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Lets get a little nutty.
MISSING: A good, healthy shoulder workout
In the past few months, I have had a ton of questions on shoulder pain. While I’m no doctor, much of the strength and conditioning field has a strong emphasis on prehab as compared to rehab. An emphasis on preventative shoulder exercises should have (what I believe), a larger part in our workout than how we train our shoulders currently.
Looking at your typical “Shoulder Workout,” we see a lot of pressing and raising. It would be safe to say that on your average “Shoulder Day,” a typical routine might look a little something like this:
Exercise: Sets x Repetitions
Barbell Press: 4×6
Arnold Press: 3×8
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 4×10
Rear Deltoid Flyes: 3×8
Shrugs: 6×20
Boom. Shoulder Day Nailed to almost a Tee. Go to every high school gym, college recreation center, along with most health and athletic clubs, and you’re bound to find members reaching for the shoulders in pain as soon as they finish their sets of bench and shoulder press. Now look to the freeweight area of the gym. You’re bound to see arms being thrown around in a windmill trying to loosen up their shoulders after a heavy set.
What if much of the way we are lifting right now was actually conducive to making our shoulder problems more prevalent? Well, let me expose a truth, most weight training programs are designed to make our muscles look good rather than to help prevent injuries. These big muscle workouts end up hurting our shoulders rather than helping our shoulders. Building off my last post (which was posted TOO long ago) I discussed designing your own program. When thinking about making your own workouts, there should always be an even spread.
THIS IS WHY SHOULDER PAIN AND SHOULDER INJURY OCCUR SO FREQUENTLY!
There is rarely symmetry in the workouts we get from our friends, online, or out of magazines. Why is there never symmetry? Because people enjoy looking at the muscles they can see, which happen to be in the front of the body. Workouts should always have symmetry and balance, like everything else in life. With our forward life, it is important to remember balance. If you emphasize too much on pushing movements (Vertical and Horizontal) you are bound to have imbalances on your back side pulling movements.
Tip #1: For every pushing movement have a reciprocal pulling movement built into your workout. Having a ratio of 1:1 is good.
This is what happens when too much pushing happens.
Image Source: http://markjpitcher.blogspot.com/2012/06/posture-related-neck-pain-and-upper.html
We can see that the pecs and traps become overactive. In layman’s terms, what happens is the tightness in the pecs causes the shoulders to protract and eventually lead to an excessively flexed thoracic spine because of weakened back muscles. Having a flexed thoracic spine will upwardly rotate the shoulder blades, creating a limited range of motion at the shoulder joint.
Following the 1:1 ratio mentioned above, be sure that every horizontal push movement (bench press, pushup, etc.) has one horizontal pull movement (Seated row, Bent Over One Arm Dumbbell Row, etc.). Same rule applies with vertical push (Shoulder press, overhead press, etc.) and vertical pull (Lat pulldown, pull-up, etc.). So if you know that you have favored chest, pressing, and shrugging exercises in the past, make sure to emphasize the opposite for a little. Give it a shot, play devils advocate for a month and use the 2:1 rule. Two pulling exercises to one pushing exercises, try it for a little but make sure to slowly venture back to the 1:1 rule.
Let’s take a little more in depth look at the shoulder. The shoulder consists of a lot more muscles than you actually think, or even can see.
Let’s take a look-see.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deltoideus.png
The picture above depicts the whole deltoid muscle consisting of the three primary parts anterior, medial, and posterior deltoid (front, middle, and rear shoulder). While this picture consists of only the superficial layer of the deltoid, we tend to only train the muscles that we know of (which happens to be the only ones that we can see). What we tend to forget to train are the muscles that stabilize the shoulder and hold the humerus in place of the glenohumeral joint. If we imagine peeling back the shoulder muscles, we are able to take a deeper look how each muscle that stabilizes the shoulder actually works.
”
Image Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/19622.htm
^ ^
Looking from the Looking from the
Front Back
Observing how the muscles connect from the scapula to the humerus (arm bone), we can imagine how these muscles will act in arm rotation. Because of poor training and program design, we often times neglect these little important guys. Which brings us to tip number 2.
