I want to incorporate uprights into my next 3 week routine. Concentrate on trap area. Probably do something like; stand rev flye, db shrug, for a pre-fatigue then into an upright for a finisher. My concern is that I used to do them alot in my earlier days, but ran into tons of shoulder problems. I suspected them to be one of the culprits; not to metion bad bench technique and not taking breaks from benching. Anyway, do you guys like this excercise and has anyone else encountered shoulder pain with this? I know it can cause inpingment. Thanks.
I had to bump it. Thanks.
I have tons of shoulder problems and would recommend not doing them. My reasoning is that upright rows are not necessary because there’s tons of shoulder exercises to choose from. I’ve injured my shoulder bad enough to prevent me from doing all pressing movements, flyes, all raises, and I couldn’t throw overhand for 8 years. Bottom line: Avoid shoulder injuries if you can.
Uprights are thought by many to be one of the worst shoulder exercises because they can REALLY mess up your rotator cuff. I can’t even do light uprights without messing up my shoulders.
Instead of using a bar try this, get 2 x d/bells then do shrug, while maintaining shrug do upright row 8-10.
if you want traps do a deadlift workout then finish off with front barbell shrugs and side dumbell shrugs. go heavy weight for 6-8 reps and hold for a pause at the top. remember to get the full stretch motion with a controlled negative. The upright row definitely puts a lot of stress on the joints. if you did them use light weight and use a nice pause. laters pk
I read an article in MILO about the worst shoulder exercises. Upright rows, front raises and behind the neck military presses rated as the worst movements for shoulders. For someone with healthy shoulders, these exercises may be okay. But I’d consider keeping them out of your routine for the most part. I too have shoulder problems, so I must be careful with what I do.
I used to use ur rows also until I eventually hurt both shoulders. I no longer do behind neck presses or ur rows. I tried ur rows again a few months back and had pain as soon as I went moderetly heavy. I also began to use the incline bench more often than the flat bench- inclines don’t bother my shoulders, and frequent flat benching does. Anyway, I would stay away from UR rows- if you injure your shoulder joints badly enough you might as well say goodbye to heavy upper body training. As a side note, a great preexhaust for traps that I use is shrugs supersetted with deadlifts. If you haven’t tried it, it really fries the traps. Good luck.
Wouldn’t hang cleans, with the associated wider grip, be a good substitute? I started these recently and they feel pretty good.
I think the extent to which a given exercise negatively affects one’s shoulders depends greatly on one’s particular shoulder pathology. Lots of us have a condition we would call “bad shoulders,” but that’s really just a catch-all term that can include any number of distinct maladies and consequently imply that various exercises are contraindicated. For example, with my particular brand of “bad shoulders”, dips and upright rows are awful, but behind-the-neck presses have never bothered me. I think you have to figure out what works (or rather, what doesn’t work) for you.
It’s hard for me to relate to you guys because I do upright rows with no problems. I’m actually, compared to my other lifts, very strong in that particular lift.
I perform them with a fairly narrow grip, and my upper arm never goes past 90 degrees to my upper body. A lot of the shoulder problems that peolpe are mentioning could be sub-acromail bursitis and impingement syndrome. Both injuries are avoided by not going past 90 degrees.
The problem is that once you get them, they get irritated very easily, so I understand why people in this thread avoid upright rows. One thing to remember is that impingement is less likely doing an upright row than doing overhead press or dumbell shoulder press.
as someone who has torn both cuffs (playing baseball, and I don’t know how I did the other one probably a drunken bar fight) I would recomend against them BUT if you are gonna do them anyway forget that the wt. is in your hand and pull from your elbows DON’T let the shoulders rotate (hope you know what I mean) I do find it funny that alot of people are against upright rows but like cleans and snaches when the stress on the cuff is greater with them. peace