Shoulders

I always finish my workout with a brisk thirty to forty-five minute walk on the treadmill, Stair Climber, or with a Spin Class. Needless to say that can be rather boring, so I spend my time watching people train. I observe fitness fanatics working hard to achieve the body of their dreams, some training hard and smart while others seem to be attempting to tear a limb from their anatomy.

As I witness these ill-informed club members, I cringe and oftentimes step off the treadmill and offer my assistance so they don’t leave the gym in an ambulance. It seems as if the most abused body part is the shoulders.

Lateral raises are arguably one of the most poorly executed exercises performed in gyms around America. The old “pouring from a pitcher” routine causes the ball of the humorous to come out of the socket therefore causing an impingement in the joint.

Try this; raise your arm as if you were doing a lateral raise to the point that your arm is parallel to the floor. Now rotate your palm downward from the thumb. Feel the strain it puts on the joint? Now imagine that with a load.

Behind the neck presses is another one. Do that same thing: raise your arms as if you were doing an overhead press; now simply push your hands back a few inches. Feel that?