I used to have shoulder pain from upright rows and never went heavier than 95 lbs. (also due to hand fatigue).
A few months ago a read an article that suggested to keep a slight forward lean on upright rows. The idea was to keep the line of motion farther out from your torso and therefore spare your rotator cuffs.
I gave it a try and it worked! I started using wrist straps so my grip wouldn’t give out and eventually worked up to 135 for eight fairly strict reps.
I made some good size gains on my traps, rear delts and forearms.
I fell in love with this exercise, but have recently had alot of wrist and lower palm pain in my left hand (left only for some reason). I notice it goes away once I stop doing them, but comes back immediately when I resume.
I have heard of really strong guys going up to 405 on these (UFC’s Tank Abbott). How many of you guys do these? And do you have pain in the hands and wrists?
You could try experimenting with different hand positions on an Easy Curl bar, to see which angles are stress-free.
I don’t do upright rows anymore, they are shoulder killers for me. The thing about leaning forward… sounds like a lower back killer, for me. But everybody’s different.
[quote]MytchBucanan wrote:
I used to have shoulder pain from upright rows and never went heavier than 95 lbs. (also due to hand fatigue).
A few months ago a read an article that suggested to keep a slight forward lean on upright rows. The idea was to keep the line of motion farther out from your torso and therefore spare your rotator cuffs.
I gave it a try and it worked! I started using wrist straps so my grip wouldn’t give out and eventually worked up to 135 for eight fairly strict reps.
I made some good size gains on my traps, rear delts and forearms.
I fell in love with this exercise, but have recently had alot of wrist and lower palm pain in my left hand (only for some reason). I notice it goes away once I stop doing them, but comes back immediately when I resume.
I have heard of really strong guys going up to 405 on these (UFC’s Tank Abbott). How many of you guys do these? And do you have pain in the hands and wrists?
Any suggestions on how to overcome it?
Thanks in advance.[/quote]
I don’t think many people here will advocate them. And the fact that you’ve been doing them in pain is not a good sign.
Try them using dumbbells. Much of the problem associated with upright rows has to do with the fact that a strait barbell fixates your hands in an akward position. This eventually leads to pain, it is enevitable.
When doing them with dumbbells, first, pay attention to the shoulder movement and rotation. Do not look at your hands at all. Once you have knocked out some reps with correct form at the shoulder, then look at your hands and notice how much twisting and horizontal movement there is. That will explain why you have pain on a strait bar. You joints are taking the torque of the movement because you cannot change the position of your hands.
Using dumbbells what you will notice is that at the bottom of the movment the dumbbels may be together, but at the topyou naturally split apart. This is correct. Together at the bottom and apart at the top. Pretnd you are writing a “V”. The pain should go away.