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Originally Posted by Twistdenigma
As usual SYL, great read. My only issue is with the lateral raises. I have always read that these are a poor excercise for the shoulders because there is not enough resistance while lowering the weight. I've always been led to believe that it is just as important to place emphasis on the eccentric contractions as well as the concentric. What are your thoughts?
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You have been led correctly,my friend.I left out some things that I will address now.I use the lateral raise to train the most contracted portion of the rep,ie: constant tension.I believe that it is the "time under tension " that matters more than number of reps.IMO,45 sec. is about right.Therefore,since most exercises don't maintain a constant tension throughout the full ROM,I only perform the portion of any particular exercise that maintains a fair degree of tension on the muscle.
Even though I lower the weight slowly,and keep a constant degree of tension,there is not a lot of trauma,due to the relatively light weight.The "advanced" tip I gave does help with this somewhat...
So,what we need to find is a way to put a high degree of stress on the lateral head in the "stretched" position.Hmmmm....let's see.
Stand at a low pulley station.If you can raise the pulley to mid-thigh position,this will put a more direct "line of force" on the target.Alternately,you could kneel.You want your arm behind you,rather than in front,as it's usually done.Try to position yourself to get as much pre-stretch as possible.Now,
initiate the movement using only the target.No jerking and no raising of the shoulder girdle.You will reach a point where you feel the resistance leaving the muscle.Stop.Now s l o w l y lower the weight while attempting to keep some tension on the target.Struggle with it all the way to where it is behind you,stretched to the max.Don't twist your body to make it easier.You should be able to use more weight on this move,causing sufficient micro-trauma to elicit the adaptive response.Also the "flyes" I mentioned should be sufficiently heavy,as well.
I have something nice and heavy for the rear delts,and I can't believe I forgot this.This is another little treasure I got from John Parillo.
Sit on a bench at a pulley row station.If you have one meant to hit the lower lats,ie
ne that has the pulley higher than usual,relative to the bench,use that.Holding a "triceps rope" with your palms facing each other,initiate the move by drawing the shoulders back,without bending the arms.This pre-contracts the rhomboids,effectively taking them out of it.
Now,holding the rope,bring the BACK of your hands to your forehead.There's really only one way to do this,so that should be sufficient direction.As you lower the weight,again turn the palms to face each other.As you start to get tired,it's okay to loosen up your form somewhat and use a bit of momentum,but no more than necessary.My general philosophy on shoulders is 15 ,no matter what.This not withstanding what I said earlier about time under tension.I consider 45 sec to be a minimum effective amount.On the exercises I've mentioned,I generally do 2 dropsets,for a total of 3 sets of 15,no matter what.This was actually a recommendation from Dave Fischer,if anyone remembers him.Anyway,I like it.