Shoulder Development

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I think two things are hurting my shoulder development (which in turn hurts my chest development):

  1. Psychologically, the motion from rest of the bar or dumbbells to the top position is very unnerving as I simply often don’t have confidence in my rotator cuff to hold it. So I often do less weight (and higher reps) on Military Press than I should, especially if I don’t have a spotter.

  2. In my routine, I have Olympic Lifts (Snatches or Clean and Jerks). I wonder to what extnet they have a bodybuilding benefit. My shoulders are noticeably weaker afterwards so I wonder if I unnecessarily pre-exhaust them

Advice?

Thanks

2

If you feel uncomfortable then use dumbells, or go to the smith machine or power rack and press there so if you cannot lift The weight you will be safe. It seems that your only problem would be mental.

And if your worried about overtraining then don’t include any direct should work just use dips and pullups. They not only work target muscles but work the front and back of the delts. Im not sure how much they work the side delts but im sure they are not left out…

3

I think 2 things are hurting your shoulder development 2.

  1. you are doing exercises in which you aren’t confident in pushing yourself to the necessary intensity to grow.

  2. you are following a program in which you are not prioritising the muscle group you want to grow. Unless you are competing, it won’t hurt you to drop the olympic lifts for a few cycles, or perform them after your shoulder work.

4

Pbjoe,
I generally do a set with dumbbells then military press behind the head and then MP in front of me.

I use a military press station, how is that different than a power rack?
Maybe have a spotter assist on getting it in place and a bit of the first negative?

Smith machines are evil:P

Not really worried about overtraining and my shoulders are lagging so probably should do direct work on em

Sxio,
a) so what do you suggest?

b) ok. I’ll put em in the end

5

Well the problem i have with a military press station is that it has you sitting and doing the press am i correct? When i did this it felt very umcomfortable for me because the angle that they were over my head felt weird. Maybe try standing military presses or im sure a spotter would be a great idea. Also I don’t know about you, but behind the neck presses feel awkward for me too. You need to like to train that muscle group otherwise you wont train. Its common sense, if you feel uncomfortable you wont put all your effort into it which leads to a poor workout.

6

I would suggest a new program or modifying your current one so shoulders are first up in the week and in the session.

If you were doing split body part work, a standard vertical push+pull session could look like this.

A1)Standing Neutral Grip DB Press
A2)Neutral Grip Pull Ups
B1)Arnold Press
B2)Supinated Lat Pulldown
C1)Lateral Raises
C2)Straight Arm Pulldowns

That’s just an example. Obviously this kind of program would be a 4xwk split, vertical push+pull, legs, horizontal push+pull, legs.