Blog | Kevin Jühlke • Calisthenics | Ernährung

If you would have asked me 1 year ago, I wouldn't waste much thought on you saying, that there are weighted exercises useful for calisthenics athletes. How can some side raises bodybuilders do, be actually great for your shoulder health? But fortunately, everyone learns. And as it is with many other things, too, extremism is seldom the right path.In this post were going to look at the shoulder joint and I am going to show you three exercises using weights, that can help you keep your shoulders healthy, strong and balanced out. Why tf use weights as a bodyweight athlete? Nowadays I am a strong believer that you can learn something from everything. Or anyone. That may be from another sport, profession or person. Weights can be great because they are scalable easily and it is easier to progress that way. Moving 5kg more of weight a day for the same repetitions and quality is a clear sign of improvement. Measuring if you are getting stronger while doing planche leans can be way trickier.My point is just that black or white thinking is most of the times not the way to go. Take the best out of every sport and fit it into your very own practice. The three exercises I am going to show are great in another way, too. Simply because there is no such bodyweight movement that could do the job better. And I think you should be training every movement your body is capable of. At least from time to time. 3 weighted shoulder exercises to up your calisthenics game Standing Lateral Raises There is simply no calisthenics exercise that resembles that movement. Maybe crosses on rings. But that's a whole nother story. Besides hitting obviously your delts, side raises also strengthen the supraspinatus well. This dude's job is the partly abduction of your arm and that's what you are training with that exercise. Strong lateral raises with good form strong and happy supraspinatus :-) Just watch out to keep your arms in external rotation while doing this exercise. Jeff Cavaliere demonstrates that nicely in this video. Pulley Facepulls to Overhead Press This one is a great exercise for so many things! It strengthens your whole shoulder girdle and supports a stable overhead position. It also teaches your brain how it should activate your muscles. I don't think there are many more 'bang for your buck'-exercises in terms of healthy shoulders than facepulls. Plus pulleys are great. They provide a force pulling forward or backward no resistance band can ever do. As previous - if you want to see how this exercise is performed the right way - Jeff Cavaliere shows you how to do it! Just make sure to add an overhead when you are done with the facepull. That will up this movement even more! Lying Lateral Raises This exercise works on your scapular retraction, but in a way, most calisthenics exercises don't practice it. Most of the time you work on your retraction while rowing or front levering. The lying lateral raise does this instead, through pulling your arms sideways. This movement pattern is not found in calisthenics, too. Maybe if you are coming down from a planche into a back lever on rings. But let's stay real here guys... The prone reverse flys, or whatever name you choose to give them, should look like in this video demonstrated by Marcus Philly. How to fit these three into your workout schedule I hate it when people just throw exercises around them without telling how to use them properly. So that's my attempt to be better at that particular point. As a general rule of thumb, I would recommend everyone to work on their shoulder health 1-2 times a week. The shoulder is so complex and relies on healthy muscles to function properly. And that is in stark contrast to our modern hunchback desk warrior lifestyle. Therefore - invest some time on it. It hasn't got to be longspun. I always do 3 exercises after my regular workout two times a week. One-time time pre-fatigued after an upper-body session and One-time fresh after a leg session. One session could look like this: Pulley Facepulls to Overhead Press 3x10-12rOverhead KB Carries 3x25m per sideLying Lateral Raises Or like this: Standing Side Lateral Raises 3x10-12rProne End Range ER Work 3x4rx10s hold + 6-8 liftsPulley Facepulls to Overhead Press 3x10-12r Download the routines as a PDF file With my three introduced weighted shoulder exercises, you won't do anything wrong, especially if you are just doing calisthenics. But you can also work on your weak links specifically, too. That's up to you!Anyways, I hope you got something out of this post. Besides the obvious three exercises, my underlying main point to take home would be to get rid of binary thinking.Read you soon!,K. Further Reading and Sources I really like this short article by teachmeanatomy as a first dip into the complex anatomy and functions of the shoulder joint. Great for a first overview of what your shoulder is actually capable of.Besides my 3 weighted exercises for your overall shoulder health especially as a calisthenics athlete, you should also do some kind of hanging.If you are a calisthenics athlete there is the high chance that you already hang very much. But if not - that is something worth thinking about, too.I can recommend this post by Ido Portal about the topic of hanging down from something.

Calisthenics und Lifestyle Blog Kevin Jühlke Logo

Three weighted shoulder exercises every calisthenics athlete should do!

Gymnastic Rings – the best training tool you can buy!

Shoulder Prehab – How to unfuck your shoulders and get healthy ones!

Programming 101 – create a program specific for calisthenics

Sleep Hygiene – here’s how to sleep better!

How to improve your recovery after a challenging workout – the right way!

How can I move more on a daily basis without working out more?

Pike Stretch- Finally get your palms to the floor with these 4 exercises