Creative training

[pumpingiron]

Anyone have some creative or unique exercises they suggest for shoulders and back? Just trying to toss things up with my training.

[p.s.]

Originally Posted by pumpingiron

Anyone have some creative or unique exercises they suggest for shoulders and back? Just trying to toss things up with my training.

So what are you doing now and what have you dome in the past for these areas? Also what are your strengths and weaknesses with regards to back and delts?

It's not so much just taking random exercises for a bodypart to mix things up, but instead take a hard look at each muscle group and then devise a routine to address any weak points.

[pumpingiron]

At the moment I'm training three days a week, upper body only. I have torn cartilage in my hip and a bunch of other issues and am waiting for surgery, so at the moment I'm focusing on what I can do in the gym - which is upper body. I was going to enter a bench-only meet a while ago, but keep running into problems with my wrists (even if I wrap them) - so I'm also taking it easy on bench related work.

I usually do 4 to 5 sets per exercises, sometimes lower reps and ramp up the weight and other times I keep the rep range between 8-12 with a lighter weight.

My current workouts look something like this:

Day 1: chins, push-ups, bent-over barbell rows, lat. pull-downs, side lateral raises, face pulls and abs.

Day 2: bench press, pec deck or push-ups, seated cable row, dumbbell bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, and another exercise for bi's and tri's, abs.

Day 3: chins, push-ups, pull-downs, seated dumbbell press, bent over flies (rear delts), side laterals, sometimes behind the neck push-press, abs.

I'm front delt dominant, which is why I emphasize side and rear delt work. I also need to bring up my back both in size and strength for 2 reasons; 1. I feel a strong posterior chain is a necessity and 2. it helps build a strong bench (for when I get back into actually lifting lol..).

Hope this is enough info... lol. Thanks for the response P.S.

[p.s.]

I suggest that you make some serious changes in that routine in that you should train each upper body muscle group on their own day IE day 1 chest and abs, day 2 back, day 3 delts and abs, day 4 arms, and maybe on day 5 leg extensions, leg curls and calves.

As for back specific work I would set the routine up like this for now: behind the head pulldown 4x15 (warmup for back), bent over row 6x8-15, one arm cable pull down 4x12, wide grip pully row to upper chest, wide grip pulldown 4x12, machine row 4x15, stiff arm pulldown 4x12, hyper-extensions 4x20, and that should take care of your back issues for now.

[TheWindsorKid]

I throw rear delts in on back day and i really feel it all across my upper lats to the read delts.

Try adding a hold to your side delt movements and really stress the contraction to make that side delt do all the work. A lot of guys swing their side delt exercises, do em slow and controled with a pause and I promise you will grow.

[p.s.]

Originally Posted by TheWindsorKid

I throw rear delts in on back day and i really feel it all across my upper lats to the read delts.

Try adding a hold to your side delt movements and really stress the contraction to make that side delt do all the work. A lot of guys swing their side delt exercises, do em slow and controled with a pause and I promise you will grow.

As most guys seriously lack rear delts I suggest that you do 'em first in your shoulder workout followed by side laterals and then presses. Save back day for back specific exercises.

[Demonwolf]

I hit rear delts on back day too; makes sense since they are involved to some degree in almost every back exercise.

some specialty exercises for me are:

Laterals supersetted with laying side lateral,
Prone cable rows after lat pulldowns w/ wide bar.

[michalswarm]

The discussion over here is of great concern in present day life style because most of the people suffer form common back and neck problems due to continuous sitting jobs.I think the simplest exercise for neck is to sit with straight back and give slow circular motion to the neck or one can lean straight form the back side on a even floored cot leaving the head lying outside the cot area in the air and push towards the ground.
Now for the back the best exercise is to lay down straight form the stomach side on the floor put your palms near the diaphragm then try to get from the neck side till you feel the tension on the lower back spinal joint.Stay for 15 sec in the same posture then relax and try the same thing again for ten times.
Both these exercise are definitely gonna work because I have tried it myself.

[Murph]

Originally Posted by pumpingiron

Anyone have some creative or unique exercises they suggest for shoulders and back? Just trying to toss things up with my training.

I find 1 arm Dumbbell snatches work awsome for back and shoulders.