Favorite Non Pressing Movements for Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

[USMuscle9403]

I've excluded most pressing movements (any type of bench press, shoulder press or heavy dumbbell press) for some time now to save my joints and it doesn't seem to be hurting me any. Tendinitis flares easily if I overdo the pressing, and for triceps, I'll typically reserve pushdowns for just warming up. I've done well with this so far, but my exercise selection is getting stale.

What are your favorite (efficient) joint savers for these muscle groups? My main ones for shoulders are all manner of laterals (and I feel my shoulders grew better when I prioritized these), upright rows (done properly), lateral machine (use it for high reps), front raises, etc.

For Chest, I've honestly gotta think of something because lately it's just been a set of dips and that's it. From my pics, though, it looks like chest is actually lagging a little.

For triceps, I've come to like pin presses and JM presses here, lately. Close grip and reverse grip mess with my wrists. There are a couple Pushdown variations I'll do a real set with, I've come to really like one that uses the single hand rope attachment. Imagine yourself doing a pinwheel curl, except you're pushing the weight in an arc down the front of your body. I'll extend these a little and really get a brilliant stretch on the long head of my triceps. I get looks with these and have turned a lot onto them. Dips and dip variations, especially working the bottom of the movement, are a staple.

 

[Joshua82]

Can you do flys for chest? I find seated cable flies very effective

 

[kingpeon]

Chest - ring flys

Delts - modified hang cleans, upright rows destroy my rotators and laterals don't seem to build mass quick enough for me

Tris are always a pressing movement, any isolated extensions are out for now, my elbow is still recovering from an AI that dried them to the point of injury

 

[USMuscle9403]

Can you do flys for chest? I find seated cable flies very effective

Yep, any type of stretching movement, really. Except dumbbells now, the weight I use tears up my shoulders. Stretching movements have always made me feel my chest so much better, anyway. I was always able to press a lot of weight, but I never felt my chest.

 

[cmryan]

Generally speaking, for joint savers I’ll use a combo of lighter weight, higher reps and slower eccentrics. More specifically, for pecs and triceps I’ll work weighted/banded push-ups work great for me. And there’s plenty of variety I can get from foot/hand placement and style of rep execution. Hands placed on db heads are my fave for tricep emphasis. Elevating your feet on a bench or box brings a lot of delt stimulus as well.

For triceps, pressdowns and incline pullovers work really well for me. I need to really stay focused on the stretch with the pullovers. My left shoulder still has a serious flexibility deficit compared to my right since my shoulder surgery. I go pretty heavy on the pressdowns but do my best to not get any body English going.

For delts, I mainly try to do tons of rear delt work (100+ reps daily in some form or another). That helps my shoulders feel better than anything. My overhead flexibility still sucks in the shoulder that had surgery but that’ll probably always be the case. I never do focused front delt work. I just don’t feel it’s necessary with all the pressing I do.

For lateral delts, slow/light lateral raises where I really try to focus on muscle contraction do me well and I can do them frequently with no ill effect to soft tissue. Some other not so common ones are wide grip upright rows, farmer carries (use straps if trying to emphasize delts and traps) and snatch grip over head carries. All 3 also hit your traps and upper back very well too.

On the subject of barbell pressing, I’ve found that slight incline pin presses have been excellent for both mind muscle connection with my chest and they have exceptional carryover to regular flat presses.

 

[tornquad201]

am in the same situation but what I though was shoulder pain was really bicep strain . All pressing sucked as the biceps act as a stabilizer for pressing first thing I did was eliminate all flies and focused on floor presses with a closer grip and floor presses with dumbells with palms facing each other I do lots of push ups and stopped all overhead pressing . Once I stopped over stretching that tendon my lifts took off again . For pressing I use a grip that is equal to my hand spacing if I got down and did some pushups .

 

[USMuscle9403]

am in the same situation but what I though was shoulder pain was really bicep strain . All pressing sucked as the biceps act as a stabilizer for pressing first thing I did was eliminate all flies and focused on floor presses with a closer grip and floor presses with dumbells with palms facing each other I do lots of push ups and stopped all overhead pressing . Once I stopped over stretching that tendon my lifts took off again . For pressing I use a grip that is equal to my hand spacing if I got down and did some pushups .

I find that interesting about your grip. Do you feel that anything more is too far in? I know I can't do close grip as close as I used to if I don't wanna pay for it.

Agree with you about the biceps strain, I have biceps tendinitis in my right biceps. My right shoulder definitely hurts, though lol, they just seem to do in tandem with one another and anything straining one is straining the other.

 

[tornquad201]

I find that interesting about your grip. Do you feel that anything more is too far in? I know I can't do close grip as close as I used to if I don't wanna pay for it.

