How many of yall do NOT work shoulders directly?

[kubes]

I work them real light on an incline hammer strength shoulder press. I gave a bad disc in my lower back so the days if heavy shoulder presses are over but lots of lateral raises. With incline bench working the front delta my shoulders are as big as ever

 

[aussiebulldog]

i only train medial dets with 2 sets of side raises

other then that never train shoulders

Same here.
once I passed 40 , all presses ever gave me was grief.
my chest presses went up, and my delts with them.

 

[FIRE0808]

Presses gives pain to my shoulder joint. I just do lateral and rear raises MountainDog style.

 

[Ghetto Gunfighter]

I love overhead pressing. I love it more than bench, more than deadlifts, more than squats. I also am not doing it anymore, at least for the foreseeable future. Ive had shoulder surgery, and overhead pressing movements wreck me for days. I'm doing high-rep raises now: front, lateral, and rear. I miss my military presses, jerks, and push presses though...

 

[destin]

I can't say I don't do any ohp but I cut it way back.

If in full training mode I hit everything twice per week with a heavy and Light day. Depending how m shoulders feel i will do 3 sets of high rep machine shoulder presses when blood flow is high. My main shoulders workout is 3-4 sets side laterals, 2-3 fronts, various trap movements, and rears i do some work like 3-4 sets of a laterals or face pulls. Sometimes heavy side partials too.

Now if my delts feel great but I feel the need work I will give them their own day with extra trap work.

I like utilizing things like drop sets, rest pause and run the rack sort of movements. My delts seem to grow better on lots of blood flow type work.

 

[Gunsmith]

I had a fucked up bench form for years , pressing high across the upper chest with elbows out. I think that had a lot to do with shoulder damage when I was younger and since then ive had both shoulders scoped for AC impingment. I went through weeks of physical therapy BEFORE surgery trying to keep from having it.
I still do all the rotator cuff warm up exercises and stretching before I do any chest or back work hoping to prevent an injury.

I still train chest reasonably heavy but my gym only has dumbbells to 130 lbs.

I dont think my delts are lagging per say but every time I try to train them with presses my shoulders hurt for days and I dont mean soreness this is even with lighter dumbell presses , seated smith machine presses , light weight , slow reps everything sucks.

 

[Matsuo Munefusa]

I literally feel your pain, brother.

Shoulder presses were something I had to deprogram myself on. Shoulders being huge was something I wanted since a young guy, and I always thought shoulder presses were the answer. If I could get back the years and months of on and off pain I went through with them I would! The "no pain no gain" motto is bullshit sometimes imo!

Sometimes there is PAIN because you are doing it WRONG for your body.

Now I do lateral raises and rear delt raises and my shoulders are growing steadily without pain.

We have to find our own way sometimes.

 

[Gunsmith]

Here is a pic from around July i think (i dont take many pics) after being out of the gym for a month for elbow injury. To me it looks my rear delts are sub standard.

 

[Matsuo Munefusa]

what do you do with your rear delts? It may just be genetics too...you appear to be pretty 'maxed out'

I just noticed also, may be lighting (???) but your right shoulder is way bigger than your left. Maybe there is some impingement issue in your left shoulder?

 

[Gunsmith]

what do you do with your rear delts? It may just be genetics too...you appear to be pretty 'maxed out'

I just noticed also, may be lighting (???) but your right shoulder is way bigger than your left. Maybe there is some impingement issue in your left shoulder?

it is the angle mostly their is a door frame directly out of the pic frame that doesnt allow me to bring that elbow back as far , gawd damnm hall way isin't make to pose in , and i could not flex that arm as hard due to a partial tricep tear and loose body in the elbow joint

 

[ballennonstop]

Helloy

 

[cm]

6 months, none
6 months before contest once a week, occasionally doing presses

 

[sma]

I stopped do any shoulder presses several years ago (5) because no matter what the weight i ended up with bad shoulder pain in just a couple weeks. I was able to talk to a coupld older guys that have been training for decades and they say that shoulder presses are mandatory to get any upper body size.

For the last three years the only directly shoulder exercises i do is rear lateral raises the rest comes from typical chest and back exercises

try rack presses no stress on shoulder joint just front delts..

 

[sma]

if your front delts over power your chest then dont worry about front presses .. just stick with low incl db and hammerstrength inclpresses..

if they dont try rack presses no stress on shoulder joint just front delts..

 

[Big Barry]

I tired that for a while, my shouldeers went down to shit, nothing works like behind neck presses for me

Brother, great to read that. In the 80's everybody was doing them then all the scare mongering about shoulder issues with press behind neck put 90% of guys of doing them.

Nothing grows my shoulders more than press behind neck. I stopped doing them in the 90's and I had to to add in two or three other exercises to replace them.

These days all I do is side laterals and press behind neck and my shoulders are wider than ever... never even had a slight injury from press behind neck either. They are like any other exercise, go too heavy or screw up your form and you'll do damage. Use a modicum of common sense and you won't tear yourself up!

 

[link24]

Shoulders are my best bodypart, always was and I have never paid a lot of attention into delt training, most of the time I did few sets of preses and leterial raises after working my chest, now I train every body part twice a week but shoulders only once in a 2-3 weeks after my push workout (chest/triceps ; back/rear delts/biceps ; quads/hams/calves)

Just curious with working out most body parts 2x a week what does your routine look like?

 

[zachbean79]

I don't think the bodies mechanics were designed for over head presses. Just doesn't feel natural. I stick to heavy side lateral raises. 3 sets to failure after a couple good warmup sets. Then maybe some cable work.

I actually believe the oppisite. I don't believe our bodies were designed to be slumped over a desk all day or in front of a TV with our shoulders slumped causing loss of proper shoulder mobility and structural balance...resulting in internally rotated shoulders.

I used to feel the same as you, but after working very hard the last year to get my shoulders externally rotated I really feel the overhead press is very important for shoulder health and in balancing your structure and developement

 

[JohnBoston]

when im just in the gym for maintenance (as i am now)
i rarely work shoulders, throw them in here and there

when i ramp it up for more results i always dedicate a day to them

ive always liked upright rows,
with barbell and dumbbells. they kind of feel like shrugs for shoulders.

i also like using the smith machine for overhead barbell presses. not too heavy though.

ive been lucky not hurting my shoulders yet, ive had scares and aches a pains, but nothing to warrant me sidelined from them yet

 

[ThinkTank]

No shoulder presses, messed my shoulder up every time. I like lateral raises and upright rows with dumbells so I can keep more to the sides and not tweek my shoulders. Reps are higher now used to do 12 reps now after reading John medows my reps are much higher and delts are growing nicely.

How many reps per set?

 

[ThinkTank]

I see guys doing shoulders; swinging heavy weights with shit form all the time. It makes me cringe, however they seem to have no issues with it.

I kind of gave up on nice large shoulders. I get pain even from very light work. It's either get shoulder pain from chest movements, or do shoulder movements and practically cripple myself. Both suck and affect my training.