But it’s not really a fair fight. The knee is a highly complex hinge-joint designed to deal with an insane amount of force in the frontal and sagittal planes inherent in flexion and extension of the joint.

The shoulder. Maybe it isn’t the greatest design out there, but it does allow people to do some pretty amazing things. When you think about which joints in the human body are most prone to injury, there’s a healthy competition between the shoulder and the knee for the top spot.

But it’s not really a fair fight. The knee is a highly complex hinge-joint designed to deal with an insane amount of force in the frontal and sagittal planes inherent in flexion and extension of the joint.

The knee contains a number of stabilizing ligaments (ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL) and menisci (medial and lateral) that provide additional stability as well as acting like shock absorbers in order to deal with varus and valgus forces, as well as internal and external rotation.

The shoulder joint and surrounding musculature on the other hand, is a kind of ball and socket joint primarily designed to stabilize the glenohumeral joint. While this allows for amazing flexibility and range of motion (certainly much more range of motion than the knee), all of that flexibility and complexity can leave the shoulder more susceptible to injury.

The Shoulder Is Under Pressure

The bottom line—the shoulder isn’t well designed to deal with the horizontal and vertical forces that we throw at them in strength and conditioning.

But with smart programming and thoughtful supplemental work, you can train hard, push big weights and avoid the sorts of injuries that we’ve all likely had a time or two and get stronger in the process.

Because of the range of motion that the shoulder is capable of, it is important to train the surrounding musculature to be strong in as many of these ranges of motion as you safely can.

At Gym Jones, we use a number of isometric holds where we ask of the shoulder musculature to do what it was designed to do—stabilize the glenohumeral joint. For example:

1. Double kettlebell/dumbbell front rack carries
2. Overhead kettlebell/dumbbell carries
3. Mixed kettlebell/dumbbell carries
4. FLR planks
5. Ring planks
6. Side planks
7. Light dumbbell push presses with isometric overhead holds
8. Overhead squatting
9. Slosh pipe carries and holds

We also use a number of supplemental shoulder exercises to become as strong as possible in various ranges of motion, including:

1. Dumbbell lateral raises
2. Bent over rear delt flys
3. Chest flys
4. Push-ups
5. Parallete push-ups
6. Ring push-ups
7. Ring pull-ups

Feel free to add these shoulder specific movements and exercises to your existing programming if they aren’t sufficiently present already.

Remember to stay light enough to ensure perfect technique and only increase weight when you can do so perfectly. Technique is paramount with shoulder work. Don’t let your ego creep in!

Progress Your Training and Increase Your Strength

As with all other kinds of training, your sets and rep structures should be progressive, starting with the lowest volume that will cause adaptation and working towards the maximum you can recover from.

Get out there and build some bulletproof shoulders.

The post Build Shoulder Strength to Avoid Injury appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Tiny narrow shoulders make you look weak and timid—like Bambi.

Massive broad shoulders make you look powerful and confident—like Superman.

If you’re reading this, you and I know two things:

Your shoulders say everything about you—from the mid-level office employee sitting in his cubicle 9 to 5 with rounded shoulders to the powerful high-level executive standing erect as he leads meetings—your shoulders define how others perceive you.

Tiny narrow shoulders make you look weak and timid—like Bambi.

Massive broad shoulders make you look powerful and confident—like Superman.

If you’re reading this, you and I know two things:

1. You’re tired of the way your body looks after you slowly roll out of bed and look at yourself in the mirror each morning before a long day at work.
2. You’re confused about how to train hard and deal with the aches and pains that have developed around your creaky nagging shoulders.

Whether you’re wearing an expensive suit or a tight t-shirt, you want massive eye-popping shoulders that tell people you command respect. Imagine dominating every meeting and social occasion because you made the decision to add strength and size to your shoulders.

Does that sound good? Yes?

Great. Let’s begin by unpacking five ways for you to turbo-charge your training for healthy, jaw-dropping shoulders.

Tip 1: Fix Your Pull Versus Push Ratio

I know you’re excited about gaining massive shoulders that make you feel like a superhero. Hell, I’m excited for you. You’re probably planning to head to the gym today, grabbing the first barbell you lay eyes on, and pumping out 10 sets of overhead presses. Stop. That’s not what you should do.

