Weight Lifting Tip - Limit Front Raises

I tend to limit front shoulder raises in routines for my clients. The reason being, the front of your shoulders gets worked during many other exercises. Especially chest exercises where you push, such as the bench press and push up.

The shoulder muscles themselves, (although they look very nice) are pretty small muscles. I would hardly every dedicate a whole workout to them alone.

One thing to always consider with any of the smaller muscle groups, is that you are already working them with compound exercises for larger muscle groups. A bench press works triceps and shoulders, where as chin up also works your biceps. This is one of the reasons why it's best to start with larger muscle groups. You need those smaller muscles to support the work of the larger muscles. If you did bicep curls and then chin ups, you would find your chin ups would be not nearly as strong as if you had performed them first.

This also means that by the time you work the smaller muscle groups, they require less sets, as they have already been working.

I'm not saying to never do front raises. I like them and I do them. You can do an alternating front raise for more functional training, with a lateral raise in your circuits or even in combination with other exercises, like a squat. Just keep in mind that you don't have to every workout and especially on your chest days. It's more important to develop the sides and back of your shoulders since they get less attention from other exercises.

Next time you lift, pay attention to the other muscles working. You may realize you could be cutting back on sets, save time and still develop the body you want.

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