Steve Young wrote:DIPS
Dips are great for overall chest, shoulder, and triceps development. However, they should never be performed with your feet forward on a bench and your hands behind you. (i.e. bench dips). That version of dips touted for triceps development is horrendous for your AC joint. Normal shoulder extension is limited to 30 degrees. When you do bench dips, the shoulder extends to 30 degrees and the rest of the motion comes from anterior tilting of the scapula. The scapula (shoulder blade) has to tilt forward because the GH joint itself will not allow you to go any lower. This motion places direct shearing forces on the AC joint. Repetitive shearing forces on the AC joint cause degenerative changes and arthritis. If you are performing dips on a V bar, lean forward 45 degrees to avoid the excessive shoulder extension movement. Do not stay totally upright like most pictures in magazines and even on the V bar machine itself illustrates.

One thing I've learned is that everyone is very different, especially when it comes to shoulders. There is no 'one size fits all'

I can't even do cable lat pulldowns with a wide grip using a fairly lightweight without feeling stress in my shoulders that isn't a good feeling. I always listen to my body so I don't do them. So wide-grip pullups certainly aren't an option, yet I see other people happily repping away with this exercise without an issue.

Similar with press behind neck which is such an old arguement. People swear by it, others say it's the devil... why can't we just accept it depends on individual shoulder makeup wether it's a good idea to do them or not?

Upright Rows are another classic example. I can't do the other two exercises but I can upright row like a demon and I find them to be an awesome exercise for packing on mass to the delts and far, far superior to lat raises. Simply because of the sheer amount of weight that can be used.

If you can do something without discomfort and you enjoy doing it, then maybe it suits "you"

Bison wrote:As I said earlier I can't even do wide-grip lat pulldowns never mind wide-grip pullups... does this mean they're a bad exercise and everyone should avoid them? Of course not.

Gym-pig wrote:although I would say skulls are a far worse exercise - kill your elbows !!

Gym-pig wrote:Nice post Health.

About the only part of my body Ive not injured so far is my shoulders so I may stop these although I would say skulls are a far worse exercise - kill your elbows !!

JohnC wrote:I think all exercises have a risk/reward schema that one should consider. We also have to remember that injuries can be cumulative and doing an exercise for months without problems does not mean it isn't damaging us.

Personally, I've never done skullcrushers properly because I've heard so many bad stories about them and for me the potential reward is low; it is unlikely they will add significant poundage to my bench press.