EZ bar upright rows

[Only One Man]

Eh I don't think it's that great of an exercise and probably isn't the best for your shoulders but if you do them and nothing is hurting I doubt it's doing much harm. If that's the case and you really like upright rows, then keep doing them but I would just be aware of the potential risks and don't go too heavy.

I love dips but recently they've been hurting my shoulders a bit so I stopped doing them. The last thing I want is a shoulder injury since that essentially ruins your ability to lift weights perhaps more than any other joint injury.

I did use to do a lot of upright rows in high school because they always felt like they gave me a really good pump and they did seem to build my shoulders a decent amount so I get where you're coming from.

 

[RichieP]

Swap upright rows for high pulls. Absolutely blast the traps, best trap exercise IMO, and much healthier for shoulders:
https://www.t-nation.com/training/high-pull-for-the-power-look

And dumbell lateral raises for side delts rock too.

 

[tejo]

^^^

Upright rows are compound exercises too. They go very well together with overhead presses.


For me they are almost as important as primary movements such as squats and weighted pullups.

If you have healthy shoulder mobility, you will be very far away from an impingement position (assuming you do it correctly). If I go to nipple height, I'm still 30 cm or so bellow the point at which my elbows start to impinge. Going higher than nipple height doesn't seem to give me any benefit.



I don't get the dumbell stuff.. The dumbell technique (externally rotated, arms higher) is what I've always done with a barbell anyways. It looks like the dumbells always follow a straight path in front of his body, so whatever he does with dumbells he could do with a barbell?

I will give it a try during my next workout though, you never know.

IMO upright rows, EZ bar or not, are good, and so are overhead presses. However, the risk of injury is too great for me to continue with them. Do them if you must, because they do work and work well, but know that you should set aside some money to pay your orthopedist/PT/chiropractor when you mess up your spine or shoulders.

 

[Once Was Not]

I've never done them. Seemed like a weird way to do a row to me. I got plenty of trap and delt results from my barbell shoulder presses and just benching. Enough to where I had people pointing out my traps and neck. Sometimes I did lateral raises too but I prefer to save energy for my compound movements. Shoulders are a small muscle group. Never used the EZ bar for anything other than bicep curls either, seems like a really weird angle for my hands and wrists to be while moving heavy weight on compound movements. Unless you're a more advanced lifter it's probably better to focus on the core compound movements then extra exercises like this. Plus the shoulder press is a pushing movement, how many of those do you do besides a chest press movement? You've already got bent over row and deadlift for pulling.

 

[Jetset]

Dumbbells, stop with the weight at nipple height and upper arms parallel to the floor. That is the real answer to doing upright rows.

 

[bucky]

Swap upright rows for high pulls. Absolutely blast the traps, best trap exercise IMO, and much healthier for shoulders:
https://www.t-nation.com/training/high-pull-for-the-power-look

And dumbell lateral raises for side delts rock too.

I probably wouldn't be messing with upright rows at all if I could do pull-ups right now, but lately they've been bothering my elbows. Also, I'm limited by logistics (I only have a doorframe pull-up bar, but no suitable doorframe in current house).

On another thread someone recommended a stand-style pull-up bar which I might purchase when I can put aside some extra $$$, and someone else recommended doing them with palms facing to take it easier on my elbows. I like upright rows, but since a lot of people seem to think they'll eventually cause an injury it's probably best to avoid them if I can.

 

[RichieP]

High pulls man, not pull-ups... check out that article.

 

[bucky]

High pulls man, not pull-ups... check out that article.

Cool. Misread that. Not a lift I'd have the equipment to do at home, but looks good. Never tried any of the explosive stuff like this.