Posts Tagged ‘Delts’

Tube Internal Rotation Subscapularis Rotator Cuff Exercises

AskTheTrainer.com Internal rotation isolates your subscapularis which is responsible for concentric internal rotation of your humerus. Since your pec muscles also help internally rotate if you have a weak back musculature you do not want to strengthen your internal rotators any more. Perform external rotation instead. Be careful with rotator cuff exercises. It is recommended to get a prescription from a qualified professional before you start making a routine of performing rotator cuff …

3 exercises for building shoulder muscles

Help for shoulder pain

Even if we flash forward to modern times and scan the surveys in women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan to find which physical attribute draws female attention first, wide shoulders are always at the top of the list. You can have bulging arms, thick pecs, and even a six-pack row of abdominals, but if they’re all framed in by narrow, stooped shoulders, good luck with the ladies. You’re gonna need it. Assuming you fully appreciate the importance of rugged delts for a manly body, it’s time to start planning how to go about constructing your own pair. Though the deltoids are a complex muscle group with many different functions, luckily they are not so complicated to train. Further, they are a fairly responsive area for most trainers, especially when worked though their complete ranges of motion with proper form. With just three basic exercises that have stood the test of time for millions of weight trainers and athletes, you can be well on your way to shocking your shoulders into expansive growth. Shoulder Form and Function Before delving into a training prescription for the shoulders, it would serve us well to quickly look at what the individual parts of the muscle do in the human body. The deltoids derive their name from the Greek delta, or triangle, as the muscle resembles a triangle in shape. It is a muscle with three distinct ‘heads’ or segments. The anterior, or front head, flexes and inwardly rotates the arm. The front delts play a major assisting role in chest training, and even receive some degree of stimulation from biceps and triceps exercises like barbell curls and dips. Because of all the ancillary work they receive, front delts are often an overdeveloped item on many physiques. Over time, this can even lead to posture problems, as the person tends to adopt a ’slumped forward’ stance. The medial, or side head, abducts the arm, meaning that it brings the arms out and away from the midline of the body. The side heads are only activated to a significant level when trained using specific isolation movements. Finally, the posterior, or rear head, extends the arm and produces external rotation. The rear delts are very much involved in back training movements such as chins and rows. Now that we have a better understanding of what our shoulders do, let’s get into how to train them right! Dumbell Side Raise The most critical component to creating broader shoulders is increasing their width. To accomplish this, we selectively target the medial deltoid head. The larger the cross-sectional area of the side deltoids, the wider and rounder your shoulders will appear. Of course, clavicle width plays the most important role in how wide your shoulder ultimately can become. In the recent Sydney Games, you may have noticed that nearly all swimmers possessed clavicles on the upper end on the genetic spectrum for width. Few of the swimmers had massive deltoid development by physique magazine standards, but having such a wide skeletal framework made what size they did have seem that much more impressive. You may have wide clavicles, narrow, or something in between. Regardless of the foundation you were dealt, anyone can increase their width to a meaningful extent by building up the mass of the side delts. There is only one exercise we know of that isolates the medial heads, and that is the side raise, also known as the side lateral raise. Side raises can be performed with a cable attachment or specialized machines, but the most widely-practiced version of this exercise is with a plain old pair of iron dumbells. As outdated and obsolete as some high-tech snobs may consider free weights, they are still with us despite all the advanced machine designs proliferating our gyms and health clubs. Simply put, barbells and dumbells aren’t going anywhere because they work. The additional effort and coordination it takes to balance free weights not only make them more difficult to master, but also forces the muscles to work harder. This struggle translates into a forced adaptation of the muscle fibers. In other words, they have no choice but to become larger and stronger in the face of the stress. Begin with your feet planted firmly at shoulder width. Hold the dumbells in front of you with your thumbs pointing forward. With a slight bend in the elbows, raise the ‘bells up to just above your shoulder joints. You may either complete the movement with your palms parallel to the floor, or instead choose to tip the thumbs downward in what is frequently described as a ‘pouring water out of two pitchers’ motion. Many trainers feel a more pronounced contraction in the side delts when this extra motion is added. Slowly lower the dumbells back into the start position under strict control. The negative, or lowering, portion of the rep is just as important as the actual lifting. Never merely drop the weight back down. Barbell Upright Row Upright rows are often included in training programs for the back. This is because when a wide grip is utilized, the majority of the stress is directed to the muscle fibers of the trapezius. With a narrow grip, upright rows become an excellent movement that targets all three heads of the deltoids. Place your hands no more than six inches apart on the bar. Pull the bar to just underneath your chin, allowing the elbows to flare out as wide as possible. You may see some people pulling higher, for example to the eyes, but this is a greater range of motion than is necessary. Standing Military Press Shown seated. This exercise is so named due to its regular inclusion in physical conditioning programs for several branches of the Armed Forces. No movement is more basic for the shoulders. The military press is to the shoulders as the bench press is to the chest, and the squat is to the thighs. It allows for the maximum amount of resistance to be lifted, which translates into optimal results. All three heads of the deltoids work hard in the press. Such a marker of upper body strength is the military press that for decades it and not the bench press were what other trainers meant when they asked, “How much can you press?” There are numerous machines with which to press, and you will often see trainers performing their presses seated with a back support, using either a barbell or dumbells. The standing press is far more difficult to perform, and thusly superior in terms of producing results. Unless you are already addicted to wearing a lifting belt, going beltless on this will even help you build a stronger lumbar spine musculature as the lower back muscles have to struggle to stabilize the upper body. Either take the bar from a squat rack, or clean it to your shoulders. Your grip should be such that your forearms are perpendicular to the ground at the halfway point. For most of you, this will have your hands placed about two inches on each side wider than your shoulders. Press up smoothly to lockout, taking care not to use any hip thrust or anything but pure shoulder power to press the barbell. Feel the shoulders working every inch of the rep. That’s the time-proven trio of shoulder shockers that will be your ticket to bigger and broader shoulders. If you’re about to buy any suits or jackets, you might just want to hold off for a while. Those delts of yours will soon be entering a growth phase, and there’s no telling how big they just might get! Shoulder Workout Routines! Beginner Routine Side raises 3 x 8-12 Standing military press 3 x 8-12 Intermediate Routine Side raises 3 x 8-12 Barbell upright row 3 x 8-12 Standing military press 3 x 8-12 Advanced Routine Side raises 4 x 8-12 Barbell upright row 4 x 8-12 Standing military press 4 x 8-12 Pre-exhaust RoutineSuperset Side raise to Standing military press 3 x 8-12 Barbell upright row 4 x 8-12

