How necessary is heavy OHP or a variant of it. I'vr been having some shoulder issues with it, curious if anyone just does like raises and stuff instead of heavy shoulders. Right now I'm doing a PPL, but I either can do chest or I can do shoulders heavy, and I prefer heavy on chest. Just curious how much if any am I gimping training switching over to raises as my 'main' shoulder builder.
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
To OHP or to not OHP
- Thread starter FoxLift
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Bumpygooch
Member
Does it hurt doing neutral grip movements as well?
Honestly bro when i first stated out many moons ago my first coach had me doing just the oh press for delts and they grew very well.Most i pressed was 275×5.I stopped doing them after years of struggling to get stronger on them.
Never got much out of laterals.Wide grip upright rows to chest level worke well for me also.If it is hurting you stop doing them.Delts already get worked enough with chest and back.Some machines have a great loading curve ie the prime shoulder press.Find a movement that "feels right'and go to town.
shackleford
Banned
If I understand your original post, it sounds like the shoulder hurts when you go heavy on both bench and ohp in the same work out? If that is the case, why not split it up and do heavy bench one push day and heavy ohp the next push day? You would still be hitting both in a week.
No not really as much. Say I'm doing a lateral raise motion, thumbs forward or up is fine, but thumbs down is painful. Going forwards (front raise motion I have no discomfort regardless of the orientation if my hands. Going backwards (like those backwards stretching arm circles you did in middle school gym class) my arm doesn't 'hurt' but almost feels stuck sometimes when going from the behindish motion to hitting about shoulder height to start moving forward (if this makes sense). I don't feel any discomfort or pain or unusual swelling , outside those I've noted.
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Right now I'm trying to work on my chest. As it's lagging behind. So I'm trying to keep tlbith days heavier. I'm lifting from home so it's far easier with dumbells to do laterals and lighter isolation excercises then it would be to try to go lighter with barbell / dumbells
shackleford
Banned
There are plenty of shoulder exercises. Maybe experiment until you find a movement that doesnt hurt. I dont think the specific exercise is as important as working hard at whichever one you decide to use. Of course theres alot of guys here smarter than I am, hopefully they'll give you good guidance!
EazyE
Member
I have not done any actual OHP in some time due to a nagging shoulder injury. No flat bench either. But I can still do low-incline barbell for chest without issue. My shoulders haven’t suffered any though as I have been focusing on various laterals and lots of volume. My delts have taken on a rounder, fuller look since doing so. And no sore shoulder either.
shackleford
Banned
Sounds like a win!
Skarpyona
Member
I have shot shoulders from being a bench monkey as a young'un. It makes deltoid and chest development tricky, as I cannot do traditional bench and ohp anymore, so I found ways to work around it.
A landmine press working high volume has done wonders for my deltoid development, as well as a trap bar ohp.
I use a swiss bar to bench, and putting a decline on helps alleviate stress on my shoulders as well as work for sick lower chest isolation.
If traditional pressing movements are giving you grief, stop. Re-evaluate. Is it your form? Visit a sports physio, chiro, make sure you're in good shape. If all that doesn't help, drop those movements. Don't let your ego get the best of you. Nothing sucks more than lifelong nagging injuries.
A landmine press working high volume has done wonders for my deltoid development, as well as a trap bar ohp.
I use a swiss bar to bench, and putting a decline on helps alleviate stress on my shoulders as well as work for sick lower chest isolation.
If traditional pressing movements are giving you grief, stop. Re-evaluate. Is it your form? Visit a sports physio, chiro, make sure you're in good shape. If all that doesn't help, drop those movements. Don't let your ego get the best of you. Nothing sucks more than lifelong nagging injuries.
Type-IIx
Member
Those are some great adjustments. Got to stay healthy.
For me, my shoulders always liked barbell OHP but hated flat bench. Eventually, got to the point where OHP was starting to cause some issues. I think working on some balance with weighted pull-up and doing weighted inverted rows for a while got be back to being able to work with the barbell. I worked in some of the lighter raises for higher reps to help the shoulder girdle also.
No need to force a barbell either, though. Unilateral work is great. OP, doing exercises at home that aren't high in loading but give enough stimulus like the front raises are fine for a while. The grip of a kettlebell might give you some more comfortable options - worth trying. Just don't drop shoulder (and back) work to focus on chest too much cause all of those muscles work in unison and help each other as well. It's one thing to do a planned specialization cycle, it's another to just start cutting out muscle groups and work out from home because it's convenient... eventually something's going to give.
Fattyone
Member
I used to have pain doing OHP. I switched to dumbbells but as I crept towards the 90’s the pain returned. I started doing rear delts, then side laterals THEN OHP and all the pain was gone. Obviously I was weaker by this point but no pain lol. Made me question my warmup routine prior to ohp’ing. Maybe try a new/better warm up.
Ridethelightningbarefoot
Member
Its definetly a good movement but not worth the pain if it leads to injury. My shoulders have turned to shit recently. Idk what happened all I can figure is I was on accutane and started doing upright rows and everything went to hell around that time as far as shoulder/upper body. I got tendonitis in my elbow which then inflamed my same shoulder. If I do any shoulder work at all I have a ton of pain and weakness now.
