3 Tips to Train Around Shoulder Injuries

October 26, 2018
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3 Tips to Train Around Shoulder Injuries

Are your shoulders jacked up?

Do you struggle to bench press or overhead press?

As someone who struggled with shoulder pain for years, I want to give you three strategies you can use to push hard even though you’re feeling beat up.

You’ve just got to be a little smarter.

1. Prioritize pulling exercises

If your shoulder is hurting, you’re oftentimes overdeveloped in your glamour muscles (i.e. the muscles you can see in the mirror).

To help pull your shoulders back and take pressure off your chest and anterior delts, it’s time to start adding more pulling exercises to your program.

As a general rule of thumb, you should pull twice as much as you press.

Use exercises like single-arm dumbbell rows, pull ups, inverted rows, lat pulldowns and seated rows more than you use exercises like the barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, push ups and chest flyes.

For example, if you do 12 sets of pushing exercises in a week, you’ll want to do at least 24 sets of pulling exercises.

2. Use shoulder-friendly pressing variations

Even if you’re feeling a little beat up, you can still use a number of pressing exercises to get stronger.

If the barbell bench press isn’t feeling good, you could try a neutral-grip dumbbell bench press.

If a barbell overhead press is hurting, you could do a landmine press or Arnold press and focus on “shrugging” your shoulders at the top to prevent impingement (see videos below).

Leave your ego at the door and start with light weights to really make sure the movement feels good. Once you’re confident with your form, begin slowly increasing the weight.

Remember, progress in the gym is a marathon, not a sprint.

If your goal is to lift the rest of your life, a few workouts of lifting lighter weights won’t kill you.