Use ice to decrease pain

3 exercises for building shoulder muscles

Help for shoulder pain

Even if we flash forward to modern times and scan the surveys in women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan to find which physical attribute draws female attention first, wide shoulders are always at the top of the list. You can have bulging arms, thick pecs, and even a six-pack row of abdominals, but if they’re all framed in by narrow, stooped shoulders, good luck with the ladies. You’re gonna need it. Assuming you fully appreciate the importance of rugged delts for a manly body, it’s time to start planning how to go about constructing your own pair. Though the deltoids are a complex muscle group with many different functions, luckily they are not so complicated to train. Further, they are a fairly responsive area for most trainers, especially when worked though their complete ranges of motion with proper form. With just three basic exercises that have stood the test of time for millions of weight trainers and athletes, you can be well on your way to shocking your shoulders into expansive growth. Shoulder Form and Function Before delving into a training prescription for the shoulders, it would serve us well to quickly look at what the individual parts of the muscle do in the human body. The deltoids derive their name from the Greek delta, or triangle, as the muscle resembles a triangle in shape. It is a muscle with three distinct ‘heads’ or segments. The anterior, or front head, flexes and inwardly rotates the arm. The front delts play a major assisting role in chest training, and even receive some degree of stimulation from biceps and triceps exercises like barbell curls and dips. Because of all the ancillary work they receive, front delts are often an overdeveloped item on many physiques. Over time, this can even lead to posture problems, as the person tends to adopt a ’slumped forward’ stance. The medial, or side head, abducts the arm, meaning that it brings the arms out and away from the midline of the body. The side heads are only activated to a significant level when trained using specific isolation movements. Finally, the posterior, or rear head, extends the arm and produces external rotation. The rear delts are very much involved in back training movements such as chins and rows. Now that we have a better understanding of what our shoulders do, let’s get into how to train them right! Dumbell Side Raise The most critical component to creating broader shoulders is increasing their width. To accomplish this, we selectively target the medial deltoid head. The larger the cross-sectional area of the side deltoids, the wider and rounder your shoulders will appear. Of course, clavicle width plays the most important role in how wide your shoulder ultimately can become. In the recent Sydney Games, you may have noticed that nearly all swimmers possessed clavicles on the upper end on the genetic spectrum for width. Few of the swimmers had massive deltoid development by physique magazine standards, but having such a wide skeletal framework made what size they did have seem that much more impressive. You may have wide clavicles, narrow, or something in between. Regardless of the foundation you were dealt, anyone can increase their width to a meaningful extent by building up the mass of the side delts. There is only one exercise we know of that isolates the medial heads, and that is the side raise, also known as the side lateral raise. Side raises can be performed with a cable attachment or specialized machines, but the most widely-practiced version of this exercise is with a plain old pair of iron dumbells. As outdated and obsolete as some high-tech snobs may consider free weights, they are still with us despite all the advanced machine designs proliferating our gyms and health clubs. Simply put, barbells and dumbells aren’t going anywhere because they work. The additional effort and coordination it takes to balance free weights not only make them more difficult to master, but also forces the muscles to work harder. This struggle translates into a forced adaptation of the muscle fibers. In other words, they have no choice but to become larger and stronger in the face of the stress. Begin with your feet planted firmly at shoulder width. Hold the dumbells in front of you with your thumbs pointing forward. With a slight bend in the elbows, raise the ‘bells up to just above your shoulder joints. You may either complete the movement with your palms parallel to the floor, or instead choose to tip the thumbs downward in what is frequently described as a ‘pouring water out of two pitchers’ motion. Many trainers feel a more pronounced contraction in the side delts when this extra motion is added. Slowly lower the dumbells back into the start position under strict control. The negative, or lowering, portion of the rep is just as important as the actual lifting. Never merely drop the weight back down. Barbell Upright Row Upright rows are often included in training programs for the back. This is because