Tip #2: Don’t be a fool, be sure to train all of the muscles in your shoulder including your rotator cuff muscles.
Internal and external shoulder rotations exercises are great to do before and in between sets to make sure that you get to work all the muscles of the shoulder. The sets do not need to be heavy, but instead should be trained for endurance at a range of 12-15 reps. But just a few sets of internal and external rotation won’t cut it. Remember, a stable shoulder is a healthy shoulder. Besides only training the shoulder to rotate independently, remember to train stabilizing muscles in a way that they can act to hold things in place rather than to just move the shoulder.
INJURIES
There are a number of injuries that many lifters, athletes, and weekend warriors often develop through improper training. Some of these injuries are, but not limited to, dislocation, separation, rotator cuff tears, laberal tears, bursitis, impingement syndrome, tendonitis, frozen shoulder, fracture, and many more.
If at any point you suspect one of these shoulder injuries, consult a physician or physical therapist to help properly diagnose your problems. But if your pain is only short term and and only a 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 10 in the pain department, try varying your exercises. This brings me to my last tip.
Tip #3: If certain motions hurt, don’t push through them. Change something.
One of the biggest culprits to shoulder pain, especially for guys and overhead throwing athletes, is the bench and shoulder press. Although these may be quick fixes for shoulder pain, add them into your workout to see if they alleviate the pain.
Here are some variations
Try switching all pressing motions from regular grip to a neutral grip. The below pictures are the differences in grip that will make the biggest differences in pain.
Regular Grip DB Press
Neutral Grip DB Press
Regular Grip DB Press
Neutral Grip DB Press
Besides these, here are some more variations of presing motions that you can do to help alleviate pain.
Bench Press—–> Push-Up (incline, Feet Elevated, TRX, Weight on your back, with shoulder touch) Neutral Grip
Barbell Overhead Press——> Neutral Grip DB Press, Feet on Wall Pushups, Standing Kettlebell Press, Kneeling Hex Bar Deadlift Press
Try this sample Shoulder Training Program to bring your shoulders to a safe and great new level.
Warmup- Internal and External Rotations w/ Resistance Band 2×20
A1) Kneeling Landmine Press 4×6
A2) Plank Scaptions 2×20
B1) Seated on the Floor Neutral Grip Shoulder Press 4×10
B2) IYTW 3×5, Use 5-10lb max
C1) TRX Ys (Lateral Shoulder Raise) 3×10
C2) Waiter’s Overhead Walks 3x25yds
D1) Ropes 3x30sec
That should do your shoulders nice and right.
Till next time…
Meathead Alert: Getting BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER…
Where have most of the workouts you’ve been crushing for the past years been coming from? Have they been written on small post-it notes shoved into pockets that you periodically glance to between sets? Maybe they’re saved in the notepad on your iPhone or iPod (<what I used to do). Possibly ripped form online muscle building magazines or given to you by your buddy who swears he’s gotten his abs by hammer curls and incline flyes everyday….when you really know he’s just a ripped idiot.
One thing is for certain, people have been programming their workouts for some time now and everyone has their own way of doing things. Programming is hard. Period. Personal trainers, bodybuilders, and strength coaches alike even have trouble looking for the best program. Why? Because there are truly a lot of ways to program, especially when goals vary from person to person. Let’s be realistic…a 250 pound bodybuilder who’s been training for 15 years is going to train differently than a 13 year old female tennis athlete who wants to improve her backswing. While there are THOUSANDS of ways to program, I’d like to help give you a better idea of how you’re looking at making your workouts.
Granted, certain individuals train the way they do for a certain look or goal (Bodybuilding, powerlifting, etc.), and it works for them. But often times the average exerciser experiments with a program that isn’t made for them and tries to adapt the program into their lifestyle. This is why it is much easier to just keep it simple rather than trying to become the next Schwarzenegger.
Here are some tips to really help change up and make the most out of your workouts…
1. Ditch the way you’ve split your workouts in the past. Get your whole body involved.
Stop being such a meat stick and breaking your workouts into Chest/Tri, Back/Bi, Legs, Shoulders/Arms/Abs splits. Instead of breaking your workouts into different muscles/body parts, think more logically. If you really want to get stronger, faster, or bigger use multi-joint exercises that imitate the way your body moves. Use exercises that get the whole body involved instead of isolating one muscle group. You can still focus on one muscle group in particular, just add single joint isolated movements at the end of a workout or do them on a completely separate day!
