Scooby's Home Bodybuilding Workouts
Shoulder (and Trap) Workout
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Scooby's Home Bodybuilding Workouts Shoulder (and Trap) Workout |
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| The shoulder is a very small muscle and the joint itself can be injured very easily so you really need to watch your form when doing shoulders. Only lift as much weight as you can fully control. If you cant take a full count of "one one thousand two one thousand" on the way up and on the way down then you are lifting too much weight and risking injury. All the time you see people doing these shoulder exercises with really heavy weights but they cheat so much that you wonder if they are doing a leg workout or a shoulder workout. Many of these exercises are done seated to remove the temptation of cheating using the legs. Either sit on the edge of the chair or sit very lightly touching the back of the chair for balance. If you sit normally and lean back, you recline slightly and end up working chest more than shoulders. In all cases the only thing that moves is the arms, nothing else. Important on all these exercises is to keep your elbows and hands in front of the plane of your body, your shoulder is very unstable and prone to injury if you hyperextend it behind your torso. In all these exercises the shoulders are held all the way back, not rolled forward. There are many exercises here, probably more than you have time for in one session so just choose different ones each week. | |
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Dumbbell Shrugs for Traps
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Reverse Fly for Shoulders Use a very light weight on this, its a small muscle group. Proper form is very important or you will hurt your shoulder or back. Only your arms move, your legs, head and torso remain completely motionless - if you have to bounce then you are using way too much weight. |
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Here is a short video clip showing proper form for the reverse fly |
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starting position. You back is in a 'neutral' position which means not arched backward like you are doing a swan dive and not curled forward like the fetal position. The arms are straight and remain straight thru the exercise. Slowly raise the weights while exhaling. |
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ending position. Stop when your arms are horizontal. Your arms should be in a straight line with your shoulders, if you have to do the raise with the weights back toward your hips then you are using too much weight. |
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Vertical Rows for Traps These are actually for the traps, not the shoulders. Use a light weight and do these slowly. I suggest using lifting straps to protect your wrists from the awkward position at the top of the motion, let the weight hang from the straps. |
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Here is a short video clip showing the vertical row. |
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starting position. Arms nearly straight, make sure that shoulders are back and not rolled forward. Slowly pull the weight up to mid chest level keeping the weight as close to your body as you can. |
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ending position. Stop about mid chest when your upper arms are horizontal. Now go back down slowly. |
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Front Raise for Shoulders |
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Here is a short video clip showing proper form of the front raise. |
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starting position. Tuck your elbows into your sides so your arms are vertical, not angled out to the side. Push up very slowly while exhaling. |
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ending position. Stop when you upper arms are horizontal. |
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Side Raise for Shoulders |
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Here is a short video clip showing proper form of the side raise. |
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starting position. Elbows are at 90 degrees. Slowly lift your elbows up to the side keeping them in the plane of your body. |
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ending position. The elbows are still at exactly 90 degrees, stop the raise when your arms are horizontal. |
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Alternating Shoulder Press for Shoulders We do this exercise one arm at a time to force good form, you will need to use a very light weight because you are going to be holding one arm still while the other works. |
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Here is video clip showing proper form of the shoulder press. |
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The starting position is with the arms horizontal. |
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Push your left arm up while keeping the right arm stationary, do this very slowly. |
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Now slowly lower your left arm back down |
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Now slowly raise your right arm |
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... and lower your right arm back down |