5 Biggest Shoulder Training Mistakes
Avoiding these common shoulder training mistakes will keep you injury
free and on the road to building cannonball-sized delts!
#1: Straightening Your Arm on Lateral Raises
Lateral raises targeting the middle delt are done with a slight bend in
the elbow.
The problem arises when the elbow isn’t locked throughout the
movement.
Too often you see guys with a 90-degree bend at the bottom, but their arm
straightens to 180 degrees at the top, especially when they do one arm at
a time.
Straightening the arm is called elbow extension, and the triceps — not
the debts — is responsible for this action.
You can’t open and close the elbow joint during execution.
Keep it locked in a slightly bent position.
#2: Straightening Your Arm on Rear Delt Exercises
The same blunder involving elbow extension frequently makes its way over
to rear delt exercises, most commonly bent-over lateral raises with
dumbbells or cables.
When you extend at the elbow, you turn a perfectly good rear-delt
exercise into one for triceps.
Again the key is to lock your arm in a slightly bent position for the
duration of the set.
If you’re not getting the hang of it, practice doing the reverse fly on
the pec-deck machine, which requires you to maintain a slight bed for the
entire exercise.
#3: Positioning Your Hands Too Close on Upright Rows
To target middle delts, your upper arms should travel out to your sides
during upright rows. That’s not what happens, however, when you use a
close grip.
Your elbows are drawn forward as your shoulders are internally
rotated.
That movement isn’t kind to your shoulder joints.
A much wider grip (hands about shoulder width apart) allows your elbows
to kick out high and wide, perfect for targeting your middle delts. (The
front delts get some work, too.) Even if you’re looking to add variety to
your routine, skip the close-grip version.
#4: Neglecting Your Rotator-Cuff Muscles
Sure, you want big shoulders, and that means choosing exercises that
target the front, middle and rear delts.
However, a smaller group of four rotator cuff muscles also work in tandem
to help stabilize your shoulder joint (and that includes during presses
for the chest).
As your delts grow stronger over time, and if you’re not also training
your rotator-cuff muscles, a strength imbalance arises that makes the
rotators much more susceptible to injury and chronic pain.
Doing specific rotator cuff work with extremely light dumbbells, cables
and bands may not look impressive, but it’s a necessity for long-term
pain-free training.
#5: Going Very Heavy With Behind-the-Neck PressesGoing Very Heavy With
Behind-the-Neck Presses
Going heavy with your presses isn’t a mistake.
That’s how you build size and strength in your shoulders.
But when you’re using max weights for very low reps, stick with presses
in which you lower the bar to the front of your head.
Amateur bodybuilder and sports-medicine doctor Guillermo Escalante, Dsc,
CSCS warns: “When you lower the bar, the deltoids are lengthening to a
fully stretched position, but they’re also at their weakest.
The highest risk of injury in any sport occurs when the shoulder is
abducted and externally rotated.
Loading up a huge amount of weight is just asking for a tear.” Although
the joints of some younger bodybuilders may be more resilient, for many
others the risk is real.
Keep your weights moderate if you’re doing behind-the-neck presses.
