Day-138 of my transformation journey.
In this video I guide you through all the exercises I do, step by step, skip to the time stamps for quick progression in between exercises.
Play the video and workout along with me in the pursuit of LiveStronger.
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0:00
Namaste everyone and welcome back to Live Stronger. Today we are going to train our shoulders
0:06
As usual I'm going to start with dynamic stretching, that is the greatest stretch, 4 to 5 repetitions
0:14
on each side. By repetitions I mean we rotate entirely to the range of motion, thoracic
0:23
mobility for one time each side, basically repeating it 4 to 5 times. Now I have mentioned
0:30
in my last video, I have additionally also added the bird pose, bird dog pose basically
0:37
one of the doctor's, doctor's exercises to improve core strength to my dynamic stretching
0:45
routine to, you know, I started noticing that I need to start building a lot more core strength
0:50
I need to improve my core strength a lot more, so a little bit emphasis on that and
0:55
here you can see me doing the same. Here, since the video has been sped up, it seems
1:02
very quick, but I'm holding each position for at least 5 to 10 seconds, ensuring that
1:08
I'm using my core muscles and my glute muscles to stabilize myself while performing this
1:15
particular movement. Again, 4 to 5 repetitions each side. Of course, we are going to do our
1:22
mandatory deep squat, wherein we sit completely in a deep squat for at least few seconds to
1:28
ensure good hip mobility before we start into our weightlifting session. Now, regularly
1:34
on my shoulder workout days, I try to add at least 1 or 2 mobility drills, so I was
1:41
feeling a little bit of misfire while pushing weights overhead in terms of one shoulder
1:47
going quicker than the other or slight instability, so before starting with the weightlifting session
1:55
I took a band, put it around my wrist and started pressing them over my head while keeping
2:01
them as stable as possible for 10 to 15 repetitions. And of course, the staple drill which I usually
2:10
perform on my shoulder workout days is the plate around my head rotations. Important thing is not
2:18
to move your head, keep your head constant, don't bend it, don't lean forward, and just rotate the
2:22
plate around your head, going through the range of internal and external rotation for your ball
2:28
and socket joint in your shoulder muscle. Now for our first exercise, I'm going to start off with
2:34
cable lateral raises, 3 sets, 20 repetitions with 45 seconds to 60 seconds of break in between
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sets. So one set is wherein you perform 20 repetitions with both your arms. Now since the
2:46
cable machine one extension is occupied, I was doing one arm at a time, you can also do it
2:51
both arms at a time like I usually did in my previous videos. The most important part is to
2:59
go through the full range of motion, so you lift it up all the way and then you let it come down
3:05
all the way down, getting into the stretched position. So what you have to make sure is that
3:10
you stand slightly away from the cable machine so that when you're completely down, the cable is
3:16
still under tension, it's still pulling on your arm, so pulling your shoulder across your body
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creating that stretch, and from there you start raising up. What I have also added to do is
3:27
when I finished 15 to 16 repetitions of tiring, challenging repetitions, I finished off with
3:34
lengthened partial reps, wherein the lower portion of the repetition, I have done at least 5 to 10
3:40
repetitions. Here you can see me clearly, I stand pretty, not pretty much, but slightly away from
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the machine, so even when my arm is coming across my body, the cable is still pulling on my arm
3:53
creating that slight bit of tension, so my shoulders always, or my lateral muscles of my
3:58
shoulder are still under tension, even at the lowest point. Same would not be possible with
4:03
the dumbbell, because the moment the dumbbell comes down, gravity takes over, so the pulling
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force is straight down, here the pulling force is still across your body. Great way to start off
4:13
our shoulder workouts, gets a lot of blood flowing in. Now the trick is to shift from one arm to the
4:20
other without taking a break, and only take a break after completing both your arms. Stand
4:26
as straight as possible, keep your hips straight, so that there's no tension building up on your
4:31
lower back. Post completing those, I moved on to the calf muscle exercise. Here I chose to do
4:39
seated calf raises today. Again, the gym does not have a seated calf raise machine, so I'm just
4:46
doing some makeshift arrangement with a leg extension machine, but it worked great. I mean
4:53
I'm still able to do a proper seated calf raise exercise. You may choose to do a standing calf
4:59
raise, that's totally your choice. You may, if you do have great calves, happy for you, a little
5:06
bit envious also, but you can definitely go ahead and skip this particular exercise. I am doing this
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necessarily to improve my calf strength and also their volume, because I want to improve
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the lower portion of my legs, the size and the volume, how good they start looking and how much
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strength they can have. So yes, that's my endover. Three sets, as many repetitions as possible
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slow and controlled, with small breaks in between. Post completing those, I moved on to dumbbell