If you want to have massive eye-popping shoulders, fixing your pull versus push ratio is the key that unlocks the door to you looking like a confident stud.

Here’s why:

Your body has twice as many internal rotators of the shoulder versus external rotators. When the internal rotators like your pecs and the front of your shoulder are continually flexed by obsessive overhead pressing, they naturally become stronger.

It may sound great, but this sad state of affairs will eventually lead to rounded shoulders also known as kyphotic posture. It’s the type of posture is what you see in people who look meek and lack confidence.

Is that how you want other people to perceive you? I hope not.

How do we fix this? In the words of 90s R and B sensation Montell Jordan, “This is how we do it…”

Your shoulder has three different heads: the anterior (front), medial (side), and posterior (rear) deltoids (delts). Exercises like the shoulder press and front raises hit your anterior deltoids hard. You don’t need a ton a variation and volume to make them look phenomenal. For well rounded, muscle packed shoulders, you need to focus more on hitting the medial and posterior delts often.

Your rear delts are vital for shoulder health and appearance. They’re a major contributor in both bringing your shoulders back to give you that powerful confident look as well as fixing nagging shoulder pain. You must build them up.

With the 3 Way Band Pull Apart Sequence you’ll concentrate on stimulating the muscle fibers in your rear delts by hitting them at three different angles: high, middle, and low.

For every set, perform 8 reps of each variation with zero rest in between.

When you’re isolating one muscle, focus on muscle failure and even going past it.

After you’ve completed a set of lateral raises, don’t stop there. Continue by adding in partial reps to help stimulate muscle growth. Go after the extra pump! For partial reps, raise the dumbbells halfway. Your medial delts should feel like they’re on fire at the end of each set.

Perform 3 x 12-15 plus 8 partial reps.

Next, you’ll use the same method you did with the lateral raises.

Key in on your range of motion. Your goal is to target the rear delts, nothing else. As you pull the weight up, stop the motion as you reach your torso. If you go past that, other muscles will get involved and you won’t receive the full benefit of the exercise. Also, use a supinated (underhand) grip with the dumbbells to increase the external rotation of the shoulders.

Again, perform 3 x 12-15 plus 8 partial reps to help stimulate muscle growth and get your extra pump.

Tip 2: Change Your Grip

Do you experience achy, nagging shoulder pain when performing barbell overhead presses?

Imagine being able to build powerful shoulders without aggravating them in the process.

Does that sound good? Yeah? Pay close attention to the next part.

The barbell overhead press is a great exercise. It makes you feel like you’re Godzilla holding a building over your head about to throw it 10 miles away, but it’s not essential for massive powerful shoulders.

Switching from the barbell to dumbbells to build massive shoulders allows you to lower and lift the weight in a natural path for your shoulder joint.

Save yourself years of agonizing shoulder pain by using a neutral grip. Instead of the barbell overhead press, implement the Standing Neutral Grip Dumbbell Overhead Press.

For strength gains, control the weight on the eccentric (lowering phase) of the movement. Once the dumbbells are back down by your ears, be explosive and press them up.

For powerful strength gains, perform 5 x 5.

Several lifters just like you with achy shoulders primarily use dumbbells for overhead pressing exercises. The lack of pain will lead to better consistency and results.

Tip 3: Control Your Tempo and Dominate Each Shoulder

If you want to pack on the maximum amount of muscle possible, put more emphasis on the eccentric and keep your shoulder under constant tension during each set. You have greater potential for muscle growth when you concentrate on the eccentric portion. Here, you’re going to isolate each shoulder and place them under immense stress for a large amount of time.

Use the 2-1-1 Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press.

Press the weight up overhead with both arms. Then, lower the dumbbells one side at a time under control as you squeeze your shoulders as hard as humanly possible against the resistance.

I’m sure you want your shoulders to be equally strong, right? Of course, you do.

Here’s a tip: Lower the stronger side first, then lower the weaker side. The weaker shoulder needs more time under tension so it can play catch up to the former. This alone can provide the shoulder development you’ve been looking for this whole time.

