Cable Exercises For Shoulders
Other than abdominals, men and women give shoulders more focus and effort in the gym. You can’t hide a good set of shoulders. Clothes hang well on them and they give you a strong, athletic and fit look.
But shoulders are a tricky body part to develop. First of all, it’s a ball and socket joint which makes it very unstable. Second, the rotator cuff which helps the shoulder perform linear and rotational movements is supported by 4 small muscles. Most of the injuries in the shoulder complex occur in the rotator cuff.
If you go heavy on free weight overhead presses and lateral raises all the time, you will wear out the muscles, joints and ligaments that support the shoulders. An injury to the shoulders will affect your performance in almost all exercises.
A safer alternative to free weights are cable exercises because you also have to perform each rep in good form to get maximum benefit from cables. Thus, with cable exercises there is no need to go heavy.
With cables, you also get constant tension on the muscle on both the negative and positive parts of the exercise. This results in good overall shoulder development.
Here are the 6 most effective cable exercises for shoulders:
1. Straight Arm Pulldown – This exercise functions more as a warm up for the rotator cuff area. It targets the teres major, infraspinatus, subscapularis and supraspinatus muscles which form the rotator cuff.
2. Cable Shoulder Press – If you want to add size and shape to your shoulders, this is the best exercise to do. According to research, the standing version hits all 3 heads of the shoulders.
3. Cable Front Raise – The anterior head of the shoulders are used in many overhead pressing and chest exercises. This exercise helps strengthen the front part of your shoulders.
4. High Cable Rear Delt Fly – This exercise allows you to isolate the posterior head of the shoulder which is very hard to develop.
5. Cable Lateral Raise – In order to get the “capped look”, cable lateral raises are the way to go. Turn the pinky up at the top of the exercise to shift more emphasis on the lateral or side head of the shoulder.
6. Cable Rear Delt Row – This exercise also strengthens the rotator cuff area aside from developing the posterior head of the shoulders.
Sample Shoulder Workout Using Cable Exercises
A good, thorough warm up is very important before training shoulders. Start out by doing small arm circles to the side; 30 reps forward and 30 reps backward.
Then do small circles with both arms extended forward at a distance that approximates the width of your grip in the Bench Press. Again, perform 30 sets clockwise and 30 reps counter-clockwise. Repeat the same dynamic stretches but with a 1.1kg dumbbell in each hand.
This cable-based shoulder workout is split into “A” and “B” programs which you alternate every week:
Program A:
• Straight Arm Pulldown – 2 sets x 20 reps
• Cable Shoulder Press (standing) – 4 sets x 10 reps
• High Cable Rear Delt Fly – 3 sets x 10 reps
• Cable Lateral Raises – 3 sets x 10 reps
Program B:
• Straight Arm Pulldown – 2 sets x 20 reps
• Cable Rear Delt Row – 3 sets x 10 reps
• Cable Front Raise – 3 sets x 10 reps
• Cable Shoulder Press (seated) – 4 sets x 10 reps
Keep your rest periods to no more than 1 minute between sets and 2 minutes between exercises. At the end of the workout, do 10 minutes of static stretching.
How To Reduce The Risk Of Injury To Your Shoulders
One of the best ways to protect your shoulders from injury is to perform a Dead Hang after your static stretches.
To do a Dead Hang, simply take a wide overhand grip on a pull up bar and hang down with your feet off the ground. Maintain the position for 30 seconds.
The Dead Hang not only stretches the muscle fibers and tendons but it also improves blood circulation in the shoulder area for faster recovery.
