[Music]

okay welcome everyone to a new episode

of technique Tuesday this week we're

going to be looking at how to perform

the upright row with perfect technique

while avoiding injury and preventing

shoulder pain and we're also going to be

looking at a few creative alternatives

now in my opinion the upright row is

actually a pretty fantastic exercise if

performed properly because it may be the

only multi joint compound movement that

heavily targets the lateral deltoid not

the front deltoid like a shoulder press

or a bench press would so before we get

into the technique itself let's have a

quick look at the muscles involved first

so with the upright row we're gonna be

hitting the lateral delts through

shoulder abduction basically bringing

your arm out to the side like in a

lateral raise

and we'll also hit the upper traps

through some degree of scapular

elevation so basically shrugging your

shoulders up and the biceps will also be

involved as they perform elbow flexion

however that elbow flexion range of

motion is pretty small so we're gonna

think about the upright row as a

shoulder and trap exercise but I think

that if we modify the exercise properly

we can make it even more shoulder

dominant since I think you'll be able to

overload the upper traps better through

one of the shrug variations we discussed

in the trap technique Tuesday video so

first things first I want to address the

potential shoulder health concerns with

the upright row since according to one

nsca report 36% of weight training

injuries occur at the shoulder complex

and since the upright row is thought to

have a fairly high risk profile because

of its potential for subacromial

impingement I think it's important to

consider three simple modifications to

avoid pain and prevent injury so

impingement is basically what happens

when the space within the shoulder joint

is constricted causing the bones of the

joint to jam up against the muscles or

tendons of the rotator cuff which can

then lead to inflammation in pain now

one way to cause shoulder impingement is

to raise your arm up above shoulder

height in an internally rotated position

so if you have healthy shoulders you can

try this now so basically you can

internally rotate your shoulders and

then lift your arms up and there'll come

a point where you'll start to feel

tightness in your shoulders which is

probably where the impingement

starts however despite the fact that the

upright road does involve elevating the

shoulder in a more internally rotated

position according to the NSC a report

upright Rose can still be safe and

effective provided proper lifting

precautions are followed so first you

want to keep the bar in close to your

body we're just going to help keep

tension on the lateral deltoid and keep

elevation of the arm more in the

scapular plane second you should think

about pulling through the elbows rather

than with the wrist another way I like

to cue for this is to think about rowing

out and up not just straight up which is

also going to prevent the traps from

taking over by emphasizing shoulder

abduction / scapular elevation in third

since most studies do show impingement

between seventy to a hundred and twenty

degrees of elevation these authors

recommend keeping elevation just below

90 degrees or below shoulder height so

in other words you should end the range

of motion once your arms are parallel to

the floor or you can think about ending

the lift once your elbows reach shoulder

height now with all that said clearly

there are individual differences in

structure and mobility so it doesn't

necessarily mean you're definitely going

to get injured if you don't make these

modifications however I think this is

what's really gonna keep the shoulder

safest for most people and I think

another modification worth making just

for the sake of optimizing muscle

activation is to take a slightly wider

grip 2013 study by McAllister hotel

found that a wide grip led to more EMG

activation of the lateral delt than a

shoulder width grip or a closed grip but

still because everyone's skeleton is

different you're gonna want to figure

out what grip is most comfortable to you

without going too close or too wide with

the sweet spot being usually around 1 to

1.5 times shoulder width for most people

now another thing that I love about the

upright row is that there are so many

effective variations my personal

favorite is the standing rope upright

row since it allows for more freedom at

the shoulder joint than the barbell and

you can use the cue to pull the rope

apart as you initiate the concentric

which is really gonna turn on the side

delts so you want to grip the handles

with a double overhand grip and stand

with a stable stance just behind the

cable I find a staggered foot stance

most stable here so I don't lose my

balance and rather than rolling straight

up I like to lean slightly back and then

pull the rope

up along the front of my torso once you

reach the point where your elbows are in

line with the shoulders or just a

of the shoulders depending on what feels

most comfortable for you and you can

reverse the motion allowing the handles

to move back down in as you lower the

weight down under control another spin

on this is the lying rope upright row on

a seated cable machine and I like this

option as well because it really locks

you in preventing cheatin and shifting

most of the tension onto the delts I

also really like the one-armed dumbbell

upright row or you can focus on

isolating one shoulder at a time with

these I'll brace myself up against the

end of an incline bench with my non

lifting hand leaning slightly forward

and then lift the dumbbell out to the

side so it should feel very similar to

how you'd initiate a dumbbell lateral

raise except you allow your elbow to

bend which is gonna allow you to lift

heavier weights you can also switch up

the resistance curve by using bands

which I'll do as part of my shoulder

warm-up or sometimes I'll add these at

the end of a shoulder workout to really

blast the side delts with higher reps

also because there's very little tension

at the bottom here I'll reverse the

range of motion early keep in constant

tension on the delts so for the most

part I recommend loading the upright row

in a more moderate rep zone something

around eight to twelve reps because it

is a multi joint compound movement you

can load it reasonably heavy however in

my experience when people try to load

the low eight reps or so I can't help

but cheat as their lower back and hips

get involved and it becomes a much

harder to establish a solid mind-muscle

connection with the side delts so as

long as your form doesn't deteriorate

there isn't anything necessarily wrong

with using higher reps as a way to

really burn out the shoulders at the end

of a workout as well so other than just

going too heavy I would say the most

common error that I see on the upright

row is bringing the elbows up too high

even though I don't think this is gonna

put most people with healthy shoulders

in the hospital right away I do think it

is contraindicated based on the

scientific literature it should be

avoided if you want to keep your rotator

cuff safe and healthy over the long term

it's also really common to see people

turn the upright row into some sort of

weird front raise looking movement which

kind of defeats the purpose of the

exercise as this is just gonna shift

emphasis away from the lateral delt and

on to the front delt which is already

getting plenty of work from any overhead

pressing or horizontal pressing in your

program if you want to make sure you

keep the barbell or rope in tight to

your body try to lift in that scapular

plane

lifting the arms out to the sides

similar to how you would in the lateral

raise

so guys that is all that I have on the

upright row I'd recommend watching my

video on the overhead press I really

think that's probably the main bread and

butter compound exercise for developing

overall shoulder strength in my lateral

raise video which is gonna target the

lateral delt but through an isolation

movement I'm sure you're probably going

to want to include both of those in your

routine you can also check out jeff

nipper comm for all my training programs

which always come with a list of

coaching cues for every exercise in the

program and they have a detailed

explanation of the biomechanics involved

that's what my fundamentals hypertrophy

program comes with three separate Eaton

training splits designed for anyone in

their first couple years of lifting and

I'll have a link to that down below if

you'd like to check it out I don't

forget to leave me a like if you enjoyed

the video subscribe to the channel if

you happen to be new and I'll see you

guys all here next Tuesday