Perform 4 x 8-10 and it will leave your shoulders trembling.

Tip 4: Add a Half Rep Before Each Full Rep

Do you want to get some extra blood pumping through your shoulders? Who doesn’t!

Use the 1.5 Dumbbell Z Press.

The 1.5 rep technique forces you to perform a double contraction of the targeted muscle. Instead of hitting your shoulders once, you get to crush them twice in the same movement.

Press the weight all the way up for your full rep, go slow, and lower the weight halfway. Next, pause for a second, then press the dumbbells up again for your half rep. Finally, complete the movement by lowering the weight all the way down. That’s your 1.5 rep.

If you want to get the maximum benefit of the exercise, make sure your half rep takes the same amount of time as your full rep when lowering the weight.

If your shoulders can handle it, perform 4 x 6-8.

Tip 5: Dominate Every Muscle Fiber

If you like to train hard and fast, this part is for you.

Training density is the amount of work done in a certain period. You can do more work in a set period or more work in less time. Increasing training density does a few things:

1. Increases caloric expenditure leading to more fat loss.
2. Trains your cardiovascular system without you having to step on a treadmill.
3. Keeps you focused, allowing you to waste zero time in the gym.

I know it sounds awesome, but how do you use this information? I’ve got the answer right here.

Use a triple set to target each head of the shoulders. Normally, you would perform three exercises on their own. Including rest periods, this may take you 20 minutes to complete during a workout. During a triple set, you complete three consecutive exercises with no rest between each. So, what usually takes you 20 minutes quickly turns into 10 minutes.

Destroy your delts by performing the following for three sets:

• Seated Neutral Grip Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 8-10 reps, no rest.
• Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise – max reps, no rest.
• Seated Rear Delt Raise – max reps, rest 2 minutes.

The Takeaway

There’s no need to overcomplicate things—packing on muscle for powerful and healthy shoulders can be simple. Just follow the tips above.

If you train every inch of your shoulders, place them under different types of stress, and vary the exercises, you’ll be able to dominate your time in the gym and feel like Superman until you decide to retire your cape. (Which shouldn’t be anytime soon!)

The post 5 Foolproof Ways to Build Muscular Shoulders appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Today, it’s time to talk shoulders.

As a coach for 10 years, I would say two of the most common limiting factors in athletic development are hips and shoulders.

Today, it’s time to talk shoulders.

Specifically, how to get them stronger, more flexible and more stable to be able to do all the cool tricks, like overhead movements such as jerks and snatches, and inverted movements like handstands—if that’s what you desire. Or, if you just want to maintain healthy shoulders…

First things first, however, I must provide a warning: If you’re legitimately injured—maybe you have an undiagnosed labrum or supraspinatus tear that you have never bothered looking into despite constant pain (cough, cough…if this is you, you should probably look into it)—these exercises will probably do more damage than good.

But, if you’re just looking to iron out muscle imbalances, improve mobility so you can get into better positions, and strengthen and stabilize relatively healthy shoulders, give these exercises a try after your training session, or even as part of your warm-up.

1. Single Arm Dumbbell High Pulls

Though you can do these with two arms, I like the single-arm DB high pull as it exposes any muscular or functional mobility imbalances right away.

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Start with the DB at your waist and drive it straight up to your collarbone, leading with the elbow the whole time. Focus on keeping your body square (don’t rotate at all) and pull straight up—as opposed to driving your elbows back—as if you’re zipping up a shirt. This will ensure you get some internal rotation as you pull.

Go as heavy as you can for 3 sets of 10 per side. Or stick with a little lighter weight and hit an @2222 tempo (2 second to pull, 2 seconds to hold at the top, 2 seconds to lower and 2 seconds at the bottom).

Position 1

Final Position

2. Lean and Loiter

This is a great drill for getting all the stabilizing muscles around your shoulder blades to fire hard.

Stand a few inches from a wall and simply lean back into the wall with only the tips of your elbows touching the wall. If you’re not feeling much of a challenge, take a step or two. This should feel like you’re fighting for your life to stop your arms and back from collapsing onto the wall. If you do collapse, you’re a little far from the wall.

