To give you perspective, you’re using 5lbs more than I do on lateral raises currently, and for me these are HEAVY lateral raises.
The trick is that you need to move your hands by contracting your shoulders, rather than try to train your shoulders by moving your hands. Try flexing your middle delts and causing your hands to raise to the side. When you can do that, then add weight.
This. 15 lbs is pushing it for me. I think about pulling my elbow away from my body instead of raising the weight.
You could also try these with about 5 lbs:
Raise to front, move to side (still holding thy weight parallel to the ground), raise all the way overhead and then reverse everything back to the start. That’s one rep. Do 30.
Damn, I’m definitely going too heavy then. I was using more momentum than is appropriate for sure. I’ll drop the weight and maybe do them seated to keep focus on the shoulder. Maybe even just a light for now.
Maple syrup for life, man! I like either maple syrup or honey as a quick carb shot, but maple syrup mixes better with water.
Yup, learning to go light on lateral raises and need be a “lateral raise hero” went a long way for me. Heavy is fine on occasion, there is certainly some benefit to it, but stupidly light for the majority goes a long way. I’m the same with most isolation work. It’s why I like Poundstone curls so much.
Same. I usually do 10 lbs or at most 12 lbs if I feel ballsy enough to steel my wife’s Pilates DB’s. Huge difference when you’re using the right muscles too, delts are weak and maaaaaan do they tire out quickly.
Toes elevated constant tension good morning (that’s a mouthful), 2020 tempo
3x15 @ 135
Band leg extensions, 20X2 tempo
2x25
60 sec quad stretch (burns so good)
Seated band leg curls, 2012 tempo
2x25
60 sec hamstring stretch
Notes:
Legs are starting to remember how to squat again. It’s interesting; that second set of back squats felt way too heavy, but the final set absolutely rocketed up. Good feeling. Adding tempo to the front squats was brilliant, but I hated it at the same time.
Ever wanna obliterate your hammies? Do those good mornings. Fuck me. Those are a keeper.
Definitely continuing with tempo work on the extensions and curls. Combined with the stretch afterwards, my quads and hams were crying. Thinking those would be good exercises to employ myo reps on, just to get some more effective reps in.
All in all, solid leg day. I think the next toy I want to invest in is a vertical leg press, however. Small footprint, way less expensive than the horizontal machines, and I get to lay down while using it.
In addition to the loading stuff @Frank_C and @T3hPwnisher have talked about, I find the best cue to help people feel their delts is to reach out, not up so that at as you do the raise, your hands trace the widest arc possible.
Constant tension diamond push-ups, myo reps w/ 6 deep breaths
12+5+5+5+4
60 sec triceps stretch
Notes:
WOW. Loved this sessions. Those fly-presses are a game changer. Saw them in a recent CT article. Basically, you do a fly on the eccentric, then bring your arms in and press the DBs back up. You can handle far more weight than a normal fly, but less than a normal DB press. Chest was well and truly smoked after, especially with those band flyes.
Myo reps for the diamond push-ups was a good call. Helped cut a few minutes off the workout, but still got lots of ball-busting reps in.
Pros and cons in this session. Pros: my v-handle arrived, and it gives just that little bit extra ROM on the rows to make my upper back cry. Also, heavy curls continue to be awesome; I’m actually using 5/3/1 programming on both my bar curls and PJR pullovers and loving it.
Cons: I was slightly rushed this morning, and so my head wasn’t in it on my power cleans and Pendlay rows, meaning they were sloppier than I wanted. Additionally, bummed out by my low chinning numbers. I think I’ll implement a “dropset” system by going balls out BW, then adding bands to assist to accumulate more reps. Once I can hit a certain number of clean reps on the BW set, I’ll add some weight.
Didn’t like those band hammer curls. Wanna see if I can find an inexpensive triceps bar for hammer curls. I don’t like DBs.
Warmer night last night which was nice. Been keeping these runs at a fast jog/slow run pace. Not trying to push anything right.
Need to keep hanging leg raises as a staple. Supersetting them with those plate twists was killer, but I think I need to drop the reps from 20 to 15 or so, because I was losing explosiveness.
Press, BTNP and upright rows are all bueno; those are being kept as staples. Upright rows aren’t bugging my shoulders and are absolutely lighting up my middle delts.
The iso countdown is a Chad Waterbury thing. For the 5-1, you do a 5 second isometric at peak contraction followed by 5 smooth reps, the the same with a 4 second isometric with 4 reps, repeating down to 1 second and 1 rep. It’s a superb way to really feel the muscle working. I really like them.
I tried the “reaching out” cue for the band laterals and it made a HUGE difference, especially after the upright rows. My little band was immensely humbling.
Tried to do that rear delt sequence with 10lb plates as was like “Nope.” Then with 5’s and it was still nope, so I finally did it with just my empty handles and it was a challenge. Exposed a definite weakness that I need to work on.
Also, I don’f know if it was the prone rear delt work, or working on reaching out, but my shoulders feel a lot less “bound up”. I’m thinking the lateral cue might be it, because it honestly felt like my arms were being stretched out from the socket — in a good way.
