Does anyone do these? Im thinking i might give them ago, but i've heard reports of them being one of the more dangerous exercises to do for shoulders.

Basically my anterior delts are massively developed and the other two are lacking. It's quite a bodybuilder-esque question to ask, but im looking at it for reducing risk of injuries as much as anything. A well balanced physique has got to be more resilient with niggles than an unbalanced one, and i've already suffered a bad shoulder injury.

Any specific exercises to balance out my shoulder structure? face pulls and upright rows sprung to my mind.

One of those exercises... some people can do them, some people can't, depends on their shoulder makeup.

You can do things to reduce the danger. For me I'll do them with an EZ-Bar almost shoulder width grip. I never raise higher than the nipples and I keep my elbows low. This makes the shoulder movement very similar to DB lateral raises but with the EZ-Bar you'll find you can shift quite a lot of weight once you get strong!!

Awesome for building impressive delts but they are tough. I'll just do blasters with them and hammer them for 6-8 weeks and then take a break. Make sure your RC's are upto scratch aswell

Just don't row too high and you'll be ok, never above the nipples

Yeah thanks, affirmed my suspicions. I was practicing them in the mirror without a bar...as you do, and if i just do the first segment of a hang clean..a hang pull if you like, but just using my arms, that felt like it could work well. No shoulder rotation and elbows stay low.

I use them to finish off my traps on shoulder day. E-Z bar,closeish grip and raise up to chin level. Works for me.

they hit the muscles well for me and are fine on my shoulders, just not on my wrists with the position they ar in at the top.

Another thing that may be a problem is using a weight that is heavy enough for the positive but gives control of the negative

Rab wrote:they hit the muscles well for me and are fine on my shoulders, just not on my wrists with the position they ar in at the top.

Wouldn't an EZ bar alleviate this problem?

burningnun wrote:

Rab wrote:they hit the muscles well for me and are fine on my shoulders, just not on my wrists with the position they ar in at the top.

Wouldn't an EZ bar alleviate this problem?

It does,i use an E-Z bar due to my left wrist being injured.

Rab wrote:they hit the muscles well for me and are fine on my shoulders, just not on my wrists with the position they ar in at the top.

Another thing that may be a problem is using a weight that is heavy enough for the positive but gives control of the negative

That's a good point about the weight. I like to go heavy with these but at the same time it's so important to stay in full control. I like to be able to pause at the top, if only for 0.1 of a second at my max lift but that control still has to be there... if you're losing form, cheating and bending your body to force the weight up and then comes crashing back down as the momentum runs out then.... well you're an idiot basically lol??

With this exericse, more than most, I can almost feel the muscle fibre's ripping and tearing as I fight to control the weight on the way down and then to generate the power to start it moving upwards... great stuff!

Bison wrote:

Rab wrote:they hit the muscles well for me and are fine on my shoulders, just not on my wrists with the position they ar in at the top.

Another thing that may be a problem is using a weight that is heavy enough for the positive but gives control of the negative

That's a good point about the weight. I like to go heavy with these but at the same time it's so important to stay in full control. I like to be able to pause at the top, if only for 0.1 of a second at my max lift but that control still has to be there... if you're losing form, cheating and bending your body to force the weight up and then comes crashing back down as the momentum runs out then.... well you're an idiot basically lol??

With this exericse, more than most, I can almost feel the muscle fibre's ripping and tearing as I fight to control the weight on the way down and then to generate the power to start it moving upwards... great stuff!

That defo the case. You have to get the weight right to let you have a fight on your hands to get it up to the top, but can also get that fibre tearing battle on the way down that is under some sort of control and takes more than 0.5 seconds

Karlos wrote:Yeah thanks, affirmed my suspicions. I was practicing them in the mirror without a bar...as you do, and if i just do the first segment of a hang clean..a hang pull if you like, but just using my arms, that felt like it could work well. No shoulder rotation and elbows stay low.

A pull is only really a shrug of the shoulders hence targets the traps most. Very little delt involvement if you are executing them right.

You should try some of Alex's shoulder exercises for side and rear delts.

Karlos wrote:Basically my anterior delts are massively developed and the other two are lacking.

Text books describe 3 deltoid portions: anterior, medial, posterior. In actual fact there are 7 portions – deltoid 1-7, anterior to posterior. They are never uniformly activated, their percentage of activation depends on arm orientation to the GH joint.

Upright Rows
# When using a bar or dumbbells, the angle of the wrist is disadvantageous and it stretches the ulnar nerve. Therefore, the rope and a pulley is a better option.
# Don’t let the elbows pull more than 2 inches above the shoulders


And if you perform a lot of pressing, front raises are rarely needed.

health4ni wrote:

Karlos wrote:Basically my anterior delts are massively developed and the other two are lacking.

Text books describe 3 deltoid portions: anterior, medial, posterior. In actual fact there are 7 portions – deltoid 1-7, anterior to posterior. They are never uniformly activated, their percentage of activation depends on arm orientation to the GH joint.

Upright Rows
# When using a bar or dumbbells, the angle of the wrist is disadvantageous and it stretches the ulnar nerve. Therefore, the rope and a pulley is a better option.
# Don’t let the elbows pull more than 2 inches above the shoulders


And if you perform a lot of pressing, front raises are rarely needed.

Agree. I haven't done any Front Raises for a long, long time now for that very reason. If you read in my journal I specify the Front head targetting as pressing movements only.

After i did the 10x3 on incie press the other night, my front delts were just as worked as my upper chest. Doing 10 sets of something really lets you see exactly where you are working

I've never been a fan of up right rows. I think that very heavy shrugs and bent over rows are all you need.

It all depends on the biomechanics of the shoulder joint. Within the populations the AC joint sits differently above the glenoid labrum and tubercles over which the biceps lh tendon and supraspinatus pass. For some they may get away with this exercise quite easily, others may do it thinking there is no problem until there is a calcified mass due to long term reuse, and some may have a massive joint space that allows them to complete the exercise no problem. The key is to adapt the movement for you.

I can not complete straight upright rows, so I do a more elbow flare type of upright row if I ever do them.

The question is, do most gym-goers intimately know the workings of their shoulder joint?

I doubt it, hence why take the risk?

I have the same issues with my wrists on upright rows. The problem with the wide grip on EZ bars are that 20kg plates get in the way of the elbows! I find the straight bar causes undue stress on my wrists as I bring it up. Having tried them with a rope & cable recently I can say that it was much much better. Great exercise though uprights - if you don't have any injuries!

My delts get hit hard with these it really toasts them off, Shoulder presses folowed by these then bent over laterals is all i have needed to get them to grow.

Im a fan of using the oly bar heavy for the first two sets say 60kish then for the last set laying on the floor of a cable machine using the D handles made from material (the flexable ones) allowing me at the top of the motion to pull them appart this really hits the delts hard, maybe throw a drop set in for good measure

JohnC wrote:The question is, do most gym-goers intimately know the workings of their shoulder joint?

I doubt it, hence why take the risk?

same can be said for any other joint or muscle head / group though tbh, a lot of unknowledgable people out there.

dont really like upright rows them play merry hell with my shoulder