shoulders overworked from the presses..

[FightinForPecs]

i know im not alone when i say that during any sort of benching movement my anterior delts get some action. trust me even though form may be good this is an inevitable fact. now that being said, doing military presses or even db presses hit the anterior delt, sure you can do arnolds but you are still hitting the front of your shoulders. i think this is a reason why a lot of people hate to bench presses and have shoulder problems. think about it you are hitting your shoulders multiple times during the week. now i dont know about you guys but when i do back, again inevitably, i hit the rear delts. any sort of rowing movement is going to bring the back of the shoulders into play.

ok now here is a little theory of mine, well maybe its not mine but i thought of it this morning nontheless. im contantly trying to get my chest bigger, hence the name "fightinforpecs" :p now if you do pressing movements on chest day, why would there be a need to do pressing movements on shoulder day? aside from the fact that your anterior delts are getting over worked, the upper chest also comes into play during shoulder pressing. why not eliminate shoulder presses altogether on shoulder day and stick to upright rows and a variety of lateral raises? these exercises work the side delts, which dont get worked in your back and chest workouts. then perhaps your front shoulders would be fresh on chest day allowing for you to lift more weight with better form and with less chance of injury. any thought?...

[Mike P.T.]

Funny you mention that, because that is exactly what I do. I personally don't do any more direct shoulder pressing exercises because I get enough anterior delt work from Incline dumbell presses and the other pressing movements. Rear delts I actually do on back day as well at the end of my workout along with shrugs which I also do on back day.

[FightinForPecs]

and how is that working for you mike? chest getting any bigger, stronger? are you shoulders losing any size? did you cut out shoulder day altogether?

[Mike P.T.]

Originally posted by FightinForPecs
and how is that working for you mike? chest getting any bigger, stronger? are you shoulders losing any size? did you cut out shoulder day altogether?

I actually do shoulders either on Chest day, or the day right after. This allows my shoulders more full rest days before I hit it again. True doing it the day after it will be pre-exhausted, but since my main focus is the side delts anyway I'm good to go. My chest has definately improved not just because of this method I would say but because I concentrate of feeling the movement and not just doing it as well. Far too many guys are ego driven and use too much weight and don't allow their muscles to fully do the work. They let momentum handle it. My shoulders have definately not gone down since doing this. Then again I can do incline dumbell presses with the 120's each hand and also can work up to the 50's each hand on lateral pretty strict too. I know I'm sure some of you guys can do more but it's good enough for me and it works for me personally. You gotta find out what works best for you.

[FightinForPecs]

anyone else?

[rado]

good point you bring out. I still do military press, and other sorts of front/back delt workouts. Yes when I do bench, my front delts are always sore. I never thought if it this way, I guess we ALL don't know everything heh? I do side laterals, up-right's, db press, etc... I don't know, I've been training this way for years now.

[rado]

if you really want to get a bigger chest, you should try weighted dips and some close grip bench.

[FightinForPecs]

rado, ive tried it all man, i friggen hate it. im constantly looking for a new chest routine. it doesnt help that my left side is raised up higher as well. this is due to some contortion of my rib cage. it just grew that way i guess, so the bone is higher on one side of my sternum. you cant really tell when my shirt is off which is weird, its only when i wear a tighter fitting shirt. sucks. i eventually just want to huge slabs of meat there so you cant tell at all. BUT HOW?!