Shoulder Rotations With Weight?

I always see people warming up for the bench press by doing shoulder rotations holding a 5 or 10 pound plate.

What is the purpose of the plate? I’ve always been curious about this.

Well. I think you should try it for yourself and feel the difference. Try swinging your arms around in the gym and you’ll look like a lunatic. Do it with a 5 pound weight plate and your lunatic status dramatically decreases.

I’ve seen my friend (Personal Trainer) do this. He wanted me to join him for a weight lifting session. I said ok. I started doing everything he was doing. He started doing (with a 5 pound plate) overhead presses, lateral raises, bent-over rear delt raises, swinging around your arms raises. All a warm-up for the shoulders before doing a bench-press session.

-Serious

I don’t get the idea of doing shoulder rotations with weight. I prefer to do lots of shoulder rotations without resistance, and as I begin to loosen up, do specific movements with light resistance. Such as military presses with the bar, bent rows, RDLs, squats, and some external shoulder rotations with a light dumbbell or manual resistance.