Okay I need someone to help me setup a workout schedule.Here is what I want to do, individual muscle groups Monday, Wednesday, Friday...and I am aiming to gain strength and tone, but not to bulk up. I am about 6 foot and 224 pounds...I cannot think of a solid workout...but I have some problems..I have weak shoulders from football injuries so I will need to build those back up and I had a lower back injury while weightlifting 4 years ago. Anyone care to help?
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Schedule
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yeah that is what I figured, just wanted to be sure.
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You'll want to go easy on your shoulders, but by no means neglect them. The exercises I recommend you do may seem horribly underweighted, but trust me that they work. If done properly they will strengthen the small muscles that make up your rotator cuff, stimulating them to heal and repair themselves.
The exercises I recommend should be done with very low weight, 2-5 pounds at most for now, up to 20-25 reps. I do 2 sets for each individual shoulder. The goal is not to push them hard, but to tire them out by doing all those reps with a low weight. The stress on your rotator cuff should be very low, keeping yourself from injuring the tiny muscles groups located around it:
-front lateral raise
-side lateral raise
-->for this keep your forearms bent forward at a 90 degree angle so they're not extending all the way as this will lessen the stress on your rotator cuffThe other two, I'm not sure what to call them. I use cables with only the base weight without the pin put in (very low, not sure what it is exactly). They somewhat mimic the motion of chest press only upper arms are at your sides rather than creating a 90 degree angle with your forearms. One is the reverse of the other. Neither one should extend far past the being perpendicular to your body, and the should both start as close to parallel as possible. If you don't understand what I mean then I'll try to find the exercise I'm talking about later.
I have trouble with both of my rotator cuffs because of a combination of running, swimming, and weightlifting while neglecting to do anything about the pain I was getting. I have been trying to get in the habit of doing these exercises regularily for the past couple months, and now that I am doing them often I have noticed a very significant difference in how my shoulders feel after a workout. I'm able to do many exercises that don't focus exclusively on the shoulders but do use them (such as bench press) without feeling a sharp pain part way into the workout.
Hope this helps
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yeah I am doing something very similar. I was going to do the 2-5 pounds, but when I did the reps (i was aiming at 30) it was too horribly easy. I went up some and I am also doing more dumbell chest workouts.