when a wide grip is utilized, the majority of the stress is directed to the muscle fibers of the trapezius. With a narrow grip, upright rows become an excellent movement that targets all three heads of the deltoids. Place your hands no more than six inches apart on the bar. Pull the bar to just underneath your chin, allowing the elbows to flare out as wide as possible. You may see some people pulling higher, for example to the eyes, but this is a greater range of motion than is necessary. Standing Military Press Shown seated. This exercise is so named due to its regular inclusion in physical conditioning programs for several branches of the Armed Forces. No movement is more basic for the shoulders. The military press is to the shoulders as the bench press is to the chest, and the squat is to the thighs. It allows for the maximum amount of resistance to be lifted, which translates into optimal results. All three heads of the deltoids work hard in the press. Such a marker of upper body strength is the military press that for decades it and not the bench press were what other trainers meant when they asked, “How much can you press?” There are numerous machines with which to press, and you will often see trainers performing their presses seated with a back support, using either a barbell or dumbells. The standing press is far more difficult to perform, and thusly superior in terms of producing results. Unless you are already addicted to wearing a lifting belt, going beltless on this will even help you build a stronger lumbar spine musculature as the lower back muscles have to struggle to stabilize the upper body. Either take the bar from a squat rack, or clean it to your shoulders. Your grip should be such that your forearms are perpendicular to the ground at the halfway point. For most of you, this will have your hands placed about two inches on each side wider than your shoulders. Press up smoothly to lockout, taking care not to use any hip thrust or anything but pure shoulder power to press the barbell. Feel the shoulders working every inch of the rep. That’s the time-proven trio of shoulder shockers that will be your ticket to bigger and broader shoulders. If you’re about to buy any suits or jackets, you might just want to hold off for a while. Those delts of yours will soon be entering a growth phase, and there’s no telling how big they just might get! Shoulder Workout Routines! Beginner Routine Side raises 3 x 8-12 Standing military press 3 x 8-12 Intermediate Routine Side raises 3 x 8-12 Barbell upright row 3 x 8-12 Standing military press 3 x 8-12 Advanced Routine Side raises 4 x 8-12 Barbell upright row 4 x 8-12 Standing military press 4 x 8-12 Pre-exhaust RoutineSuperset Side raise to Standing military press 3 x 8-12 Barbell upright row 4 x 8-12

Use ice to decrease pain

Build Big Shoulder Muscles To Get V Shaped Upper Body – Big Deltoid Muscle

Help for shoulder pain

Most people think that in order to get that V shaped upper body like comic book super heroes, they only have to develop big broad back muscles and lats. Well, by having broad back muscles and well developed lats is only part of the equation to get a V shape upper body. For complete V shape upper body development, you will also need to build a powerful chest, big strong shoulder muscles or commonly called deltoids or delts for short and a slim waist.

We shall discuss how to build big shoulder muscles in this article. You see, you may have a wonderful six pack abs or well defined chest muscles, but when you are in your street clothes, no one can see them. But if you have that massive V shape with bulging shoulder muscles, your body frame will tell the world that under those clothes is a well defined body of a gym warrior.

As with building any muscles in your body, intensity is the key to building big deltoids. Your shoulder muscles are made up primarily of the anterior deltoid (front delt), medial deltoid (middle delt) and posterior deltoid (back delt). All 3 parts of your shoulder muscles must be targeted to build well defined and big strong deltoids that threaten to burst through your shirt. The problem here is that most people do not know that they must work on all 3 shoulder muscles and do most shoulder workouts by just concentrating on the anterior delts with exercises such as military press. Furthermore, working only on anterior delts could lead to over training your shoulder muscles because many other exercises like the bench press, dips and push ups also recruit shoulder muscles for its movements.

Your should be careful when working on your shoulder muscle exercises as your shoulders joints are very susceptible to injuries and therefore proper form in executing the exercises is crucial. Don’t let bad exercise form cause you injuries that may be permanent and put you out of the gym forever. One common injury prone exercise is the narrow grip upright row. Although this is a great trapezius and shoulder muscle exercise, it should be avoided because this exercise invokes unnatural and awkward shoulder joint movement.

