When it comes to building muscle, losing fat, and progressing in the gym, nothing is going to set you back more than injuries will. Shoulder injuries and shoulder pain in particular can be troublesome since it affects almost every upper body exercise you can do. Which is exactly why you need to design your workout program such that it ensures your longevity in the gym and minimizes your risk of shoulder injury. And to do this, you need to first understand that some exercises are worse than others when it comes to contributing to shoulder pain, shoulder impingement, and are just bad exercises for your rotator cuff. So if your shoulder hurts when working out, first look and see if you’re performing one of these bad exercises to avoid.

The first exercise is the barbell upright row. A quick look at the mechanics of this exercise enables us to see how dangerous it can be for the rotator cuff and shoulder injuries. The internal rotation component can cause the tendon of the supraspinatus to be pinched against a bone in the shoulder – which overtime is likely to cause shoulder injury. So instead of the standard upright row, one safer and more effective alternative is the “modified upright row” which I show how to perform in the video. Another even safer option is to simply use safer exercise alternatives to hit the target muscle groups that the upright row does (the upper traps and lateral deltoids).

The next two exercises – behind the neck presses and behind the neck pulldowns – such that they both involve excessive external rotation at the shoulder. In fact, research shows that for the behind the head shoulder press, most males don’t possess the adequate mobility needed to perform this movement correctly. And the fact that both of these movements will be inferior to their counterpart (standard overhead press and front lat pulldowns) means that they are just something you should avoid.

The last exercise, front raises, is in here not because it’s a dangerous exercise in itself – but because most people already have overactive front delts. And when your front delts overpower your often neglected rear delts, this is a recipe for shoulder impingement down the road. So instead, let your main pressing movements handle your front delt work and dedicate more time to your rear delts!

VIEW MY SCIENCE-BASED PROGRAMS HERE:
https://builtwithscience.com/bws-free-fitness-quiz/gender?utm_source=Youtube&utm_medium=Video&utm_content=Description%20box&utm_campaign=4%20exercises%20harming%20your%20shouldersOct%2014%2F2018

SCIENCE-BASED SHOULDER VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vprklw8cu8

SCIENCE-BASED TRAPS VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh8EU1iSyYw

EXERCISES IN THIS VIDEO:
0:50 - the upright row
3:41 - behind the neck press
5:11 - behind the neck pulldowns
6:10 - front raises (front delt isolation).

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STUDIES:
Upright row:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24077379
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22362088
Behind the neck shoulder press:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254614000106
Behind the neck lat pulldown:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19855327
Front raises:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11222932