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lateral raises in ladder style. Now you may say, okay, that's a lot of lateral raises, what about
5:47
Ray Delt work? What I have realized is that my Ray Delt is taking quite some time in terms of
5:52
recovery, thanks to all the back workouts I have been doing, wherein they are still getting hit
5:58
pull-ups, face pulls, bent over rows, t-bar rows. So I've chosen not to push them so hard
6:07
give them enough amount of break to recover, because they were still sore and tight, so I was
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only focusing on my lateral delts, get a little bit more rounder shoulders, spam them as much as
6:19
possible, and then a little bit of overhead work, because front delts are still working even when
6:25
you're doing lateral raises. When I'm doing dumbbell lateral raises, as you can see, I kept the range
6:29
of motion very limited, because once the dumbbell is completely down, there's not much of tension
6:34
there, so I used to stop just near my hips, where the tension is still there, and from there
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push up again, not taking it completely high up, keeping the tension built up in my side delts
6:48
So yes, again, I prefer to do ladder style, wherein I just jump from one way to the other without
6:53
taking a break, and I do that twice, as long as I hit failure in those repetitions. Post-completing
7:00
these, I moved on to a little bit of overhead work, since now my shoulders are tired, and I've
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also exhausted my own self, so there is a lot of fatigue buildup, so I prefer to do an equipment
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based overhead press, wherein there's less of stability and control work, more of just strength
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training, pure strength training, push the weight, the weight is fixed, it'll move in one motion, or in
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one range of motion, so you don't have to really worry about stabilizing the weight over your head
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so that's one way to do it. If you don't have this particular equipment, you can also choose to do
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with a smith machine, it acts in a similar way, you get a lot more stability, you can press a lot
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more weight, rather than doing with a dumbbell or a free weight barbell. So yes, that's one way to do
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it. Three sets, 20 repetitions, again, spamming different delts, our lateral delts would start
7:54
work, or start feeling a little bit tight, because of all the lateral work we have done, but that's
8:00
okay, try to push through, give yourself a little bit of decline angle, or an incline angle, to focus
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more on your front delts, and you should be fine. Post completing the shoulder work, I wanted to
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finish off with a little bit of core work too, so I just did a plank for one minute on a bosu ball
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Now core work is vital, it's important to build core strength, but the options which we have in
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terms of building this core strength is numerous. What I have chosen, or the method I have chosen
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might not be apt for everyone, or might not be the preferable one for you as an individual
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so go ahead and do something which you like to do, if you don't prefer to do a plank on a bosu ball
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or if you don't want to do crunches, if you don't want to do hanging leg raises, that's absolutely fine. Just put in a couple of minutes of core work to start building that
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entire core. By core I just don't mean abs, I mean the entire core, front and back, both lower
9:00
back muscles and the front abdominal muscles have to work, and even the side obliques to get stronger
9:07
in your trunk area. So my preference is to just do a plank for a minute at least, to get, start
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building up at least, you know small baby steps. And that's it, we are done, I'm going to finish
9:20
off with a simple decompression, hanging for a minute, or do multiples of 20 to 30 seconds
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Just first thing, improving my forearm endurance strength, secondly also decompressing the
9:33
shoulders after that lot of work, they're also getting stretched out. Thank you so much for
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watching the video, I hope the workout was effective and you do like the video. If you did
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please do drop a like, and if you haven't yet subscribed to the channel, I would truly appreciate
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your subscription. Here is one more way to decompress your shoulder if you don't prefer to hang
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or do vertical hangs, just stand legs above more than shoulder width apart, and start
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dangling your hand all the way near to the floor, and start making circles, 10 at a time, one arm
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at a time, and that's a good way of decompressing your shoulders
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Thank you once again, I'll see you in the next video. Have a great day
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