When it comes to strength training curriculum, old-school methods aren’t necessarily the best educational sources. Let’s take as an example one of the great imbecile myths that have been passed down to us in past decades: No pain, no gain.
There is no greater exercise example of this old-fashioned approach than the barbell upright row. Sure, Arnold Schwarzenegger incorporated handstands into his legendary mass-building routine, and to that end, this strength-training staple does it It helps add size to the lateral head of your shoulders as well as hit your traps hard. But in today’s fitness age of making profit No dangerStraight bar upright rows have become notorious for creating potentially damaging stress on the shoulder joints, which over time can lead to chronic pain, if not serious injury.
men’s health fitness manager Ebenezer Samuel, CSCS He puts it best when he lays out the truth of barbell upright row training: In the short term, you can get away with performing upright rows without pain, but over time, your shoulders will suffer.
“You can do the upright row that way for two or three years of your life,” he says. “Keep doing it for 10 to 15 years, and I’ll see you in a physical therapist’s office somewhere. It’s not where you want to be.”
But there is a safer alternative to traditional vertical bars. All it takes is a simple swap of a straight bar for a set of dumbbells. Like Samuel and men’s health fitness editor Brett Williams, NASMdemonstrates in the video above, incorporating dumbbells will allow you to effectively (safely) shred your delts and continue to make gains in the shoulders.
Switch to dumbbells for the upright row
Even without any load on the movement, according to Samuel, simply lifting your elbows above your shoulders while rotating your wrists downward is a recipe for pain. But adding additional load to this pulling motion (in this case, throwing some weight onto a bar) and then lifting your elbows as high as possible will force your shoulders to internally rotate. At the same time, the force of the weight begins to push you down, which becomes a recipe for potential long-term shoulder damage.
With dumbbells, Samuel says you’re already starting in a more natural position. His wrists can be aligned according to his body mechanics as opposed to the restrictive fixed position of the straight bar. This means a more comfortable and secure pull.
“When we work with dumbbells, many of us are not symmetrical beings in our upper body,” says Samuel. “This will allow both shoulders to move very freely. Instantly, we have fixed an issue with the vertical row.”
Don’t pull so high
Samuel says that another solution for his upright row would be to reduce the pull compared to the traditional method. Using dumbbells, Samuel suggests bringing your elbows parallel to or slightly below. Even with this reduction in movement, you still get the deltoid and trap blasting effects of the upright position without adding any unnecessary internal rotation to your shoulders.
“That’s still going to hit the lateral head of your shoulder because you’re still going up in this position,” says Samuel. “And it’s still going to hit some of your traps.”
Pull vertically, then row horizontally
One final tweak Samuel recommends is to eliminate the upward pull typically done with traditional studs (“That’s not even a row,” he says). Instead, he thinks of the movement as a more horizontal pull, with his elbows slightly lower than his shoulders, as he pulls back and squeezes his shoulder blades. This move makes the lift safer while also adding some work to the rear delts, making the move an even more multidimensional version of the classic upright row.
“It’s going to create a bit of a challenge and take some getting used to,” says Samuel. “But once you get this, this is the safest and most effective way to do the upright row, it will still give you the shoulder benefits you want…and it won’t cause you an injury in 10 years.”
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Do you want to use the same training gear as MH editors? Brett is wearing a fables tank, rhone shortsY tennis shoes. Eb’s shirt is from Ten thousandthe pants are from Rhoneand slippers Nike.
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