Has anyone had any success with occluded shoulder training? I’ve decided to give it a try for a few months, but if it is going to be a disaster, I’d like to avoid it.
Currently I’m doing:
Push press: pyrmid, for strength
Front lat raises: 3 x 8-12, 30 second rest between sets
lat raises: 3 x 8-12, 30 second rest between sets
reverse incline flies: 3 x 8-12, 30 second rest between sets
The low rest really has me feeling these, but the ridiculously light weights I use has me a bit worried. I do these with 2 second concentrics, hold at the top for a full second, and a three second eccentrics.
My shoulders certainly feel worked afterwards (and I often want to howl like a little girl), but I’m not sure how much of it is pure lactic acid buildup vs actually encouraging hypertrophy. Mind muscle connexion for these is excellent, however.
[quote]aeyogi wrote:
How do you wrap the shoulders to restrict bloodflow?[/quote]
x2. Definitely kind of an obstacle, since you want to wrap the muscle at a spot closest to the heart.
Brad Schoenfeld briefly discussed targeting the delts in the Livespill discussion of his article. http://www.T-Nation.com/training/blood-flow-restriction-training/comments
Basically saying that you might get some “residual effect” wrapping like you would for bis/tris, but it’s “virtually impossible” to wrap the shoulders properly.
Seems like a technique best suited for bis, tris, quads, hamstrings, and maybe calves. (Probably forearms too, if you want really, really wanted.)
Thanks for the responses. I tried (I thought reasonably successfully) using boxing wraps around my shoulders. It seemed to work, but I can’t guarantee that I wasn’t simply looking like a ponce with boxing wraps on his shoulders…
Seems like a dangerous or at least poor risk to reward training technique to me. You can somewhat cause a similar effect though (hypoxia in the muscles), but maintaining constant tension for extended periods of time. It’s not quite as powerful of an inhibitor of oxygen getting to the muscles, but the continuous contracted state somewhat limits blood flow and creates a greater amount of anaerobic waste products within the muscle than sets where the muscles are allowed to rest between exercises.
