Are Upright Rows a Must for Shoulder Development?

[curling]

If they are, I will put them back in but they hurt my wrists like son of a bitch. Right now my present shoulder routine is as follows:

4 Sets of heavy dumbbell presses to failure(around 6 to 9 reps)
3 to 4 sets of dumbbell side raises
3 to 4 sets of dumbbell front raises
3 to 4 sets of bentover dumbbell raises
4 sets of heavy dumbbel shruggs

Is that enough to build massive shoulders? Or do I need to put the upright rows back in on shoulder day?

Thanks.

 

[MonStar1023]

curling..

4 Sets of heavy dumbbell presses to failure(around 6 to 9 reps)
3 to 4 sets of dumbbell side raises
3 to 4 sets of dumbbell front raises
3 to 4 sets of bentover dumbbell raises
4 sets of heavy dumbbel shruggs

Whatsup bro? Your shoulder routine looks alright to me... seems like a bit excessive to be completely honest but everyone is different so maybe you can handle that type of volume. Honestly after doing my presses my front delts are beat doing front dumbbell raises would be a waste of time and probably overtrain them. Upright rows are great for your traps in my opinion especially close-grip cable upright rows. GREAT for peaking my traps all the way.

Wide-grip upright rows are really great in my opinion for thickening up your side-delts but then again everyone is different so I dont know. It depends on what muscle group usually takes over. For example with side-laterals do you usually feel the stress in your delts or your traps? If you're more traps then upright rows probably wont do much for your delts. They used to hurt my wrists a lot but after a while I guess I became a accustomed to them because I can do them now without a problem. Good luck bro!!

 

[JG1]

Dude, thats way to much volume for shoulder training.

Try 4 sets of military presses or d-bell presses to failure, and 3 sets of upwright rows to failure. That will completely exhaust your deltoids/traps and will give you good growth.

 

[RealDeal]

I'd agree that it looks like overkill. I'd cut out the front raises or at the very least do no more than 3 sets after your 4 sets of presses.

I love upright rows for a delt/trap combo hit, but have also noticed the problem you mentioned with wrist pain. Vary your grip width from close to wide and feel the differences. Yes, you'll shift work between your delts & traps, but you should be able to find a comfortable medium. Also, raise the bar no higher than the level of your chin...any more puts unnecessary stress on your wrists. Lastly, make sure you're training your forearms adequately. Forearm and grip strength can really help out with upright rows and many other exercises.

 

[curling]

Thanks for all the replys. So ya'll think it is overkill huh? Does it matter if I am on a pretty good cycle right now. Inotherwords, can you do more with juice in your system as far as number of sets? I will try varying my grip on upright rows and see if that helps.

Just for clarification are ya'll saying that front raises do the same thing as dumbbell presses do(working front delts)?

 

[The mann]

your recovery will be better while on gear,but you still need to train smart.you say the d/b presses don't hurt,but the upright rows do??what about doing behind the neck presses,front presses,orjust staying with heavy d/b??like the other posts say...still an awful lot of shoulder exercises.just my .02............

 

[edgecrusher]

I don't think upright rows are a neccessity. But if you really want to use them while avoiding wrist pain, try using an ez curl bar.

As far as your routine goes, it looks good just cut back a little bit, and drop the front raises.

 

[gymtime]

Agree with edge. Don't know that they're much more important than any good shoulder excercise. I'm the same way, they're tough on my wrists, even fuck with my back sometimes. I still do them once in a while, but I'll do other shoulder stuff more often.

 

[bignate73]

i dropped upright rows and cleans a while ago. too harsh on my wrist and i get all the benefits from doing my lateral raises off to a 45 deg angle. presses and laterals are all i do now.

 

[BigWill]

Dude, thats way to much volume for shoulder training.

Try 4 sets of military presses or d-bell presses to failure, and 3 sets of upwright rows to failure. That will completely exhaust your deltoids/traps and will give you good growth.

Good advice. The only area that would not hit is the rear delts: add bent over reverse flyes for that.

Why are so many routines listed here so complicated or overkill?