To Work your Shoulders or Not to Work your Shoulders – That is not the Question

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Ok, lousy title, I know but that was a real question I once asked my trainer (ex-trainer).

I had been going to the gym forever and training with him for over a year, and although I did see some improvement I was beginning to notice my shoulder development lagging behind the rest of my body; beginning to look disproportionate…

The shoulders were never a concern for me, as I always considered myself lucky having pretty wide shoulders, but there is a big difference between wide shoulders and muscular shoulders; I am sure you knew that.

My trainer said that training the shoulders was not a good idea because I would certainly end up having a serious shoulder injury (probably all shoulder injuries are serious, I would add); but after I stopped training with him I began

to train my shoulders, and this is what I found out:

• If you train your shoulders with good form and a reasonable weight (rather lighter than heavier) you are unlikely to injure your shoulders
• The more you train your shoulders the better they respond to exercise
• I saw a huge increase in my overall shoulder development in just a matter of weeks
• Having well developed shoulders made my whole upper body look many times better
• A trainer who tells you that you should not train some parts of your body is not a good trainer

Anyways, this is the shoulder workout I used:

• Barbell Clean and Press
• Dumbbell lateral raises
• Heavy upright rows
• Push Presses

After a while I switched some of  the lateral raises for Reverse overhead dumbbell laterals, and began to do some seated bent-over dumbbell laterals to focus on my rear deltoids because they developed slower than my front deltoids.

I organized my shoulder workout from the advice of Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.

Another great thing I learned from reading this big book is that you need to take a look at yourself and see what areas need more attention and work on those areas to develop a harmonious physique.

And, yes another important lesson: don’t believe everything someone tells you just because he or she is a trainer, there’s nothing better than being able to make your own decisions.