Try 2 to 3 sets of 30 seconds as far away from the wall as you can.

3. Shoulder Flexion Stretch

Place a medicine ball in the middle of your back and lay supine on top of it. Grab a dowel or a light barbell and press it overhead to the top of a strict press position. Make sure you keep your ribcage from flairing out (i.e. keep spinal extension to a minimum) and press the bar as far behind you as you can while maintaining this neutral position. The further your hands are apart, the easier the stretch. The closer your hands are together, the more intense the stretch.

Hold for 1 minute before a shoulder intense workout to access a little more range of motion in the shoulders.

4. Shoulder Extension Stretch

Simply sit down with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground and reach as far behind you as you can with you hands, all the while keeping your arms straight. Make sure your fingers are facing away from your torso. The closer your hands are together, the deeper the stretch.

Hold for 1 minute at the end of your workout.

5. Supinated Grip Deadhang Hold

Just like the name says, it’s a deadhang hold with a supinated (or chin-up) grip. As you hang, keep your shoulders active and focus on keeping your feet together, your pelvis turned up (like you’re trying to pee on your face. How’s that for a visual?) and your ribcage down. In other words, aim for a perfect hollow body position.

Hold for 2 sets of 30 seconds to 1 minute.

6. Plank Shoulder Tap Variations

There are tons of variations for these. You can do them in a bent-knee plank with your knees one inch from the ground, or you can try them in a traditional plank. You can also reach up and over your head with a straight arm, or touch your hand to your hip instead of to your shoulder. In all variations, the idea is to keep your hips steady with as little movement as possible through your torso.

Start with 3 sets of 10 taps per arm.

Check out the video below for these variations.

7. Yoga Push-up

Again, there are tons of variations of these, but I like this one: It involves three positions.

First, lower yourself into the bottom of the push-up (position one), and then keep your hips low and raise your shoulders so you end up with an extended spine (position two), and finally drive your bum into the air and push your head through your arms until you feel a shoulder stretch (position three). Make sure you keep your knees straight as you get into this third position.

Good luck and take care of those shoulders!

The post 7 Exercises to Bulletproof Your Shoulders appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In fact, everyone’s plans do seem to be identical. For example, on international chest day (Monday) most will begin with bench presses, followed up by some sort of incline work, and then on to a fly or cable motion.

The principles of weight training aren’t rocket science. However, the common practice of sorting out your movements into the smallest possible amount of isolation needs a second look. What’s next? Left and right biceps on different training days?

Why Bicep Day Doesn’t Work for Every Bro

If everyone is training the same way, why do some get rapid results while others seem to progress at a snail’s pace? Everyone responds to training differently due to many factors. Genes do play a role, but since you can’t do anything about them, let’s look at what else is in play:

• Ability to recover: This is influenced by nutrition habits and the amount of sleep you get. Having a sound nutrition program can make or break your success in the gym. So can sleep. Too many pay little attention to the amount of rest needed to truly progress in the gym.
• Stress levels: High stress levels excrete more muscle-destroying cortisol in your blood stream. Stress can zap strength and recovery ability. No, you can’t eliminate stress out of your life completely, but you can reduce and manage it.
• Schedule: Consistency and persistence are two key principles needed to succeed. Without the daily, weekly, and monthly dedication to your plan, little or no progress will be made.
• Intensity: Intense workouts produce results, not an hour-long session of checking your phone. Enough said.
• Planning: You can’t build anything worthwhile without a sound, thoughtful plan.
• Motivation: Derive your motivation from somewhere; a contest, friends, yourself, it doesn’t matter. Just make sure you have a motivational vision in place.

You Are Not a Pro Bodybuilder

High level, professional bodybuilders have made the micro-split routine commonplace. Most gym bros look up to the biggest dude in the gym or on the magazine cover, and can’t help but follow his routine. The problem is that most, if not all pros are “pharmaceutically enhanced,” shall we say. They are able to stimulate growth with almost any routine. It’s easier for them to blast one body part per day and then go home and grow since their body is in a constant anabolic state.

