ADVANCED TRAINING - Protect those shoulders!

Is this you?
You have been training for awhile and you decide to focus on building a beautiful chest and shoulders. So you watch people in the gym to see how they lift, and follow the directions in your favorite fitness magazine and really go for it. 

For the nex 4 weeks you pound out shoulder presses galore using progressively heavier weights, followed by side laterals and upright rows. Then it's off to the chest press and you lift moderately heavy on the verticle chest press, the flat bench, and the flye machine.

Pretty soon you start noticing pains in your shoulders - almost pinpoint pain, like a pinching inside, each time you lift your arm to the front, side or overhead. You try to work through it, but it gets worse. Finally, it becomes so painful that you have to stop and let whatever is wrong heal.          Sound familiar?
This injury is referred to as shoulder impingement, and is a very common gym injury. It is caused by lifting incorrectly and/or lifting too heavy.

Before you do any chest or shoulder work you must warm up the rotator cuffs with simple, small range of motion, rotating movements using very light weights. Some people do these in a standing position; I prefer lying on a bench on my side to better isolate the region being worked. For demonstration pictures click here>>  Rotator Cuff Warm Ups

Once the shoulders are warmed up, then you can move into chest presses. Start with light weight and practice perfect form! What is that? Any time you push weight away from your body, it is important to use the larger pectoralis major muscles that comprise the chest, and try and keep the smaller deltoids out of the movement as much as possible. How do you do that? By keeping your shoulder blades contracted back, toward each other. Keep them there - don't let them expand - and from that position, push the weight away from your body.

This may feel different than what you expect because it creates a shorter move. But this form will help keep your shoulders disengaged and reduce risk of injury as you focus on the real power house, your pecs.