A lot of gymgoers want full, round shoulders, but not everyone is lucky to achieve it. It is one of the hardest muscle groups to develop, and it’ll even be harder to accomplish your shoulder goals without knowledge of proper shoulder training. Here’s a list of shoulder training mistakes that you should avoid so that your shoulder training efforts won’t be wasted:
1. Trying to arch your back.
Arching your back may allow you to lift heavier weights, but doing so makes you more susceptible to injuries. Doing this act puts your lower back in a vulnerable position, and that’s something you want to avoid as much as possible. It’s also worth noting that the muscles that you’re trying to target are affected when doing arches, so it will benefit you if you prevent your lower back from arching too much during shoulder training days.
2. Not observing proper posture.
Posture is everything during shoulder exercises and shouldn’t be taken for granted. This is the reason why you should keep your posture in mind. Try to be relaxed while performing shoulder exercises and avoid moving any body parts aside from your arms. If you lock your knees and lean your back a bit too much, then you will give your lower back muscles a hard time. If you don’t want that to happen, then take into consideration your posture and other body movements.
3. Not warming up.
Although there’s no correlation between warming up and your shoulder appearance, we can’t deny the fact that doing warm-ups can help you avoid potential injuries and other pain. If you don't warm up your shoulders, then you put yourself in a susceptible position for shoulder joint pain and other shoulder-related injuries, and we’re sure you don’t want any of that. It will be highly beneficial from here on out to make it a habit to warm up first before doing any shoulder exercises to help with muscle stability and overall mobility.
4. Placing too much stress on your neck and shoulders.
Avoid doing behind-the-neck shoulder exercises because they require severe backward arm rotations and place a lot of stress on your rotator cuff muscles. You could potentially tear a shoulder muscle if you use too many heavy weights and don’t first work on strengthening your shoulder mobility before doing this variation. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so we suggest avoiding this at all costs. However, if you can’t avoid this, then taking safety precautions and hiring a professional trainer to help you out will keep you safe.
Injuries and other risks come with any kind of training or workout. No one can achieve the body they want without experiencing any kind of pain, soreness, or discomfort. Some people will do just fine, but unfortunately, some have it worse than others. The trick here is to make sure you’re doing everything you can to physically prepare your body and mentally prepare your mind to cope with the demands of whatever training you’re about to start.
Check out our product collections to help you out with your upcoming training needs.
