If you are looking for additional workout tips you can do a lot worse than looking towards one of the pioneers of the bodybuilding game, Arnold Schwarzenneger.
The Austrian Oak has parlayed a career in bodybuilding to the silver screen and then to the political realm before navigating a path back to Hollywood, and he has picked up a few tricks along the way — one of which is ‘The Arnold’, an adaptation of the traditional shoulder press.
The move is incredibly effective, hitting all three sections of your deltoid (the round-ish muscle at the top of your arm) which aren’t impacted greatly by press-ups or bench presses. Done correctly, it will add mass to your shoulders, help improve your posture and increase your functional strength for additional techniques like deadlifts and pull-ups.
Now, it is worth noting that this technique doesn’t come without risk. While it is incredibly good at workout out the three muscle groups in your shoulders, it can also be quite taxing on the joint and potentially lead to injury down the road. If you begin to feel any residual pain within your shoulder it is important to put the weights down immediately and focus on building the relevant muscle groups up before you approach it again.
It is also important to keep firm control over the weights as you use them as their own momentum can sometimes twist your form out of shape. Never twist the weights and make sure to keep your palms facing each other at all times.
As ever, practice on lower weights before you are 100% sure that you have mastered the technique. Three to six reps of eight per go is a good starting point but to labour the point somewhat, listen to your body if it starts to complain. There is nothing more debilitating to a your overall workout regime than a torn rotator cuff.arnold