So what exercises are good for building big strong deltoids? Well, besides the military presses, try Arnold Press, Lateral Raise, Bent Over Lateral Raises, Shoulder Width Upright Row and Shoulder Cable exercises. Ask your personal trainer or read up on how to perform these exercises in excellent form for great shoulder muscle development.

Remember that you must also develop other aspects such as a big broad chest, wide back muscles and flared lats as well as a slim waistline to get that much coveted V shaped upper body.

Use ice to decrease pain

How to Improvise a Shoulder Press Machine Out of 2 Bars and a Power Rack

Help for shoulder pain

The benefits of the shoulder press machine are many: improved shoulder strength and muscle mass, no need to kick dumbells up to your shoulders, increased stability, etc.
But many gyms are sorely lacking when it comes to shoulder press machines. They may not have one at all or one that simply doesn’t work well.
What would you say if I were to tell you that you can not only very easily make your own shoulder press out of common gym equipment, it actually works even better than machines specifically designed for shoulder pressing!
How To Build It:
In order to build this, you’ll need two Olympic Bars (one bar will do if you don’t have two but you’ll then you’ll have to do the exercise one arm at a time), a power rack and some weight plates. Nothing fancy here.
Essentially, you’ll be using the two bars, set inside the rack, as levers. You’ll be outside the rack to either the left or right side, facing in, pushing up on the ends of the two bars as though they were the handles of a machine.
To maximize the effectiveness of this exercise, we’ll need a rather specific setup. Once you know how to set the exercise up, you’ll find it’s just as quick as any other rack exercise setup.
Start by setting a flat bench beside the rack, with the end about a foot from the side of the rack. This is what you’ll be sitting on as you do the exercise. Next, we’ll be setting the height of your safety rails in the rack. The height will vary somewhat, depending on how tall you are.
Sit on your bench, facing the rack, and set the safety rail right in front of you to a little above your shoulder height. The other safety rail should be set about 2 feet higher than this rail. Having the other end higher is necessary for proper and safe functioning of the movement. The two Olympic bars should not go much higher than horizontal at the top of the movement. This is especially important if the safety rails on your rack are smooth metal. If the bars go higher than horizontal, you may end up sliding them forward rather than up.
Set the two bars on the rails in the rack, about shoulder-width apart (approximately 2 feet). They will be angled down towards the bench at about a 35 degree angle.
In order to ensure that the bars don’t slide, pull the collars of the bars against the top safety rail. I also highly recommend putting a 10 pound weight plate on the ends with a collar to toally eliminate the possibility of the bar slipping down.
Do a practice rep without any weight plates on the lower ends to make sure the setup feels good. Sit on the end the bench and place the heels of your hands under the ends of the two bars. Now wrap your fingers around the ends of the bars. You may have to lift the bars up a little to get into the start position.
Perform a shoulder press movement from there. Start with your hands in the normal shoulder-width position. As you press up, bring your hands together overhead in an arc.
This freedom of movement is one of the most valuable benefits of this set-up. Most machines don’t allow you to do this–they lock your hands into position like a barbell, increasing the stress on your shoulder joints.
Dumbells do allow this freedom of movement but it’s very difficult to get very heavy dumbells up into position. With this exercise you get the best of both worlds…the ability to use more weight, like a machine, and the increased freedom of movement like dumbells.
Now it’s time to add some weight to the bars. Use smaller sized plates (5, 10, and 25 pounders, at the most) so you don’t bang them together at the top. If the plates are larger, you won’t be able to bring them together as close, which will limit the effectiveness of the exercise.
Start adding weight conservatively – remember, you’re also lifting the weight of the bars as well.
It is EXTREMELY important that you use very solid collars on the bars on the lower ends. The bars are at a steep angle and the potential for the weights to slide off is great. Check for signs of slippage between sets (gaps between the weight plates and the bar collars).
Perform the seated shoulder press as you normally would on a machine. You’ve now got yourself a shoulder press machine!
Why This Exercise Is So Effective:
As I mentioned above, one of the major benefits of this setup is the freedom of movement you get with the bars. Unlike machines and like dumbells, you are able to bring your hands together at the top of the movement.
Another advantage of this setup over a regular machine or barbell is the independent movement of the bars. This eliminates the problem of the stronger side helping out the weaker side too much and creating strength imbalances. It also allows you to perform both one arm presses and alternating arm presses very easily.
The possibility of using more weight, like a barbell or machine, without having to get those weights up to shoulder position on your own power, like with dumbells, is a tremendous advantage as well.
Conclusion:
A good shoulder press machine is hard to find. Why not build your own machine that actually works better! All you need is a couple of bars and a rack.

Use ice to decrease pain