Six Pulling Exercises to Develop Healthy Shoulders

Bulletproof Your Shoulders

For anyone who lifts heavy weights, it is common to have sore shoulders. You can fix them and continue to gain strength with these pulling exercises.

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Pulling exercises can help you strengthen your shoulders

You can achieve your goals of a lean upper body or a crush on a rock. bench PRTo achieve this, you will need to put on some weight. And if you’ve been training hard for years, your shoulders are probably feeling those heavy workouts. You can either stop lifting or go to aquarobics if your shoulders are hurting from all the strain.

If you’re lucky enough to have avoided shoulder problems – and you plan to keep training hard – then start doing preventive exercises before you’re beaten up in the first place!

What type of exercises are you looking for?

1. Reclined, Seated Alternating Lat Pulldown

This pulldown version feels very similar to standard horizontal rowing exercises. Reclining back helps reduce shoulder flexion.

• Recline your back until you feel comfortable with your shoulders.
• Keep your chest up and reach long, then exhale.
• Take a deep breath and draw down on one side.

2. Short-Seated Lat Pulldown

This allows for the restoration of T-spine, ribcage and shoulder function.

• Sit on a box at a comfortable depth; you don’t need to be excessively low.
• Reach far without stifling.
• Inhale and get long/tall down the spine.
• Inhale, and then pull to one side. Then, repeat the same sequence for the other side.

3. Squatting Lat Pulldown

Although the seated pulldown is great, it can also be used to improve shoulder function, as well as squat depth.

• Sit down to a comfortable squat depth – you don’t need to be excessively low, but some prefer a deep squat to restore hip motion.
• Reach far without stifling.
• Inhale and get long/tall down the spine.
• Pull down on one side and exhale. Repeat the process on the other side.

It can be difficult to stay in an iso-squat for a prolonged period of time. Consider halving your reps.

4. Cobra Lat Pulldown

This one not only has a kick-ass name, but more importantly, if you’re a meathead, it just feels great.

Reach long. You can use the weight to extend your pulling arm and actively push the floor with the “down” arm.

• Feel the expansion in your chest and back as you exhale.
• Take a deep breath and then pull down.

5. Half-Kneeling Lat Pulldown

Half-kneeling pulldown increases shoulder and hip mobility.

• Use the pulling arm to reach long and gently push the pad through the knees.
• Take a deep inhale and feel the stretch through the shoulders and front of your body. “down” hip.
• Take a deep breath and then pull down.

6. Split-Stance Cable Row

This row is for you if you prefer a traditional row. You’ll use a split-stance so there’s some balance involved. It’s amazing to feel the rotation that you can make through your trunk and thorax.

• In a split-stance position, feel your entire front foot. Use that heel to help you keep the weight back.
• Keep your chest out/up and reach long with the pulling arm. Inhale.
• Breathe and relax.

Wait. These are the Reasons You Should Do These Things?

If you had asked me 10-15 years ago, my answer would’ve been simple:

“To create muscular balance and restore range of motion across the shoulders.”

This changed when I spent a weekend working with EliteFTS. I was able to assess some of the most powerful bench-pressers worldwide. And while you wouldn’t expect their range of motion to be great, I was absolutely shocked at how bad it really was.

Just so you are aware “normal” The shoulder range of motion is 180 degrees. There are two options for internal rotation: 90-degrees and 90-degrees external. So as I’m evaluating these bros, here’s what I find:

• The first athlete has 90 degrees of shoulder rotation (10 degree IR, 80 degree ER).
• The second athlete can rotate his shoulder 30-degrees (0 degrees IR, 30, degrees ER).
• Finally, the third person has 0 degrees (yes, zero!) of shoulder rotation.

Second, pain wasn’t the exception – it was the rule. Quite simply, it wasn’t IF they had pain, but how much.

These guys were pushing for big weights if they were asked about their programs. on the bench, just like you’d expect. They were also very strict about balancing their pulls and presses. This is a common advice that coaches give: Pull as many as you can (or more) than push.

