Hail to the Dinosaurs!
A quick note before today's message:
I'll be on SuperHuman Radio today from
12:00 to 1:00 EST. Catch the show live
or listen to the download.
The SuperHuman Radio homepage is right
here:
http://superhumanradio.com/
Hope you can join us!
On the training front, here's an email
from Rob Richley with a training question.
"Hi Brooks,
I always train before wok at 6:30am and
as I am pressed for time I prefer a 4 day
routine with only a few movements per
session.
I`m currently doing this:
Mon - Incline DB press
Tue - Row or weighted pullup
Thursday - Press
Fri - Squat / Trap Bar Deadlift
Recently I`ve read this routine could
be bad for the shoulders because they
are actually being hit three times per
week on Mon, Tues and Thursday.
Is there any other way of structuring
it to keep it short and productive
without hitting the shoulders too
much?
Rob"
Rob -- Thanks for the email and the
question. It's similar to many emails
I get about workout frequency.
I do NOT think you're training your
shoulders too often!
The Mon and Tues workouts involve the
shoulders, but the only day where you
hit the shoulders hard with a direct
exercise is Thurs, when you do the
overhead press. That's not too much
work at all. Especially if you're
only doing one exercise per workout,
and using sensible sets and reps.
Now, if your shoulders are bothering
you, there's a problem and you need to
figure out what it is. It's not too
much training -- but it might be how
you perform your exercises, or you may
be going too heavy too often, or you may
need to change exercises a bit.
For example -- if you go heavy on the
DB incline press and lower the bells
too far to "get a stretch" - you can
hurt your shoulders. In fact, that's
not at all uncommon.
Or -- on weighted pull-ups, you might
drop too fast, twist as you pull your
body up, or stretch too much at the
bottom of the rep -- and hurt yourself.
Again, that's not uncommon.
Or -- you might find that barbell presses
are hard on your shoulders -- but push
presses are fine -- or dumbbell presses
are fine.
Anyhow, your program looks good. Don't
change it just because of something
you read on the interwebs. (Which is
a whole other discussion . . .you can't
imagine how many guys and gals get off
course because of stuff they read on
the interwebs. But we'll cover that
topic another day.)
To everyone -- as always, thanks for
reading, and have a great day. If you
train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. For more advice about building
strong, powerful shoulders -- and about
avoiding shoulder problems -- grab this:
http://www.brookskubik.com/militarypress_course.html
P.S. 2. For more about shoulder wreckers
and other exercises to avoid, grab this:
http://www.brookskubik.com/grayhair_blackiron.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the day: "Do what works,
and pay no attention to anything else."
-- Brooks Kubik
