Shredding your shoulders - clean & press with a twist....

[TOkidd]

Over the past few weeks I've been combining two separate strength-building exercises for delts and getting incredible results. It's not the kind of exercise you want to do every week, but it's an amazing way to shock your shoulders when your normal routine gets boring. Here's how it goes:

The clean & press is essentially taking a barbell, lifting it to you waist, then raising it to your shoulders like a powerlifter (this is the clean). The press is obviously when you lift the weight over your head. Now you return the weight to your shoulders, then back to your waist. Now repeat until failure. This is the clean and press, in and of itself an amazing strength and mass builder for your entire upper body.

The twist comes when we combine the clean & press with the push press. The push press is when you do standing shoulder presses with slightly more weight than you're used to, and then cheat by bending your knees a little and quickly straighten them, using the upward momentum to help you push the weight over your head. The force of your bent knees suddenly being straightened gives you the momentum to lift a weight you might normally struggle with, or to do a few extra reps of your max weight. The key is to be realistic and only use slightly more weight than your max - like 5-10 pounds - so you don't injure yourself.

So now we combine these two exercises, cleaning the weight to shoulder height, bending the knees, then quickly springing up at the same time we press the weight (of course, your feet do not leave the floor). Now let the bar drop back to shoulder height, then to your waist and repeat. Do three sets of four reps and see how your shoulders feel the next day!

**Caution -this kind of exercise is a great way to injure yourself so it's not for newbies, and it's best to use a spotter and never use a weight you're uncomfortable with. If your body tells you it's too heavy, don't force it. The point is to use either your max weight or something just slightly higher. Tread very carefully until you're comfortable with the movement. I've even done it with dumbells and it works great.

Try it out strength hounds!

TOkidd