Multi-joint compound exercises have the following benefits compared to isolation exercises:
- More calories burned since more muscles are involved
- Increase Heart Rate
- Increase coordination and balance
- Increase core strength
- Decrease time of workouts
- Decreased stress on single joints
- Overall better fitness
Isolation exercises have their place, but a good workout plan should have multi-joint exercises and isolation exercises if individual muscles need to be targetted.
2. If you want to make your own workout, try to hit major movements twice per week. Then target individual muscle groups.
When discussing “movements” like mentioned above, we will be looking at 6 major movements. These movements include, Upper Body Push, Upper Body Pull, Squat, Lunge, Hinge, and Gait Cycle (Walking and Loaded Carries). This offers one of the many quick but easy to understand outlines of what a complete beginner or intermediate exercise program should consist of. By substituting different movements in place of others, it is possible to build a large variety into our program. Below are some quality shot videos with some quality looking people to help better understand the movements.
1. Push
Vertical
Barbell Overhead Press
Horizontal
Neutral Grip DB Bench Press
2. Pull
Vertical
Pull-Up
Horizontal
Seated Row
3. Squat
Uni/Bi-Lateral (Single/Both Legs)
Bodyweight Squat
4. Lunge
5. Hinge
- Single or Double Leg
Barbell RDL
6. Gait (Loaded Carry)
There are hundreds of ways to do each of these movements including variations in how weights are positioned, how the rest of the body is positioned, if the movements are done with one or two hands, if the exercise is open or closed chained, the combination of movements, and so much more. But its not my place to tell you if every exercise you are doing is wrong or right, just a basic guide to base a quality workout program on. There are thousands of websites to explore variations of these movements, so get to it and educate yourself!
3. Stick to a program and substitute variety!
Different programs and variety are essential for targeting specific goals that you are looking to accomplish. Whether it is mass, strength, speed, or general fitness this outline is great to start out with. Each day incorporate two exercises per category. On upper body days incorporate both horizontal and vertical push/pull.
Monday: Upper Body (Push, Pull, Gait)
Tuesday: Lower Body(Squat, Hinge, Lunge)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Upper Body (Push, Pull, Gait)
Friday: Lower Body(Squat, Hinge, Lunge)
Saturday: Optional Training (Maybe Guns or isolation exercises)
Sunday: Rest
Here is an example:
Monday- Upper Body
Bench Press 4x10 (Horizontal Push) Seated Row 4x10 (Horizontal Pull) Front Plank 3x30sec (Core) Side Plank 3x30sec (Core) Single Arm Neutral Grip Overhead Dumbbell Press 3x8 (Vertical Push) Single Arm Lat Pulldown 3x8 (Vertical Pull) Dumbbell Farmers Walks 3x25yds
Tuesday- Lower Body
Barbell Squat 4x6 (Squat) RDL 3x8 (Hinge) Reverse Crunches 3x10 (Core) Oblique Crunch 3x10 (Core) Walking Lunge 3x25yds (Lunge) TRX Squat Jumps 3x10 (Squat) with TRX Hamstring Curls 3x10 (Isolation Movement)
Just the first two days of a possible program, get creative and make the others and post below. Remember this program is just a basis to good lifting, individual goals need to be tended to on a more personal basis. Specific programming can be requested upon. Email kevinshields31@gmail.com for more information.
Shout out to my colleague and buddy Clint Stricker for the videos, check out Clint’s profile on LinkedIn.
Till Next Time….Shut up and train.
What’s actually in our favorite Pre-Workouts?
‘Merica’s weekend. If you’re weekend consisted of anything like mine, massive amounts of calories in burgers, beers, and brats were probably consumed. But that’s ok, because this week is the week you go hard in the gym. Although a little motivation may be needed to get those weights moving, sometimes a little helper in the gym can be your best friend.