You are natural. You aren’t able to get a sleeve-busting response from twenty sets of curls. Your body works better when it is trained as a whole. The more muscle stimulated in a single, well-considered training session, the better your body’s response to that stimulus will be.

Replace the Micro Splits With Compound Movements

Okay, now let’s get back to the task at hand. If you have covered all the bases laid out above, it’s time to structure your upper body training. First and foremost, ditch the one-body-part-per-day stuff. If that has worked for you in the past, then you wouldn’t have read this far, so you must not get great results from that tired old routine.

Second, know that the body works better and more efficiently when larger areas are stimulated versus smaller areas. For example, to induce hypertrophy in your arms, you will reap bigger rewards from all of the presses, rows, and pull-ups, versus cranking out endless sets of concentration curls and cable press-downs.

The same can be said for body part splits. You will stimulate more growth from training groups of muscles rather than isolating each one each day. If you train chest, for example, you will have saturated most of your upper body with blood. It would only make sense to take full advantage of this and train your back as well, giving your entire upper body a jolt of stimulation to grow.

If you’re the average gym-goer trying to increase general strength and size, then a full upper body workout will benefit you more than splitting up every little muscle group on its own day.

Rules for Your Upper Body Program

Now that you have decided to train the upper body as a whole, let’s set some ground rules. Below are a few general principles to follow when structuring your new training plan. Feel free to tweak them to fit your personal needs.

• Stimulate, don’t destroy. The object is to coax the muscle to grow, not squeeze the life out of it until it can’t even move. Train to stimulate, and then leave and recover for the next workout.
• Stay compound. Mostly use the big, multi-joint moves. These will give you the most bang for your buck.
• Limit isolation. Your upper body training doesn’t have to be completely void of isolation work, but too many curls won’t do you any good. Stick with just a few of the basics.
• Increase frequency. Since you will be consolidating many body parts into one session, you will be able to train more often during the week—as long as volume is kept in check. This will give you more opportunity for growth.
• Back off when necessary. Nobody’s life is perfectly consistent. You will have times when life gets stressful and you can’t recover as well as before. In these times, back off a bit to stave off injury and illness.
• Don’t let soreness be your guide. At first, you may feel a bit sore from training more frequently. Over time, this will subside and work to your advantage. As long as you are regulating volume and intensity, the slight soreness should be a nonissue.

Sample Upper Body Training Plans

Below are two examples of upper body plans. Use either one twice per week, or both once per week. Either way, you will want a weekly training frequency of two upper body workouts.

It’s Simple: Train Hard, Get Bigger

Training for muscle growth isn’t all that complicated. All it takes is the right amount of stimulation and the correct dose of frequency. Annihilating your chest with endless reps of cable flys every Monday isn’t going to get it done. Sure, it might feed your ego, but are you seeing any results? Give the above programs a try, work diligently for at least four to six weeks, and then reap big rewards. You only have muscle to gain.

Being huge might not be all it’s cracked up to be:

The post Ditch the Micro Splits for Upper Body Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Let’s take a look at the chest anatomy and kinesiology to determine what is important to concentrate on.

A well-developed chest is one of more popular goals of men who hit the weight room. Take a gander at all the gym denizens and their time spent on the bench press, incline press, cable chest flies, dumbbell flies, and the infamous “pec-deck.” It’s usually quite a few. So, if you’re one of the “get a big chest” guys, be sure you’re using the best exercises to target the appropriate muscles.

Let’s take a look at the chest anatomy and kinesiology to determine what is important to concentrate on.

Pectoralis Major

The pectoralis major is what you see bulging atop the anterior torso when a well-built man removes his shirt.

The pec major has two heads: the sternal-costal head and the clavicular head. The sternal-costal head consists of more muscle mass. It originates at the sternum (center of the chest), more specifically the lateral manubrium, the six sternum costal cartilages, and the external oblique aponeurosis. It inserts at the upper arm (humerus), more specifically the lateral lip of bicipital groove of humerus and anterior lip of deltoid tuberosity.

