Talking about Shoulders
I got this question recently
"I cannot overhead press because of shoulder pain, and Im not sure what to do for shoulders besides lateral raises, could you suggest anything?"
You bet I can.
Unfortunately, people painfully train shoulders incorrectly ALL THE TIME. And they create their own injuries. Lucky for this gentlemen in realizing overhead pressing was not working for him
The Top 5 Problems You didnt know you had with shoulders
1. Your bone structure-There are 3 KINDS of shoulder joints. How your upper arm fits into the shoulder socket makes a big difference in your training
Your shoulder joint has a bone called the Acromion process
There are three types as you can see.
Type 1 is the best structure to have because it allows for space in the joint for tendons and bursa
Type 2 causes some impingement
Type 3 causes A LOT of impingement
You can read more about this here
Basically, if you have type 2 shoulders, overhead pressing will likely causes problems.
If you have type 3, overhead pressing WILL wear out your rotator cuff, and be very bad for you
2. Bone Size-Whats the number 1 determinant of how muscular and strong you can be?
Bone size. The bigger your bones, the more load your body can naturally handle.
Now imagine if you have big bones and type 1 shoulders? You'll likely be a natural at overhead pressing.
Imagine if you have thinner bones and have type 3 shoulders? Overhead pressing will probably do very little for your shoulder development
The bigger your bones are, the more "heavy compound movements" will likely benefit you because you have the structure to naturally be good at those exercise.
3. Your shoulder blades and posture-Do you have poor posture? If so, I GUARANTEE you've probably never done a single pressing movement correctly. Why not? Because your bones are quite literally misaligned. If your spine is misaligned, so is everything else that attaches to it.
The other issue is your shoulder blades. If they are immobile and cannot move easily, again, shoulder pressing is out of the question.
Add in having poor posture and less than optimal bone structure, and you're setting yourself up for injury if you train shoulders hard and heavy
4. Heavy Overhead Pressing-Relative to shoulders, the biggest mistake I see is TOO MUCH emphasis on heavy overhead pressing, and not enough emphasis on deltoid raises, rep work, and training the shoulder from all angles
Its' similar to bench pressing and chest. Men struggle on bench press, it never grows their chest much, and rather than try other movements, they keep trying to make the bench press work, and it never does.
You DO NOT need to heavy overhead pressing to have muscular shoulders. Its entirely possible to build wide and powerful looking shoulders with isolation work + light overhead work
5. Not understanding Shoulder Anatomy-Your shoulder function is connected to your shoulder blade and back muscles. Your shoulders can raise your arms through nearly 360 degrees of motion. That means you need to do
-Rows
-posterior delt raise
-Medial delt raises
-Front delt raises
to get complete shoulder development, and you can combine these movements together often enough. "just" shoulder pressing probably wont be enough
Also, The ONE exercise NEVER TO DO
Narrow grip upright rows.
How Should You Train Shoulders Then?
Safely, in a way, that is conducive to your anatomy.
Here is a BIG insight for all of you.
-What works for the least genetically gifted will (almost) always work for EVERYONE. But what works for the most genetically gifted will work for very few.
I don't have a name for this particular phenomenon, but its something I've noticed over many years in training. You might call it
"What works for the worst will work for the most", something like that.
That principle in mind, the shoulder workout I have below is an example of that. Its designed for people with very poor shoulder genetics, but it I guarantee it will work for every single person on this list in getting your shoulders more muscular than they've ever been.
I would suggest the following
-If you great to good genetics and structure, do this workout once a week for 8 weeks
-If you have lousy shoulder genetics, do it 2x weekly for 6 weeks
The AJAC Shoulder Growth Workout
-All movements must be done with proper technique and full ROM.
-Visualize and focus your mind power within the deltoids. This won't work if your focus is merely making the weights go up and down
1. Cable Rope Facepulls-4 sets of 10-15 reps. The purpose of these is to mobilize the shoulder blades, upper and and middle traps, and get blood moving into the posterior capsule of the shoulder joint. I almost always start any of kind chest/shoulder workout with these first, as they prepare the shoulder joint for the following exercise
2. Side Lying Lateral Raises-4 sets of 8-10 reps.We are taking something of back to side approach. We started with the back and rear delts, and now we are working the medial delt
3. Prone Y Raise-2 sets of 12 reps-These target the lower traps very effectively, but they also work the medial delt as well.
4. Seated High Incline Shoulders-2 sets of 12-15 reps. At this point you should have an upper back and delt pump, so we will integrate all of those muscles together with a pressing movement.
5. Cable Rear Delt Raise-2 sets of 10-120 reps. High reps for a pump in the neglected posterior deltoid
6. DB Meadow Shrugs, Paused-3x20,15,10-At this point your shoulder pump should be impressive. so we will finish with paused shrugs. Shrugs are an excellent exercise for increasing neurological drive to the deltoids, and obviously they train the traps as well.
Lastly,
Do have an upper body program that emphasizes shoulders?
I do, the AJAC Guide to Shoulder Training