weak weak weak shoulders

S

skinnyman

New Member
hi guys. i can say so far that my shoulder is my WEAKEST point. there would be times i wouldn't be able to even reach my 5RM.

i'm doing behind the neck presses on a smyth but i stopped because it's starting to put stress on my lower back.

when i do bench presses sometimes it's the shoulder that gives up first.

What do you guys think would be best exercises to strengthen my shoulders? my shoulders are like a girl's shoulders dood!
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The shoulders are genrally a weaker muscle than your other muscles anyway, so you might be worrying too much.

However, side and front delt raises are a good exercise for them.
 
Behind the neck presses is a sure way of getting injured.

Military presses up to the 5's and push presses beyond that, build up your strength and use realistic targets.

Presses can also be done off a bench with a very high incline if standing or seted presses are too hard, in order to build up strength!
 
Agree with Fausto.
Started doing MPs last cycle and I've got hella stronger in my shoulders. They were def the weakest in terms of developement before the MPs. Comments on how big my shoulders are getting shows its working.
 
I met a mate I hadn't seen for years last night. He grabbed my shoulder to say "Hi" and then followed it with "Blimey, are you on steroids?!" All down to standing presses. I do them three times a week and progress has been good even though I am currently still dealing with a minor injury so I have to be extra careful to warm up my shoulders well (I never do them behind the neck).

One extra technique during 5s is to finish your full ROM reps and then do some upper range partials to finish off. I only do that on the last set. Works a bit like a burn set.
 
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(Fausto @ Jul. 27 2006,06:41)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Behind the neck presses is a sure way of getting injured.</div>
Why's this?
 
Some people have exercises they should not perform

BNP may negatively affect shoulder health, but only if you have wimpy shoulders
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they probably suffer with benching as well
 
yeah i suffer in bench toO! sometimes even in pushdown!
okay i'm thinking of military presses and quitting behind the neck presses. thanks guys
 
Ahh, okay then. I too had/have a weak left delt. Not as in &quot;not as strong&quot;, but as in causing pain. I suffered with it for months and it caused me problems when I slept, but sinse I started weight lifting it's been pain free. I also read an article or two, that say that working joints that cause problems can help them in the future.

I genrally have no pain now when I work my shoulders, except sometimes opening a set, but that's all. Would it be better for me not to do the BNP too? I hope not.
 
If you are having no problems doing behind the neck presses right now then OK, but I'd still be mindful that it puts a lot of unnecessary strain on the shoulder joints which might lead to problems once you start pushing up the poundages. No one can say whether it will or won't affect you but seeing that you have had a shoulder issue in the past I would be extra careful. There's no harm in doing normal presses and it is a much more natural movement. It would be good to try doing them anyway to see if they feel more comfortable.
 
Okay, thanks mate. By normal, do you mean using a dumbell, and holding them on each side of my head, or by doing a slight incline milatary press with dumbells/barbell?
 
Fausto made a good suggestion with the push presses.

You could also do OH presses on Monday and do heavier push presses on Friday i.e., Monday presses with 100 for 3x5 and Friday push presses 110 for 3x5.

I know some may laugh at this, but, I had success doing it, even if it is just a mental thing. I did my OH presses and front squats in a kind of superset. I do a set of front squats and then, after stripping off over 100 pounds, did a set of presses. After the front squat the weight of course feels incredibly light.
 
I definitely would NOT do behind the neck anything.  If your goals are hypertrophy and strength, you &quot;may&quot; gain them, but at the expense of chronic and cumulative wearing of your shoulder joint, rotator cuff muscles, and neck.  Why risk it when there's other options?

I do think some people with excellent kinesthetic awareness/ability can do BHN work okay,...but it's the exception.

If your posture is poor and you do standing OH presses, be on guard for low back pain and neck/shoulder pain.  At least seated, while you don't use your core, you can brace yourself to lift heavier.

But the plane of movement will indicate if your weakness is structural or muscular.

A thought:  START your workouts with your weakest muscle group.  Don't do shoulders and bench same day.  Spend time doing priority training to get your shoulders up to snuff, especially if it seems like everything else is coming along.
 
My shoulder strength shot up once I started taking better care of them.

1) Drop any offending exercises

2) Lots of scapular mobility work

3) High-rep Cuban Presses. I really like these as a &quot;compound rotator cuff&quot; lift.

Added bonus. I can finally do chins without my shoulders clicking.
 
Yeah, BNP's are a weird way of doing shoulder presses, as you are getting an unnatural angle on the joint.

With D/B's at least you can get the angle a little closer to what BNP would look like but the angle is still better than trying to work behind your head!

One suggestion that worked well for me, one day military presses, the other a superset of seated incline lateral raises followed by rear lateral raise with no rest, three months of that and I was soon pressing my body weight! try it!
 
oh has anyone experience clicking on the shoulders when doing lateral raises? it doesn't really hurt but it feels like it's going to hurt if i continue to induce the clicking. any advice?
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thanks
 
oh when doing shoulder presses on a high-incline bench on the smith machine... do you let the bar down to the bottom of the neck? i saw some people letting in down to the bottom of their ears before pushing again. so.. what's the real form?
 
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(skinnyman @ Jul. 27 2006,05:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">hi guys. i can say so far that my shoulder is my WEAKEST point. there would be times i wouldn't be able to even reach my 5RM.

i'm doing behind the neck presses on a smyth but i stopped because it's starting to put stress on my lower back.

when i do bench presses sometimes it's the shoulder that gives up first.

What do you guys think would be best exercises to strengthen my shoulders? my shoulders are like a girl's shoulders dood!  
biggrin.gif
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I discussed this with my chiropractor a while back.

He said that one should never train shoulders with a barbell exercise, or for that matter a machine. This is because it causes too much compression in the cervical spine.

DB raises and presses are the way to go. Behind-the-neck is a definite no-no. Do rotator cuff exercises with light weights and high reps.

So, I do standing or seated db shoulder presses, anterior (front) raises (unless I'm doing incline chest presses), lateral raises, and posterior (rear raises. I do the posterior raises using my incline bench, I sort of lay on it face down, torso is about 45 degrees.

I generally do lower weights and many reps. 1-arm rows are also help the rear delts, I believe.

Don't rush the shoulders. Wouldn't want to injure them and lose your ability to do your upper body. Progress slowly but steadily.

BG
 
MPs didnt feel comfortable as an exercise when I first started doing them (machine). Now I dont find them a problem. Flyes still dont gel well with me though.
 
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