Shoulder shrugs are ideal exercises for developing and strengthening muscles around the neck and shoulder joints. This area consists of a variety of bones, tendons and ligaments; hence it is highly susceptible to weight lifting injuries. However, if one performs shoulder shrug exercises under the supervision of a personal trainer, one can gain all the desired benefits without the risk of injuries or pains arising from imperfect technique.
Development of shoulder joints is important if one wants to develop muscles of the upper arms and chest. A lot of people who exercise on their own do not properly understand what they are doing. This results in not only a disproportionate development of their bodies, but also frequent pains, spasms, and injuries. They often justify these pains and injuries as being either a result of working too hard or mere accidents. The presence of a personal trainer can prevent such occurrences, besides giving several other benefits.
The most basic difficulty people face when exercising on their own is to know if they are actually performing them correctly. It is one thing to read instructions or watch videos and understand the technique, but being able to actually carry out those steps correctly is entirely another issue. They may think that they are doing everything correctly because they are able to understand the instructions clearly; however, only a more experienced person watching from a distance can give a proper judgment.
Having a personal trainer becomes all the more important if you are exercising with weights or machines. He can protect you from all the mistakes that you might make due to your faulty understanding of the technique and from injuries due to over-extending your limits. It is also quite common to feel highly motivated for workouts one day and totally lazy the very next day. An experienced trainer keeps you exercising properly and consistently despite your emotional roller coaster.
Shoulder shrug exercises are deceptively simple – all you have to do is hold some type of weight in the hands and lift shoulders up and down. In the absence of a personal trainer, this apparent simplicity can easily allow you to over-extend yourself. As a result you not only end up hurting yourself, but quite commonly you may end up quitting altogether.
The key to getting the maximum benefits from shoulder shrug exercises is to exercise maintaining the proper posture. It means resisting the tendency to rotate shoulders or to bend the body forwards or backwards. You simply move your shoulders up and down maintaining proper breathing-in and -out. Remember, correct execution of exercises does not mean more comfort doing them; it only means better and faster results without risk of injuries.
A personal trainer can greatly help you with your shoulder shrugs whether you are working with dumbbells, barbells, using cable pulley or Smith machine, or any other variation. He can point out your natural tendencies to deviate from the correct technique. He will also push you a little harder than you do yourself; yet prevent you from over-extending. He will systematically help you increase the weights as well as the reps.
Coming up with variations of exercises is another great advantage of having a personal trainer around. Dumbbell shrugs can also be performed when seated or doing one arm at a time. Behind the back barbell shrugs are another useful variation which many people believe to be superior to the normal front way. Other forms of variations involve handgrips – for example, inside, outside, overhand, underhand, or mixed grips
Strong shoulders are required to have a great figure. So, you can’t afford to take your shoulder shrugs casually and must train properly with a fitness trainer.
Dan Clay is a Sydney weight loss expert and owner of Dangerously Fit personal training. If you would like to attend a session with a personal trainer Queens Park [http://bootcampsydney.com.au/personal-trainer-queens-park.html], visit personal training Sydney [http://www.personaltrainersydney.com/].
