Coach Nicks Weekly : Additonal Accessory Exercises

Continuing with the concentration on accessory exercises, this week we are going to cover pushing and pulling exercises to be combined with your shoulder work. Within our programs we like to include some type of overhead press for our main lift, mainly a barbell or log overhead press. This lift is a MUST for someone looking to gain overall upper body strength. That said, there are many exercises that can be performed to contribute to your strength gains with this exercise as well as to overall development of the surrounding areas.

               
Unlike chest and back exercises that are mainly push or pull, we like to focus on the shoulder work and upper back work as a whole. This means that there will be some push and some pull movements going on within this type of workout. I personally like to include one type with the other so I know I am working this unit all together. Most of you women see men at the gym shrugging ridiculous weight and their traps look huge. By performing this type of exercise in the correct fashion I assure you that will not happen to you. Many of you might also notice the men doing ridiculous weight on shrugs and their shoulder lift about half an inch up from the starting position. These guys need to lower the amount of weight they use and perform the exercise correctly. No one cares how much weight you shrug!!!! I find it hilarious when people take this type of exercise and like to perform it as if it were a max effort bench or dead lift in a powerlifting competition. Pointless.

               
Anyway, there are great accessory exercises you can use to help with shoulder mobility as well as gaining strength and size if that is your goal. If you watch my video on regeneration you will find some shoulder mobility exercise that can be used as well. You are going to see some exercises in this next video that are used mainly for accessory, supplemental exercises. They are not meant to replace a compound lift or an Olympic lift you might do on upper body day such as the snatch or power clean. Tune in to my blog the next few weeks for videos on the Overhead Press and some Olympic lifts!