Strengthening the Upper Deck

Mariusz Pudzianowski sports some of the strongest shoulders in the world. Big strong shoulders take a lot of effort, work and focus.

This will be part 1 of a 3 part feature focusing on strengthening overhead pressing ability. I posted some exercises for increasing your bench press on January 25 and January 27 that can also be used to help strengthen your press. See those posts for more information and if you have any questions as to how to apply those exercises to pressing please contact me.

The first step in looking at improving strength in any lift is to look at the weak links. In shoulders typically it comes down to stabilization. If you can't stabilize the weight you can't move the weight. On a much more important note, if you can't stabilize the weight it only becomes a matter of time before you injure yourself. Strong stabilizers will allow your primary movers to do their job and focus on moving big weight.

I have been a little short of time lately with a new school semester starting up, so I am going to cheat a little and tag the exercises to a video link.

Cuban Press: (click the exercise name for the link) An excellent way to increase rotator strength and give you a good base power to get out of trouble when form falls apart. Keep this one fairly light as it is more about the feeling of the movement than it is about moving big weight.

Blackburns: (click the exercise name for the link) This one goes through a variety of ranges of motion in strengthening rotator cuff and shoulder joint. It can be done with or without weight depending on your ability, flexibility and if you have any pain associated with the movements.

Alternate DBell Standing Rotator: With this one you will take a dbell in each hand, and hold them so that the wrist, elbow and shoulder make a joint angle of 90 degrees at the elbow. The DB will be held in a palms forward grip as if you are doing a double bicep pose. Keep the elbows locked in place as everything will rotate around that point. Rotate one of the dbells down to the bottom, so you have one hand/DB in the bicep pose and the other, still at 90 degrees at the elbow, with your fist pointing towards the ground palm facing behind you. As you begin to rotate the bottom DB up start the top DB into a rotation down. They will be moving in opposite directions throughout the exercise. This will make your brain work as well as your muscles. Your brain has to push at the same time as it pulls making the movement a little more difficult and helping to create a better mind muscle link. Sorry there is no video for this one, so again if it is confusing drop me an email so I can clarify the description.

WOD

Bench Press 2-2-2-2-20 (20@60% of 2RM)

Rest 3 minutes

Tabata

DB Thrusters Guys @ 20 Gals @ 10

Double Unders