For this months addition of the Performance Menu I wanted to provide some guidance for what to do with those small dumbbells. Now I’m not talking about the ten-pound dumbbells; I’m talking about the ones your significant other bought at a garage sale or the ones they shrink-wrap to Special K cereal. I’m going to show you what to do with the 1-5 pounders. These are special moves that can be applied to special populations—Prehabilitation moves for the shouldes.

I use these specifically for:

Maturing athletes. These are folks with a bit of hail damage from sports participation. Their shoulders are typically tight and weak in certain positions. Combine this with a region that is avascular (poor blood flow/supply) and you have the potential for injury.

Combat Athletes. Over the years I’ve worked with a bunch or wrestlers. Combine that with the number of tournament gyms I’ve camped in over the years watching my kids and I’ve concluded that shoulders can take a beating. A grappler’s career can be severely shortened with one good shoulder injury.

While I believe these moves are important, I want to stress that I also believe that the shoulders should be trained with primary movements. There should be a programming balance between horizontal and vertical pressing as well as vertical and horizontal pulling. The kipping movement with a pronated grip is one of the healthiest moves an athlete can perform for their shoulders. I also believe the barbell muscle snatch performed with tempo (slowly) is another money move for the area.

From a programming perspective I typically place these towards the end of the focus workout. Since we want to target the smaller stabilizing muscle, we don’t want them fatigued for their true roll of stabilizing the joint for the heavier pushing and pulling.

In addition, we want to observe the following:

Use very light weight dumbbells—no more than 5 lbs. Again, we want the target the four cuff muscles with these movement.

Progression. Perform 1 set of 10 reps. Increase slowly until you can perform 20-25 reps. Once you can perform 25 reps, add an additional set of 10 and increase the second set of reps to 20-25 reps.

Move with a deliberate tempo. I’m not a time under tension advocate. I don’t assign time ratios of concentric and eccentric. I simply ask that the movements be performed slowly and controlled.

Avoid trapezius involvement. As fatigue sets in, overachievers will want to squeeze out a few more reps. You can monitor this flaw by watching for shrugs at the traps. This is especially true during abduction of the humerus.

While not 100% necessary, I do like the shoulder horn for external rotation moves. It allows for complete concentration and control.

My routine is a variety of side, front and back raises with the thumbs either pointing up or down. I don’t include internal rotation moves as I believe this only magnifies an existing imbalance. The following movements are demonstrated in the accompanying video:

1. Side Raise (thumbs up)
2. Side Raise (thumbs down)
3. Front Raise (thumbs up)
4. Front Raise (thumbs down)
5. Bent side Raise (thumbs up)
6. Bent side Raise (thumbs down)
7. Side Support External Rotations
8. Shoulder horn External Rotations