Women and shoulders.....
jo_marnes
Posts: 1,601 Member
Hi all,
Despite improving leg strength, my arms are still pathetic after 12 mths+ of lifting. I use the NROL and NROL supercharged to guide my workouts.
While my arms are much more defined and lovely and lean, they are still twig like in comparison to others at my gym. Does anyone have any advice as to how to go about building stronger/ bigger shoulders and upper arms?
Thanks!
Jo
Despite improving leg strength, my arms are still pathetic after 12 mths+ of lifting. I use the NROL and NROL supercharged to guide my workouts.
While my arms are much more defined and lovely and lean, they are still twig like in comparison to others at my gym. Does anyone have any advice as to how to go about building stronger/ bigger shoulders and upper arms?
Thanks!
Jo
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Replies
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Candice Keene has a nice shoulder workout posted on youtube. It's broken up into three videos but it's worth a look. It's pretty basic with shoulder presses etc.0
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Are you eating enough, and doing hard enough upper body work? You might want to add some body-weight work like push-ups, dips(both vertical and seated), planks, etc. to your workout.0
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Are your lifts continually increasing over time?0
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following (with my weak puny shoulders)0
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I am regularly doing pushups and planks. At various times in my routine I have shoulder presses, push press, dumbbell/ cable rows, dumbbell bench press, lat pull downs and just moving on to chin ups. My lower body makes strength gains, my upper body does not :-(
I am eating 1900 cals, as recommended by Sidesteel and Sara :-)0 -
No strength gains = no growth. You have to push yourself!!!
Arnold presses,
Leaning Lateral raises,
Cable Crossover High/Low
Bent Over Row (Reverse grip)
Seated Press
Face Pull (Rope)
Standing Lateral Raise
Pull Through Front Raise
Upright Row (Smith)
Shoulder Press (Small Bar)
Seated Bent Over Flyes
Assisted Pullup (Machine)
When I can do six reps, it's time to increase weight.0 -
I am regularly doing pushups and planks. At various times in my routine I have shoulder presses, push press, dumbbell/ cable rows, dumbbell bench press, lat pull downs and just moving on to chin ups. My lower body makes strength gains, my upper body does not :-(
I am eating 1900 cals, as recommended by Sidesteel and Sara :-)
At various times? Is this once a week? And at what weight? What weight are you using for shoulder presses for example?0 -
Do you do split routine or whole body routine?
If whole body, you may just end up being tired by the time you get around to shoulders.
You may want to put the most important lift at the beginning of the workout that you want to benefit from.
If split routine, still look at what happens day prior to shoulders.
You could be using them a lot day prior and they are again tired when it's their turn. Or triceps are used prior day a lot and tired for shoulder day.
Of course in a deficit eating all that will be worse too.0 -
The NROL program sets up your workouts and you select the exercises within them. Each workout is 'full body', and I do these 3 x per week, with the other 2-3 days being combat/ pump classes or a run. The exercises differ depending on which workout I'm on and they alternate A and B. Each full body workout consists of a 'push' and a 'pull' exercise for upper body, along with 'squat, hinge, and single leg stance' for the legs. Each workout also has 2 core exercises such as feet/ arm elevated plank, side plank and row, swiss ball roll outs, swiss ball jacknifes. The workouts finish with metabolic training where you do the reps (5) quickly through 4-5 times. I have chosen front squats and push ups for workout A, push press and jump squat for workout B.
On my dumbell bench I am limited by the fact I can do 10kg (each hand) for 10 reps. But the next set of dumbells at my gym are 12kg and I can't get them into position. I need a spotter and I don't have one.
Overhead press - I can do 8 reps at 9kg, 4 reps of 10kg. I have had next to no improvement in this area.
Lat pull downs - I can pull 48kg (I'm 53kg) for 4 reps but have a dodgy elbow right now which doesn't like it. I can do 2 chin ups - not with great form. I can't do it keeping my legs behind me.....0 -
On my dumbell bench I am limited by the fact I can do 10kg (each hand) for 10 reps. But the next set of dumbells at my gym are 12kg and I can't get them into position. I need a spotter and I don't have one.
