There is no doubt that your physique can be completely transformed with well-developed, broad shoulders. Apart from giving your upper body a bulkier appearance, your posture will be significantly improved along with your overall pressing strength. However, not every lifter gets to achieve the growth they expect eventhough they may have put in the necessary hardwork in training.
Now, the reason for people not seeing the results they expect even after intense shoulder workout sessions is not often due to a dearth in effort and commitment, but usually as a result of a failure to do the basics well.
When a shoulder workout isn’t executed properly it greatly limits shoulder muscle growth, increases discomfort and the risk of minor or major injuries, and significantly hinders progress.
But poor execution is just one of many shoulder workout mistakes that lifters tend to make without even knowing it whenever they embark on their shoulder workout routines.
In this post, we examine seven (7) shoulder exercise mistakes that are quite common amongst newbies and experienced lifters alike.
#1. Relying on Momentum during Your Deltoid Training
This is arguably one of the most common shoulder exercise mistakes that lifters make. Instead of relying on tempo and muscle control, many lifters make use of body momentum during their lifts.
The mistake lies in you swinging the dumbbells while also bouncing through workout repetitions or leaning back when performing raises. If you are currently committing these mistakes during deltoid training, you should know that you are not giving your delts the opportunity to do the work required for muscle activation, but instead you allow your traps and hips to take over the work.
What you should do is to lift light to moderate weights that allow you to have some level of good control. What you want to do is to be able to use your delts to move the weight with each repetition rather than allowing the momentum that your body generates to do the work which is common whe heavier weights are being lifted.
#2. Taking to Ego Lifting instead of proper Delt Training
The one big mistake lifters make is believing that lifting much heavier training weights translates to quicker and better overall results.
However, they couldn’t be farther from the truth, as the reality is to build bigger shoulders you need to focus on controlled tension rather than excess loading. It is worth noting that unlike the muscle of the back and legs, your delts are smaller in comparison.
One way to know if the weights you are carrying are just too heavy for you is if you experience a breakdown of your form during the execution of repetitions in a shoulder workout set.
One thing to remember when delt training is that your muscles do not know whether you are running a lift or heavy weight. What your muscles actually respond to is the amount of tension that they are subjected to during a workout.
#3. Forgetting to Train your Rear and Side Delts
Majority of the pressing workout like overhead press, push-ups, incline press, and bench press tend to focus on training your front delts. While these exercises are great for building your anterior shoulders, it is not unusual for lifters to forget or outrightly ignore to train their rear and side delts.
For a more aesthetic, all-round, balanced upper body with wider shoulders, you should also include exercises like face pulls, rear delt flyes, cable rear delt rows, and lateral raises which help to train both the rear and side delts.
#4. Rushing your Repetitions
Even though you now include shoulder workouts thay train your rear and side delts like the rear delt flyes and lateral raise respectively. You can make rear delt flyes and/or lateral raise mistakes when you engage in rapid repetitions. The thing is, whenever you speed up your repetitions, you significantly limit muscle engagement and activation.
Of all the shoulder workout tips mentioned in this article, controlled momentum is perhaps one of the most important tip you should take to heart, as when you control each phase of the range of motion for every lift, you increase the time under tension for your shoulder muscles and this promotes growth.
For example, you improve the quality of your movement during a lowering phase with 2 to 3 seconds added time keeping your muscles under tension for a longer length of time.
Rushing through repetitons is one of the most common lateral raise mistakes you can make while trying to train your side delts. But controlled movement will greatly improve results not just for your lateral raises, but also your rear delt and front raises.
Note that whenever you slow down your repetitions, the exercise doesn’t become easier. As a matter of fact, slowing down your shoulder workouts will make the exercise so much more difficult to complete sets.
#5. You Lift the Weights Way Higher than Necessary
If you are lifting weights way higher than is necessary, you are making a big mistake. For example, lifting dumbbells above your shoulder height during a lateral raise is a mistake. If you do this, you will be putting more strain on your shoulder joints, as your upper traps carry most of the workload during training in this way.
Keeping your arms at a parallel a gke to the ground when lifting during a side delt shoulder workout is the ideal thing to do rather than lifting just above shoulder height with each repetitions. Remember that the quality of each phase of your movement is way more important than an overstretched range of motion.
#6. Failing to Rrain Properly throughout a Range of Motion
#6. Failing to Rrain Properly throughout a Range of MotionEvery workout has a range motion and shoulder workouts are no exception. That being said, one of the most common shoulder exercise mistakes that lifters tend to make is not achieving a full range of motion for each repetition of a shoulder workout.
To get the best out of any shoulder exercise, you don’t only need to have controlled movement, but you also need to complete the full range of motion and not have partially completed repetitions.
Note that when you are able to achieve a controlled, complete range of motion for each repetition of a shoulder exercise, you will not only maintain proper form, but also train your deltoids more effectively.
#7. Paying Less Importance to Proper Recovery for Shoulder Muscle Growth
No matter what upper body workout you want to perform, it is almost certain that your shoulders will be needed in order to effectively execute the intended workout. So it goes without saying that if you want to have a successful back, chest, or arm day regimen, you Ned to give your shoulders enough time to recovery beforehand.
You can aid the proper recovery of your shoulders by consuming sufficient amounts of protein, and drinking enough water. You should also give yourself enough time to recover properly through complete rest and good quality sleep of between 7 to 9 hours daily.
During rest and recovery, the microtears in your shoulder muscles that were incurred when you were training will have tie to repair themselves and in the process your shoulder muscle experience growth.
Final Thoughts
As you might have noticed by now, the common shoulder exercise mistakes are usually those that are basic nature. Those shoulder workout execution mistakes can make a big difference in how effective your sessions will be in promoting shoulder muscle growth. You should avoid relying on momentum to do the work for you, but instead focus on measured, controlled lifts using moderate weights. Make sure you don’t lift higher than your shoulder height and try as much as possible to always complete the range of motion on any repetition while varying your shoulder routine to include exercises that address your front, side, and rear delts.
Finally, do not ebgage in ego lifting or rush your repetitions and remember that your shoulder muscle growth is achieved during recovery, so get enough sleep, eat enough protein, and drink enough water.