Military Muscle: Tone your shoulders for strength, safety - Military Health, military health and wellness, military physical fitness - Military Times

Military Muscle: Tone your shoulders for strength, safety

The shoulder joint is unique because it relies on muscles and ligaments instead of the skeletal system for stability. The result is a large range of motion — along with a greater susceptibility to injury, meaning you need to develop all of the muscles in the region.

A well-developed shoulder area draws attention and sets off your entire frame. It won’t happen overnight, but developing strong shoulders and rotator cuffs will help keep you injury-free late in life.

For each of the following, do cycles of the exercise at a heavy weight, followed by cycles using less weight, but performing the exercise at a higher tempo.

Medicine ball throws

These link strength and power in the chest, shoulders and back.

The exercise: Stand with a medicine ball in front of you on the floor. Perform a squat, and as you rise, throw the ball up, attaining as much height as possible. Follow through with your arms extended about 45 degrees short of directly overhead. Your feet should leave the ground as you throw. Let the ball hit the floor and repeat. In four-week cycles, start with heavy weight to build strength, then go lighter but do intervals of 45-second, high-tempo throws followed by 15 seconds of rest.

Lateral dumbbell raise standing on wobble boards

Working the lateral deltoid (shoulder muscle) accentuates the edge of the shoulder and gives it a wonderful finish. In addition, your core is challenged as you try to keep the wobble boards level.

The exercise: Stand on two wobble boards, knees flexed, arms at sides holding the dumbbells, palms facing the legs. Raise the arms out to the side with elbows slightly bent. Return arms to starting position.

Upright row

This one, for men especially, gives you a “Hercules” look. For women, it gives you that strong line from neck to shoulder.

The exercise: Keep the back straight and grasp a barbell with an overhand grip at shoulder width. The wider the grip, the more emphasis on your shoulder rather than your trapezius, which gets max emphasis with hands together. Pull the bar up along the front of the body to the shoulder line, keeping the elbows as high as possible. Add the wobble boards to engage the core.

NUTRITION TIP

The website www.nutrition.gov offers a wide range of nutrition information. As the banner states on the home page “Providing easy, online access to government information on food and human nutrition for consumers,” it contains an extensive library of the latest nutrition news. Check it out. Ë

--Bob Thomas is director of the Navy Wellness Center in Pensacola, Fla. E-mail him at jomof14@cox.net.