Shoulder strength frustration

gothchiq

So I've been doing this eat right and exercise thing for about a year now. I slowly but surely increase in strength and endurance everywhere but in my shoulders. I do all the machines and sometimes work out with dumbbells. We don't have the great big rack with the barbells. There are dumbbells and there are machines. So on all the other upper body machines I can do about 60 lb, 70 on one or two, where I started out with only 30 or 40. On the shoulders, I'm still stuck at 40! It's the machine where you press it up over your head. I can do about 8 reps then it's failure. I cannot understand why this one area won't make the slightest progress. Does anyone know what I can do to get improvement out of my shoulders also?

rand486

Machines are known to actually be higher risk for injuries, believe it or not. They have a tendency to over-target certain (especially large) muscles.

If you look at free weight exercises, you'll likely see more development overall, as well as more functional strength in every day activities, as your range of motion will help build all those "little" muscles as well.

Perhaps something like an overhead press would help you.

Cherimoose

gothchiq wrote: »

So on all the other upper body machines I can do about 60 lb, 70 on one or two, where I started out with only 30 or 40. On the shoulders, I'm still stuck at 40! ?

Sounds about right. Shoulders are a smaller muscle group compared to your chest & upper back, so they can't lift as much, and they plateau sooner.

I agree with the above about prioritizing freeweights.

jenglish712

I would also echo to use dumbells. I would say dumbell press would be primary but lateral raises, front raises and even upright rows have their place. Most folks that struggle with shoulder work.

dbmata

Use dumbells or a barbell.

Shoulders will always lag in strength compared to the chest. Do be sure to work a lot of the smaller muscle groups and the rear aspects of your shoulders. Pulls, pushes, both are important.

gothchiq

Great, thanks! I'll start doing the free weights more often.

SMKing75

I actually injured my shoulder on the exact same machine as OP. I ended up with impingement syndrome. Had physical therapy for 3 months. I can finally use it again without pain but I have been told not to do any weight bearing exercises such as planks, push-ups, for the long haul to avoid making the shoulder worse. I have been using free weight now and carefully! Its been a struggle to work the other muscle groups without re-injury.

gothchiq

*glub* Well, that's scary! Definitely want to avoid that sort of thing.

Lofteren

There are two definite problems with your OP. First, you said you were using machines and sometimes use free weights which has already been covered by other posters. Second, you must understand that if you want to get stronger you need to stop thinking in terms of muscles and start thinking in terms of movements. Strength athletes would not have a "shoulders" day but they would very likely have an "Overhead press" day. This small philosophical difference can have a huge impact on your training and progress.

You should also know that your overhead press will progress more slowly than every other major lift you perform because the amount of muscle tissue involved in the movement is small compared to the muscle tissue used to bench, squat or deadlift. Your leverages are also stacked against you when overhead pressing so getting your numbers up takes a lot of work (and a lot of food!)

Keep training hard with barbells and dumbbells and the gains will come. You just have to be patient and diligent.

gothchiq

I was also told recently that doing pushups would help a lot. I discovered I am a lot worse at these than expected lol. That's something I will be doing now and hopefully will build up to a reasonable number.