From the weekend warrior to the dedicated athlete, you’ve probably been exposed to the multi-billion dollar supplement industry…and more than likely have been exposed to the world of pre-workouts.
The overpriced, sketchy, unregulated World of Pre-Workouts.
Being exposed to this world of wonders has brought me to many conclusions about pre-workouts. First and foremost, I found it necessary to do a little bit of research of what I’ve been actually putting in my body. With no Food and Drug Administration regulations, supplement companies hide behind their “proprietary blend” of active ingredients. What the proprietary blend allows supplement companies to do is list the ingredients of the supplement, but have no actual commitment of being honest in what is actually going into their products. Second, if you know the ingredients they put in it, you can get your own stuff a lot cheaper. Just make sure you know what you’re doing and how it should be dosed! Third and lastly ,don’t think supplements are the “Cure All.” You receive so many more results with a good diet paired with proper supplementation. That being said…
Let’s take a look at some of the different ingredients that these magic potions tend to contain to make our workouts boring and sluggish without.
1. Caffeine, Caffeine, and More Caffeine
Expect 200-400mg of caffeine per serving of pre workout, generally from almost every brand. Caffeine acts as a stimulant on the body’s Central Nervous System, blocking receptors in our brain allowing glutamate and dopamine to roam more freely, thus increasing alertness, reaction time, memory, and often times mood. Caffeine’s addictive properties make it America’s most abused drug, making workouts near impossible without the aid of some sort of pre-workout supplement for those who have been using pre-workout supplements for an extended period of time.
2. L-Arginine
That pump. The feeling of those skin-tearing pumps that gets the heads turning at the gym. With a little bit of arginine, supplement companies often claim their products giving “THE INTENSE PUMP.” As a conditionally essential amino acid, L-Arginine plays an important role in our pre-workouts. Arginine is claimed to increase levels of Nitric Oxide which in return increases blood flow to the muscles and increases protein synthesis. In recent studies, L-Arginine has been shown to have no effect on Nitric Oxide levels in the blood. By increasing levels of Nitric Oxide in our bodies there may be benefits of increased protein synthesis and possibly strength gains, but “Intense Pumps and Increased Nitric Oxide” may not necessarily be from the arginine!
3. L-Tyrosine
One of my absolute favorite and in my opinion, most under-rated supplements of all time. L-Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid that aids in mental alertness, focus, and stress reduction. L-Tyrosine being the precursor to dopamine, increases mood, reduces stress, improves focus, and decreases fatigue. All awesome things that anyone can benefit from . Used to take before studying as well as before workouts, this supplement affects the mind as well as the body.
4. 1,3- Dimethylamylamine (DMAA)
Think back to the days before all the old pre-workouts were ripped off the shelfs. You take two scoops, boom. Twenty minutes later you get the feeling that you just took your daily dosage of study drugs to help you cram for the finals you left off until the night before. Music is blasting, tunnel vision is going, and no other thoughts come between you and the rack of weights. This feeling may stem from 1-3 Dimethylamyline. Similar to the feeling of caffeine, DMAA has high stimulatory properties that have caused questioning in the supplement world. DMAA has been said to give false positive tests for amphetamines, thus why companies have “reformulated” their pre-workout recipes that contain DMAA.
5. Creatine
The wonderful world of creatine. With such a questioned supplement, one would think that creatine HAD to have something wrong with it. Guess what, it doesn’t. With dosages of just 5 grams per day, Creatine Monohydrate is said to be THE MOST EFFECTIVE work producing supplement that effects the body’s energy system during high intensity exercise and lean mass production…and this claim comes from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Yes, Creatine does increase water weight because supplemental creatine allows the muscle cell to absorb more water, increasing the size of the muscle cell; but what’s beneficial about increasing the size of the muscle cell is that we get FASTER, STRONGER, and BIGGER.
Stay knowledgable about the supplements you are putting into your body because most of the time what the supplements say they have in them may not be true. Know what each supplement does and how it effects your body because although it may ‘feel good’ while you’re at the gym, it may not be the most effective way to get the results you are actually looking for.
For more information on supplements go to http://www.examine.com and browse through the list of reliable information they have.
Till next time- lift smart, eat smart, and get after it.
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