The clavicular head is the smaller top section of the bare-chested upper-torso man bulge. It originates at the collarbone (clavicle), more specifically the anterior surface medial half of clavicle. It inserts at the upper arm, more specifically the lateral lip of bicipital groove of humerus and anterior lip of deltoid tuberosity.

Actions of the Pectoralis Major

Both the sternal-costal and clavicular heads of the pec major perform these actions at the upper arm:

• Adduction: lowering upper arm from side raise position to the midline of the body.
• Medial rotation: rotating upper arm forward/inward to the midline of the body.
• Transverse or horizontal flexion: from a side raise position, moving the upper arm to the front.

The sternal-costal head has another function: when the upper arm is flexed (raised to the front and above parallel to the ground), it extends the arm downward.

The clavicular head also has another function: when the upper arm is flexed to around 110 degrees (slightly higher than parallel to the ground), it flexes and adducts the upper arm (raises toward the midline of the body).

Confused? You should be. It’s complicated. Hang on, though, I will simplify it all shortly.

Pectoralis Minor

This muscle lies under pectoralis major. It originates on the ribs, more specifically the anterior surface of the sternal end of ribs three, four, and five. It inserts at the scapula, more specifically the medial surface of coracoid process of scapula.

Actions of the pectoralis minor

Depression of the tip of shoulder (movement downward) and protraction of the scapula (movement down and forward).

Subclavius

This is a small muscle that originates on the ribs, more specifically on the first rib at the junction of the costal cartilage.

It inserts on the clavicle, more specifically on the groove of the inferior surface of the clavicle between to costoclavicular and conoid ligaments.

Actions of the subclavius

Depresses the clavicle and moves it forward and downward.

I know what you’re thinking, “Enough. Just explain how I can maximize my entire chest region.” First, go ahead with your traditional chest exercises – barbell and dumbbell bench presses, machine chest presses, and dumbbell and machine chest flies.

These primarily target the sterno-costal head of the pecs. For the upper-chest – the clavicular head of the pecs – think barbell, dumbbell, and machine incline presses along with incline flies.

Three more tips

1. Two of the best chest exercises that target both the pec major and pec minor are the decline press and dips.Perform this simple experiment: Place your left hand over your right pec. Cover it all. Abduct your right arm to the side, and then horizontally flex it to the front as if performing a chest fly. Notice how you feel the right pec contract and bulge up.Now do this: From that position, slowly lower the right arm downward and inward to the midline of the body. Do you feel an even fuller pec contraction as the arm moved to that position? This is where the fullest contraction of the sternal-costal pecs and the pectoralis minor occurs, the downward and inward motion of the upper arm to the midline of the body.

   Therefore, to directly target the greatest amount of muscle fibers in the lower pectoral region, get after dips (weighted or machine), decline presses (barbell, dumbbell, or machine), and dumbbell decline flies.

2. Pullovers and close grip pulldowns target the sterno-costal pecs.Traditionally, most upper body pulling exercises have been classified as back exercises. But when the upper arm is flexed (raised to the front and above parallel to the ground), it extends the arm downward. The aforementioned pullovers (barbell or machine) actually target the sterno-costal pecs due to their function in extending the arm downward. Pullovers and close grip pulldowns are also chest exercises, not solely back exercises. Amazing is our muscular system!
3. Dumbbell cross-over front raises address the clavicular pecs.One last experiment. Again, place your left hand over your right pec. Now, flex your right arm (to the front) to parallel to the ground. Raise that arm upward (flexion) and inward. Notice the upper pecs (clavicular head) contract more than the lower pecs.

I know this may have been confusing, but I tried to present it as simply as possible. All of the previous info can be condensed down to this list. Here are the most effective exercises that maximally target and develop a man’s chest:

• Barbell, dumbbell, or machine decline presses.
• Dumbbell or machine decline flies.
• Weighted or machine dips.
• Barbell, dumbbell, or machine chest presses.
• Dumbbell or machine chest flies.
• Barbell, dumbbell, or machine incline presses.
• Dumbbell or machine incline flies.
• Pullovers or close grip pulldowns.
• Dumbbell front raise with arms converging at the midline of the body.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Develop a Man’s Pectorals with Strength Training Exercises appeared first on Breaking Muscle.