Upright Rows.

Mr mac

TM Health & Safety officer
Top Contributor
I’m bringing back into my current split the wide grip upright row. Anyone else still use this shoulder wrecking beauty. Sets of 13-15 I’ve found in the past do an awesome job of hitting delt and trap in one
 
I prefer lighter weight and strict isolation with dumbells and a full ROM for delts/traps these days.
None of that big heavy lifting with barbells and sloppy form....fook that off.
Still do PBN and standard front press with a bar though.....but not too heavy.
 
Yeah wide grip for delts, a light bar as a finisher, strict as fvck.
 
As above
Wider grip, lighter weight
Nice on a cable to keep constant tension
Keeping the bar out away from the torso seems to hit differently
 
Proper old school, wide grip for side delts narrow grip for traps I’ve found the best way to do them is on a smith machine
 
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I find I get tennis elbow doing them. Haven’t done em in years.


That's why I ditched them too.

70% of the movement is all biceps brachialis/forearms/tricep brachii and it doesn't really target the traps /delts unless you get to the top of the movement and reach full contraction.

Causes a lot of RC damage too if you try and go heavy with sloppy form.
 
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That's why I ditched them too.

70% of the movement is all biceps brachialis/forearms/tricep brachii and it doesn't really target the traps /delts unless you get to the top of the movement and reach full contraction.

Causes a lot of RC damage too if you try and go heavy with sloppy form.
Thats why you'll notice guys using a wider grip and going lighter
With a narrow grip the elbow joint us heavily involved which is obviously responsible for the arm muscles
Wider grip massively reduces that and puts more emphasis on the shoulder and forces you to go lighter
 
That's why I ditched them too.

70% of the movement is all biceps brachialis/forearms/tricep brachii and it doesn't really target the traps /delts unless you get to the top of the movement and reach full contraction.

Causes a lot of RC damage too if you try and go heavy with sloppy form.
As pooley answered below or use neutral grip cable variation. Problems seem to start once you past chest height I think
 
Problems seem to start once you past chest height I think

That's absolutely correct buddy....but that's also the point where you're really fully engaging the traps/delts (above chest height) so I'll just stick with my trusty dumbells and a full ROM :thumb:

Upright rows are such an awkward and unnatural movement.
 
That's absolutely correct buddy....but that's also the point where you're really fully engaging the traps/delts (above chest height) so I'll just stick with my trusty dumbells and a full ROM :thumb:

Upright rows are such an awkward and unnatural movement.
If you use a wide grip which are more delts you can´t really go past chest height, close grip sure. makes no sense to go too high which involves traps. unless you want some traps but safer exercises like shrugs. shrugs front or back with a barbell/Dbs will fry traps.
 
If you use a wide grip which are more delts you can´t really go past chest height, close grip sure. makes no sense to go too high which involves traps. unless you want some traps but safer exercises like shrugs. shrugs front or back with a barbell/Dbs will fry traps.

I'm sat here now testing the movement with no weights and a wide grip just to get a sense of the muscle involvement and I can feel a lot of delt/trap engagement for sure....but switching to a wide grip really just turns this movement into more a partial shrug than an actual upright row.

To be a full ROM upright row.....the bar needs to be touching your chin on each rep IMO....but that's the point where the RC also gets damaged.
 
If you use a wide grip which are more delts you can´t really go past chest height, close grip sure. makes no sense to go too high which involves traps. unless you want some traps but safer exercises like shrugs. shrugs front or back with a barbell/Dbs will fry traps.
This is spot on
 
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