Quick tip for you today about training SHOULDERS!
Living in Florida “tank top” season is basically EVERY season (unless there is a cold front). SO, who doesn’t want to have nice tone shoulders to rock all year long?!
While strength training is an absolute must if you want to tone up those shoulders, it’s an area of the body that can be easily injured if you don’t train them properly.
In my opinion the MOST over-looked component of training shoulders (which often leads to injury) for is STABILITY.
The shoulder is built up of a complex system of multiple muscle groups that all work together for movement. When you incorporate resistance training to start strengthening and defining the muscles of the shoulder, it’s incredibly important that you “teach” all of the muscles that stabilize the shoulders to “turn on” and support the shoulder throughout the entire exercise. If you start challenging the shoulders to push too much weight without the strength of the stabilizers you risk either compensation (using undesired muscles to execute the lift) or even injury.
This concept of training stability remains important whether you are a “beginner” or “advanced” lifter, as the demand on your stabilizing muscles only increases as you continue to increase the weight that you lift!
We put together a quick 1 minute video showing some shoulder stability exercise progressions. The video starts with 3 “beginner” type exercises, then 2 “intermediate” type exercises, and finally 1 example of an “advanced” variation of a shoulder stability lift for experienced strength trainers.
I included some suggested sets and repetitions below the video for each exercise if you would like to add these exercises in to YOUR strength training routine.
Beginner:
Scapular Retractions (2-3 sets of 10 repetitions with a 3 second “pause”)
Band “No Money” (2-3 sets of 10 repetitions with a 1 second “pause”)
Band Pullaparts ” (2-3 sets of 10 repetitions with a 1 second “pause”)
Intermediate
Prone “I” and “Y” Holds (2-3 sets of 5 repetitions of EACH position with a 3 second “pause”)
Prone “Superman” Arms (2-3 sets of 10-15 slow repetitions)
Advanced
Bottoms Up Kettlebell Press w/ Band Resistance (2 to 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions on each side)
Hope you this helps!
-Mara
P.S. Do you know that you need to start strength training (whether it’s for fat loss, posture, general health, or toning up), but too intimidated to start hitting the gym on your own? I would love to chat with you more about how strength training can truly change your life, AND how we can teach you to be confident lifting weights as you work towards achieving your goals!
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