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Why would shoulder press be getting harder for me?


inteja
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It's strange but I'm gradually improving load and reps on all exercises but recently I reached a plateau with shoulder press and then it started getting even harder and I found I had to reduce the load.

 

I almost always do shoulder press first in a workout so I am fresh when I do it. Other shoulder exercises like lateral raises and upright row haven't seen the same decline.

 

I don't understand. Does anyone have any ideas why this could be happening?

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Watch out on what's going on there with the shoulder press. I had the same thing happen to me and it was because of over training.

 

I kept going at it and wrecked both of my shoulders. I say give the shoulder press a break for a week and see how that goes.

 

Just for a note since we are talking about shoulder press. Stop at a 90º angle - parallel to the floor. I was doing arnold presses and killing my rotator cuffs in the process. Same goes for bench press - if you have bad shoulders (or want to avoid them).

 

Cheers

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One big question is, are you doing any chest or tricep work within the 1-2 days before you do shoulder training? People don't always realize how much it can affect shoulder training by having your triceps a bit worn out beforehand, which is why I keep my shoulder workouts spaced a good distance from any other upper body work that involves chest or triceps. If you are doing any chest/triceps work beforehand that could easily explain why the non-triceps involved lifts (lateral raises and upright rows) are not affected. If that is the case, I'd suggest putting more time between the workouts and that may help.

 

If that's not the case, then perhaps just a change-up is in order. You could do any of the following:

 

- Williams presses (from the front, just clearing the head, drop the bar to behind the neck and reverse the movement)

 

- Push Presses (dip a few inches and use leg drive to start the overhead press, can be done by itself or moved to once your normal strict pressing becomes difficult)

 

- 1-arm DB overhead press with a little lean to the side

 

- Partial overhead presses if you have a power rack to lift in. Can do half presses from just above the head to lockout, or just a short 4" press to lockout, etc., for whatever sounds good, a great way to start handling heavier weights by adapting to the feel of supporting heavier loads overhead.

 

- 1/2 presses from bottom to just over the top of head height to work on the hardest part, which is pretty much the start of the lift.

 

There's always more, but sometimes it pays to change things up radically for a bit and go with something completely different. Also, you could change up your chest work and do steeper incline presses and drop overhead pressing for a few weeks as well. Set the incline at around 40 degrees or steeper and you'll quickly find that your shoulders are going to get more of a workout along with your chest.

 

Plenty of ways to switch things up - if it isn't that another day of lifting is interfering, perhaps it's just time for a change!

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Thanks for all the quality advice.

 

I think I may be overtraining as I've been doing shoulder press, lateral raises and upright rows in the one session, although usually shoulder press first.

 

I'm in the process of changing my routine now to concentrate more on compound exercises. I think I'll dump the lateral raises and upright rows for a while and see what happens.

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