Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Shoulders




Shoulders and arms aren't as important for beginners, so I would suggest sticking to legs, chest, and back for the most part until you become comfortable with them. First, I want to present three shoulder exercises that you can preform together (alternating or in a row). I suggest using a 5lb dumbbell for these and preforming 10-12 reps of each in a row.


The first of these is a front raise. As seen in the picture above, start out with a dumbbell in each of your hands with your arms relaxed in front of you.



Preform a rep by lifting each of your arms straight out in front of you (alternating). Make sure your arm is fully extended (you may keep your elbows slightly bent if this hurts you). Also lift the dumbbell up until your arm is parallel to the ground. Preform these slowly and without rocking your body.




The exercise seen above is a lateral raise with bent elbows. You may also do this exercise with extended arms to make it harder. Regardless, make sure lift until your arms are parallel to the ground and straight out to your sides. If bending your elbows, make sure they remain bent at a right angle. Do not rock or sway your body as tempting as it may be.



The third exercise is an Arnold dumbbell press. It's called this because Arnold Schwarzenegger invented it. It's a very dynamic shoulder exercises and it takes advantage of the way shoulders naturally rotate. Start out with a dumbbell in each of your hands, palms facing inwards held up at chest level. To preform a rep, extend your arms straight up to the ceiling while simultaneously rotating the dumbbells so that your palms face forward at the end of each rep.

 These three exercises, especially if done together as a burnout as suggested before, are a great thing to incorporate into any of your workouts about once a week until you feel comfortable enough to begin adding other shoulder exercises into your routine.

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