a lot to hit them often, but they do. If you're serious about building up any kind of size it's imperative you don't neglect them, however. You do not want the posture and physical issues that come with having a severe imbalance favoring your anterior delts. One I can think is is any standing dumbbell row they have you doing.
Generally they do rows that favor the upper back, and of course we can hit our rear delts with them. We bring our arms up, pulling "through our elbows" as it were. Your shoulders are back, you're pulling those shoulder blades together. You want to be sure you're getting those elbows back behind yourself, getting that maximum contraction. If you're trying to contract your rear delts and work them with a row, you won't feel it immediately. No one will.
It takes a few seconds of contraction to really start to feel it in your rear delts. So again you'll need to slow those reps down, proper form, peak contraction, hold it, safely and slowly back to the start position and do the rest. I guarantee if you slow it down, work on that connection, and really start to get a feel for contracting your shoulders you will be sore, and you will get stronger. Men, you will get bigger. And, when you do go back to your overhead presses, you might find that you're getting more of those lifts as well, because you're better able to recruit your shoulders, and your body won't be compensating by recruiting the upper pectorals and even your biceps and triceps.
As always, of course, lift safely. Ego lifting is an embarrassing way to injure one's self. Not worth it.
Jesse's handy-dandy, totally awesome, mega-cool workout tips - Shoulders
Hello FB Family! I've been absent from here for a little while. I figure it's time to quit lurking and come roaring back! And, what better way is there to do that than to bring to you some simple advice for stronger shoulders.
Guys especially tend to fall into the trap of the old standby for shoulder growth and strength gains - High rep sets of boring old shoulder presses and military presses. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that these are not effective exercises. They are. But, there are a lot of people who feel like their shoulders just don't respond.
As is the case whenever you're lifting, contraction is key. A lot of lack the mind-muscle connection for peak contraction in various parts of our bodies. I know, that sounds like a gymbro term but trust me, it's a thing. It's been around in lifting for a long time, before jabronis and gymbruhs, all the way back to the strongmen of old. In fact one of those strongmen wrote an entire book on it, but I'm not going to go into all that. I'm drifting here. Back on topic.
If you ever felt like your shoulder lifts weren't as effective as they could be, or feel like you can never achieve DOMS and are seeking that elusive sore muscle feel the chances are you're not getting a good enough contraction on each head of the delt. The solution here is actually really simple - Slow it down.
And I mean deliberately slow. You're going to take a nice, comfortable weight. Nothing super heavy, nothing you have to cheat to lift, nothing that's going to potentially injure your shoulders. Next time you're working out with Daniel or Kelli and it comes time to do lateral raises or front raises, I want you to focus on grounding yourself. I want you to feel like you're pushing your body down, down into your feet. I want you to feel STUCK to that ground, like you're pushing everything down.
You're going to take that weight then, and do your reps slow. Deliberately. Focus on that muscle. Really concentrate on it as you slowly and steadily bring that weight up, completing the motion with JUST that muscle in isolation if all is going well. Same thing goes for a lateral raise. Whether or not you lift with your arms fully extended or with a slight bend. All you're moving is that upper part of your arm, the long head of the delt, from A to B. You're not lifting your arm. You need to be contracting that shoulder and lifting with it. The stretch of arm just determines how much of a lever you've got going, which can make it easier or harder depending on the length.
Rear delts are a little tricky. K&D don't do a lot to hit them often, but they do. If you're serious about building up any kind of size it's imperative you don't neglect them, however. You do not want the posture and physical issues that come with having a severe imbalance favoring your anterior delts. One I can think is is any standing dumbbell row they have you doing.
Generally they do rows that favor the upper back, and of course we can hit our rear delts with them. We bring our arms up, pulling "through our elbows" as it were. Your shoulders are back, you're pulling those shoulder blades together. You want to be sure you're getting those elbows back behind yourself, getting that maximum contraction. If you're trying to contract your rear delts and work them with a row, you won't feel it immediately. No one will.
It takes a few seconds of contraction to really start to feel it in your rear delts. So again you'll need to slow those reps down, proper form, peak contraction, hold it, safely and slowly back to the start position and do the rest. I guarantee if you slow it down, work on that connection, and really start to get a feel for contracting your shoulders you will be sore, and you will get stronger. Men, you will get bigger. And, when you do go back to your overhead presses, you might find that you're getting more of those lifts as well, because you're better able to recruit your shoulders, and your body won't be compensating by recruiting the upper pectorals and even your biceps and triceps.
As always, of course, lift safely. Ego lifting is an embarrassing way to injure one's self. Not worth it.