Bullet Proof Shoulders

[tiramisu]

Whos got em and how do you keep em?

I managed to go pretty much the whole year till friday without hurting my damn shoulders. I've gotten darn good at bringing them back from ****o to pain freee and capable of doing military and benching but haven't made the final step of getting them from mostly works to painless powercleans and clean & jerks.

What do you do to get your shoulders all the way strong?

[L3]

thorough warmp, high reps/high sets, moderate weight, DC style stretching after every set... altho during ketosis that is unachievable

i have severely dislocated my left shoulder 2ce, and had a PR of 95lb DBs for 6 then 8 reps last weekend :)

[Talo]

I've always had bad shoulders and by thus I mean sore all the time and very prone to injury.

Finally I decided to do something about it and that was acupunture ( the last time they have been injured ) and that fixed them up great. Since then , which it's now been almost 2 years , my biggest thing is massage ( deep tissue ) , stretching and rolling the shoulders almost daily with eith a tennis ball , squash ball or small medi ball.

Feel great and the steenght has gone up , all round .

So , rehab until your better and never stop rehanging them.

[JonnyO]

I have a very bad shoulder, I stick to what doesnt aggrivate it. No heavy pressing, and if I do presses its at the end of my workout and some type of machine press. I stick to just side laterals and rear lateral work, the ocassional press every few weeks. So many shoulder exercises are not needed for good development.

[Winnipeg Muscle]

I have a very bad shoulder, I stick to what doesnt aggrivate it. No heavy pressing, and if I do presses its at the end of my workout and some type of machine press. I stick to just side laterals and rear lateral work, the ocassional press every few weeks. So many shoulder exercises are not needed for good development.

Hey Jonny O, what shoulder exercises would you recommend for best overall development?

[warlock]

structural integration saved my lifting life.

Tendinitis in both knees: gone

Extreme shoulder pain that made me stay away from sports for 7 years: gone.

I still have issues but I managed to the point that I am hitting Pr in my bench and not feeling pain anymore.

[cog]

I have a very bad shoulder, I stick to what doesnt aggrivate it. No heavy pressing, and if I do presses its at the end of my workout and some type of machine press. I stick to just side laterals and rear lateral work, the ocassional press every few weeks. So many shoulder exercises are not needed for good development.

Which ones are not needed in your opinion?

[Victor85]

Massage to the SITS muscle group has helped along with a good warm-up before each workout.

I have had terrible shoulder issues in the past and the one difference that made my shoulders strong after rehab was doing presses with a strongman "Log" apparatus. Doing presses with a semi pronated/semi supinated(neutral) grip really gave me good gains and blasted my strenth up without bullshit pain. After that my shoulders have been great, aslong I keep up the maintance. I can even bust out 6 reps with 225 on the military press and man-handle the 130lb dumbells. This was unheard of early last year for me.

[JonnyO]

DB laterals, reverse peck deck are the main exercises I do. Mind you I do have a bum shoulder so heavy presses are out of the question for me, but my training partners follow what I do and they have made great gains training this way to their surprise...which is forgetting about heavy presses. They will do the occasional press movement every few weeks or so at the very end after chest and shoulders. Ive found a unilateral machine press I can do that really isolates the delts that doesnt hurt for me if done with moderate weight.

I have never liked any upright rows as I feel they put the shoulders in a compromising position. If you do them, use dumbells instead. Front raises arent needed much because of chest pressing they are involved a lot, I throw it in once in a while for good measure they way Arnold used to do them, straight up in the air and flex the delts at the top and fight it on the way down.

So shoulders for me usually consists of 2 exercises, 3 tops.

[#8]

I like to do front squats with a shoulder press at the top. It builds pretty good explosive power and gets you used to lifting heavy overhead.

Like Jonnyo said, side laterals and rear delt stuff is best for rounded shoulders. Heavy weights arent even necessary just good form and full ROM. Can switch between dumbbells and cables to every once in a while.

[Talo]

I think the point is to fix the pain , like Warlock sugested and not just do other exercises so you don't feel that pain .

Really I don't think you want to stop Heavy Pressing or Benching . Sure for awhile stop them , but rehab them so you can do them again.