In many cases, it wasn’t just balanced; they’d actually skewed their programs so they were doing twice, or even three times, as many pulls as presses! However, their shoulders were still all wrong. What’s the deal? What explains the poor range of motion of these men, who were trying to balance their front and back bodies?

They were doing pulling exercises that created more compression in the front than in the back. This was instead of expanding and rotating in their shoulders. Now I realize that’s a big statement, so let’s discuss when you should choose bilateral/symmetrical exercises and when you might choose offset or asymmetrical ones.

Bilateral vs. Unilateral Exercises

You should check these boxes if your goal is to maximize the production of force (think getting larger or stronger).

• Make it simple.
• Reduce movement restrictions
• Lift heavy loads.

The extreme end of this is a chest press machine. Your legs are supported, your movement is locked into an arc and you can use (approximately a ton) of weight.

This is a double-edged weapon. Sure, you can build big, showy muscles or superhuman strength, but over time you’re going to progressively lose range of motion.

Now let’s consider the opposite end of the spectrum – one where we might want to restore range of motion and help ourselves feel better. To do this, we’d probably:

• Train each side separately.
• Reduce load to some extent
• Use a wider range for motion.

You can see why the pull lifts I show you in the video are focused on working unisonly and with offset stances/postures. This allows your body the freedom to rotate and turn, versus simply squishing us front-to-back like we’re a human bench shirt.

Now before I go on, please don’t run off and say, “Mike Robertson told me never to do heavy bilateral movements again.”

You don’t have to do all of the above, you just need to find a balance. Choose activities that will allow you to grow strong and large if that is your goal. You can also move more easily if you feel your shoulders are tired.

Cool? Now let’s move on.

Four Techniques and Performance Tips

You can follow these tips on virtually any pulling exercise, but when used with the exercises I showed you, they’ll really supercharge your progress.

Tip 1: Use Goldilocks Load

It may seem counterintuitive because I just stated that too much load compresses and reduces range-of-motion. Imagine this: If you wanted to bench press 1,000 lbs and use a band to traction you shoulders, would the band you chose be the thinnest? Absolutely not – you’d get zero benefit.

This is the same. To expand and open up the area around your shoulders, load is necessary. This is what I call the “Goldilocks” weight because you need to find the sweet spot: Too little, and you won’t get the desired expansion/decompression. Too much, and you’ll end up squeezing/compressing to compensate, making things worse.

Tip 2: Reach Long

This is a challenging thought process for many, particularly those who subscribe to this newsletter. “scaps back and down” For everything you do in the gym, this is your mantra

The goal is to restore motion and create space, not increase your bench press maximum. The muscles around your shoulder blades will be able to eccentrically orient themselves and shut off by reaching out long. This helps restore motion range.

Tip 3: Inhale

When you consider that nearly everything we do to build strength and muscle development is based on an exhalation strategy, inhalation is the key ingredient.

To make magic happen, combine these three cues:

• Make sure to gain enough weight to compensate for our natural tendency towards pulling down/staying tight.
• Allow your muscles to relax by reaching long.
• Next, inhale to expand the area and create more space.

Once you’ve done this, then we get to the only real performance tip…

Tip 4: Turn (Versus Squeezing)

I may not be the strength athlete I once was, but I haven’t forgotten the “rules” Of scap motion.

When rowing, you pull the shoulder blades down. You pull-up your shoulder blades downward when you chin/pull up. What happens if all the rowing and chinning is in vain?

Keep in mind the end goal. However, if you want motion to be restored and to feel better, you should use a more comprehensive approach.

Instead of pushing back and down, try turning. Consider a row. Instead of pinning the shoulder blade back, you can make a controlled movement throughout your scap or trunk.

When you’re reaching long, allow the thorax to turn as well. When you’re pulling, think about turning the thorax and scapula together.

It is what I like to see it as. “athletic” pulling versus bodybuilding-style pulling. And once you start doing it, you’ll see (and feel) a difference.

Mikes’ stuff is a great reminder that we must consider the whole picture in our thinking about training.

It’s great to see that you are still writing Mike. It takes me back to my Ball State days. We are all still healthy thanks to you, old men!