Agree with you about the biceps strain, I have biceps tendinitis in my right biceps. My right shoulder definitely hurts, though lol, they just seem to do in tandem with one another and anything straining one is straining the other.

I put my thumb on the smooth part of the bar and its equal if I dropped and did push ups . I feel all my problems happened when I started trying to pull my elbows out wide thinking it isolated my pecs more when all it did was strain my bicep tendon located in my shoulder joint . once I fixed that it got better and I been dealing with it for years I started in powerlifting at 17 and then switched to bodybuilding am 52 now but things are coming back very good .

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Im in the same boat as u USA. Joints feel great right now based on not having to put 5plates on the Hammer Strength pressing machine. BUT, i kinda feel like I'm gonna have to go back to that.

IF ANYTHING, what i might do is put some isolation type stuff early in my WO to fatigue the muscle. I saw videos of James Hollingshead doing this, just to fully warm up his muscles AND to avoid pressing insane #'s and getting injured.
I'm down to do 2 hard sets of flies THEN pressing if i can back down some weight.

My shoulders are the most iffy muscle group tho. Im always looking for new tricks and interesting grips to use on everything. I've done years of no pressing, then back to pressing, pros and cons to both.

 

[Nyoco]

Regarding chest, I really like landmine presses done slowly and for higher reps, I have a chronically bad right shoulder and these feel good, I pause for 5 seconds at the bottom part keeping tension on the chest which makes sure my weight increases are small and not that often.

For shoulders, machine presses where I can use a parallel grip and have my elbows pointing forward and laterals, face pulls etc

For triceps I really like exercise number two on this video, but some of the others are excellent aswell:

 

[cmryan]

IF ANYTHING, what i might do is put some isolation type stuff early in my WO to fatigue the muscle.

I think this is good idea even without the fatigue factor. You also warm-up the area very well and get alot more blood circulating there and fluid in and out the joints. All positives in my book. It can be overdone if one is trying to train for limit strength, but I still think it has benefit for that group too.

My shoulders are the most iffy muscle group tho. Im always looking for new tricks and interesting grips to use on everything. I've done years of no pressing, then back to pressing, pros and cons to both.

Sounds like we've been through the same progressions lol. Viking presses and z-presses are excellent overhead press variations that still allow you move a decent amount of weight and keep your shoulders healthy.

 

[madg]

Im in the same boat as u USA. Joints feel great right now based on not having to put 5plates on the Hammer Strength pressing machine. BUT, i kinda feel like I'm gonna have to go back to that.

IF ANYTHING, what i might do is put some isolation type stuff early in my WO to fatigue the muscle. I saw videos of James Hollingshead doing this, just to fully warm up his muscles AND to avoid pressing insane #'s and getting injured.
I'm down to do 2 hard sets of flies THEN pressing if i can back down some weight.

My shoulders are the most iffy muscle group tho. Im always looking for new tricks and interesting grips to use on everything. I've done years of no pressing, then back to pressing, pros and cons to both.

Pre exhaust is my trick to not have to use heavy weight

I do all my compound movements last in my workout for this very reason

 

[USMuscle9403]

I always prefatigue. For instance, rear delt flys before barbell rows. Always worked for me.

 

[Flex500]

As a side note I was having major shoulder problems and I started doing the "wenning warmup" before each workout and they are almost all gone. I'd check out Matt Wenning on youtube if you search "wenning warmup". I had biceps tendonitis so bad it required surgery and an elbow issue that was debilitating and it's overall pretty much gone.

It's not for everyone but even the his strongest guys here in columbus that are 100% focused on strength do this before each workout including Brook Sousa (worlds strongest woman).

Just my friendly two cents fine sir. Added benefit is that it's amazing GPP work.

 

[Joshua82]

i do an iso movement first but i actually do it to pump blood in to the muscle and warm it up. I work up to 1 set and stop a couple reps shy of failure. I find doing this i am actually then stronger on my compound movements as the muscle is very ready to.

 

[madg]

As a side note I was having major shoulder problems and I started doing the "wenning warmup" before each workout and they are almost all gone. I'd check out Matt Wenning on youtube if you search "wenning warmup". I had biceps tendonitis so bad it required surgery and an elbow issue that was debilitating and it's overall pretty much gone.

It's not for everyone but even the his strongest guys here in columbus that are 100% focused on strength do this before each workout including Brook Sousa (worlds strongest woman).

Just my friendly two cents fine sir. Added benefit is that it's amazing GPP work.

How you incorporate this warmup in your routine and what is your split brother ?

 

[Dave Perez]

After 25 years of tricep tendonitis I found that dumb bell kickbacks work just fine...