which are the shoulder training movements you know?
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"Unlike the big muscle groups like the chest and back, there are always plenty of tricks for the shoulders, whether it's free or fixed equipment. It feels like the arsenal of shoulder movements has dried up ......"
When it comes to shoulder training, many of you have fallen into the myth that every shoulder push seems to be nothing but dumbbells.
Well today's content is just the thing to save you from that myth. It's the same movements that you know so well, but with a few changes to expose the shoulder fibres to different stresses and stimuli, changing the way you think about shoulder training for good. Wider, bigger and more power is close at hand.
let's start with a quick overview of the shoulder muscles, which are made up of three heads: The anterior, middle and posterior fascicles. When you are doing overhead shoulder presses, you are mainly working the anterior and middle bundles of the deltoids, as well as the rhomboids, which run from the neck to the middle of the back. However, the amount of stimulation each muscle receives can change significantly depending on the variation of the shoulder press or the technique used.
The four different variations of the overhead shoulder press that we present to you next all have the basic elements of the standard overhead shoulder press. However, there are significant differences in the posture of the movements, which can stimulate your muscles in a completely different way. Your shoulders can do a wide variety of movements and after you have tried them, the deltoids will grow like never before.
1. Standing barbell overhead shoulder press
will you please stand up for the real overhead shoulder press? This is the first movement we will do when we delve into these classic variations. We want you to start from a standing position, not a seated one. At first, you may have to use a lighter weight than you would in a seated position, but once your lower back has strengthened through adaptation to the movement, you will be able to lift just as much weight as you would in a seated position.
While this may not seem reasonable, just ask olympic weightlifters if they are both strong when they are in a standing or sitting position and you will get a positive answer from each one. The fact is that when standing, your entire body coordinates your shoulder muscles to move the weight.
firstly, the most powerful part of your body - the legs - are not involved in the movement when sitting, even though many sitting overhead shoulder presses have feet for support. But because you are seated, your lower back and legs, are not well engaged. But when you are in a standing position, you immediately engage your whole body in the movement.
In the standing position, the legs and knees absorb the downward impact of the movement and you can use your legs to help push the barbell overhead. Once your lower back is strengthened (not to mention your abs and transverse abdominals) and combined with the strength of your legs, you can immediately push up more weight. As you increase the weight, your shoulders and arms will get stronger and bigger to accommodate the increased load and pressure.
Strength tip: A slight upward push when doing the movement in a standing position can help push up more weight than in a seated position.
standing barbell overhead shoulder press
2. Behind the neck overhead shoulder press
as with the standard anterior neck shoulder press, the anterior neck shoulder press will force the elbows slightly forward, which will stimulate more of the anterior deltoid bundle and slightly less of the middle deltoid bundle. For those who want to increase shoulder width, putting more pressure on the middle deltoid bundle is actually the key factor.
When doing the behind-the-neck overhead shoulder press, the elbows move to the sides more than they do forward, so the middle deltoid bundle is much more involved than the front-of-the-neck barbell shoulder press. Think again about the front planks and side planks.
behind-the-neck overhead shoulder press
when you perform a front planche, the elbows move in front of the body and the anterior deltoid bundle is more involved than the middle deltoid bundle. When you perform side planks, the elbows move to the sides and the middle deltoid bundle is more involved. The same is true of the standard shoulder press and the behind-the-neck shoulder press, both of which relate to the position of the elbows relative to the body.
If you have shoulder or cervical problems you obviously can't do this version, but for healthy people the behind-the-neck overhead shoulder press is absolutely safe. The key is to learn to incorporate both versions into your routine, rather than sticking to just one version.
Strength tip: Because your arms are further away from the sides of your body, more of the stress will be on the middle deltoid bundle.
3. Half overhead shoulder press
the half overhead shoulder press is probably the most underutilised type of shoulder press. Many bodybuilders will reject anything that is not a full range movement, although we believe in the benefits of a full range movement and traditional trainers can get a lot out of this movement. However, the half-overhead shoulder press has many benefits too, so let's take a look at them.
First and most obviously, the barbell doesn't hit you on the head and you don't have to struggle to lift the weight after you've exhausted it. During the half shoulder press, the safety bar is set at a point in the range of motion, thus limiting the barbell to a safe range and shortening the movement stroke. At the end of the set (force exhaustion) you simply place the barbell in the top safety position. This mental reassurance will be of great help when you want to increase the weight.
in fact, this extra confidence actually has another advantage in that you can choose the barbell weight more freely during the half movements. Although you are training in a shorter range of motion, your deltoids can lift more weight than during the full range of motion, take advantage of this. Increased weight + increased fibre damage = increased training effect.
Finally, there is the training process. As you increase the barbell weight each time, you can adjust the safety position. The increase in half-movement strength will eventually help increase overall movement strength and muscle.
As you get stronger and more proficient with the half-range movement, you can eventually employ techniques such as reverse movements (securing the barbell to the rack at the bottom of the movement to eliminate momentum or bounce energy) and more effective rest-pause strategies. These methods make for better halfway movements to achieve your goal of getting boulder-like shoulders.
4. Dumbbell overhead shoulder press
despite the various benefits of the traditional barbell overhead shoulder press, the same can be said for the dumbbell shoulder press. If you've been doing barbell shoulder presses for weeks, months or even years, it might be time to go to dumbbells.
One of the biggest benefits of the dumbbell is that it has a greater or freer range of motion than the barbell. Since you can move your hands in any direction, you can move your arms a little to the sides of your body to better stimulate the middle deltoid bundle, or even move your arms more to the front (think arnold shoulder press) to better train the anterior deltoid bundle. At the top of the range of motion, with dumbbells you can raise your arms higher as you can touch the two dumbbells together.
dumbbell overhead shoulder press
the deltoids are recruited for a longer period of time through the greater range of motion of the dumbbells compared to the barbell version. As the range of motion increases and the time the muscle is under tension increases, the trapezius is also engaged and its role is to elevate the scapula, suggesting that more stabilising muscles need to be recruited to complete the dumbbell shoulder press. Therefore the dumbbell has more muscle fibres to do the overhead shoulder press than the barbell hen.
Strength tip: The dumbbell is harder than the barbell, so it can recruit more muscle fibres for a greater range of motion.
don't ever go small with the shoulder, it actually has far more movement variations than you might think. Did you know that the dumbbell lateral raises you are most familiar with can also be developed in two variations, with the chest in or with the scapulae tightened? There's nothing necessarily beneficial about holding the chest, and there's no such thing as a no-no or no-no. The key is to acquire more techniques that enhance the feeling.