Hmm, DB press set up can be a bit tricky at first, but if you can press 10kg x10, you should be able to get 12 kg DBs in place for at least a few reps. Where in the set up are you struggling? There's a couple different ways to get them into place. For me the easiest is start standing up with the DBs in my hand (neutral grip, so the ends of the DB are in front and behind), then straddle the bench and kinda simultaneously plop down while slightly swinging the DBs so I can land them on my thighs. Then I sort of do a controlled fall back onto my back while I bring my hands up to my chest so the DBs come to rest there (still in a neutral grip). My feet may come off the floor. The DBs are now resting on my chest and I can continue pressing with a neutral grip or rotate as I press into a pronated grip, maintaining that through the set.
For me I really started making big strength gains in my upper body when I increased the volume significantly. That means more reps overall, and more sets. At the beginning of a 10 week cycle I could DB BP 40lbx6, by the end I could do 2 sets of 12. But I was doing something like 100 reps of various bench press variations and 100 reps of other upper body stuff (dips, triceps, etc.), twice a week.0 -
I hate bench press. but DB BP seems easier probably because i feel less likely to have a bar hit my throat.
Maybe you need to work on wrist strength??0 -
DB Bench - I get stuck with them on my chest! I can't seem to get them up for the initial press without almost caving my face in :noway:
That's in neutral grip though..... maybe I should try and rotate my wrists so they are in the position I'd use to actually do the reps? I usually rotate one my arms are elevated. I think this might be because of the width of the dumbells in comparison to my body though.... this probably makes no sense to anyone but me lol.
I'm happy to increase reps, especially at the moment. I have weird work shifts coming up and so my gym routine will change. I am between NROL stages so could use these high rep workouts until I get back to normal with NROL.
Thanks for the help all0 -
DB Bench - I get stuck with them on my chest! I can't seem to get them up for the initial press without almost caving my face in :noway:
That's in neutral grip though..... maybe I should try and rotate my wrists so they are in the position I'd use to actually do the reps? I usually rotate one my arms are elevated. I think this might be because of the width of the dumbells in comparison to my body though.... this probably makes no sense to anyone but me lol.
I'm happy to increase reps, especially at the moment. I have weird work shifts coming up and so my gym routine will change. I am between NROL stages so could use these high rep workouts until I get back to normal with NROL.
Thanks for the help all
If you can't increase the load yet, you should be incrementally increasing volume (adding reps or sets) in some fashion over time. At some point, you will likely be able to increase the weight you are moving.
So for example over weeks you may see this with your DB press
10kg
10,10,10
11,10,10
12,11,10
12,12,12
12kg
8,8,8
etc
If the issue with the heavier DB's is strength, you should overcome this by progressively increasing reps over the course of weeks and eventually attempt the heavier DB's again.
If the issue is technique, you'll need to learn to knee the DB's into the proper position to press them up. (Assuming the issue occurs getting the DB's in place properly).0 -
Thanks, I will increase reps.
Knee them in to place?? I can't imagine how this works??0 -
Thanks, I will increase reps.
Knee them in to place?? I can't imagine how this works??
This is for getting dumbells to shoulder level, if they are too heavy to curl. Stand holding a dumbell against your thigh. Then kick your knee up to help lift the dumbell up to shoulder level.0 -
Thanks for clarifying!0
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Thanks, I will increase reps.
Knee them in to place?? I can't imagine how this works??
This is for getting dumbells to shoulder level, if they are too heavy to curl. Stand holding a dumbell against your thigh. Then kick your knee up to help lift the dumbell up to shoulder level.
Yeah, that's kinda how I was trying to describe my set up! For that first rep on a heavy set, for me it's important to focus on getting my whole body tight, feet pressed into the floor, and especially upper back tight and pressed into the bench. If I'm not tight that first rep is a slog and I quickly correct it!0
