As you go about your workout routine, it’s important that you take the time to learn what muscles you’re using in each exercise that you execute so that you can be sure that you’re targeting the full body effectively. One such exercise to pay attention to are upright rows, which are often added as part of a shoulder workout in your upper body routine.
By taking the time to assess the muscles that are being utilized, you can also keep this in mind when you’re in the gym later on to ensure that you are thinking about contracting the right muscles and getting the full benefits the exercise has to offer.
Let’s have a look at the most important things to note about upright rows.
The upright rows could easily be labeled a shoulder exercise as that is predominantly what they are. While some other shoulder exercises such as the shoulder press or the incline bench press will target the shoulders as well as other muscle groups, the upright rows are primarily going to hit the shoulders.
While you will get a very small degree of bicep and forearm activation as you execute the movement, it’s nothing compared to how hard the shoulder muscles will be working.
When looking at the shoulder stimulation that you’ll receive, you’re going to really be targeting the front deltoid to the largest extent as well as the lateral deltoid. The rear delt won’t really be targeted when doing upright rows, so you’ll want to be sure to include some reverse fly’s or some other exercise for that muscle group as well.
The upright rows will also work the core muscles as they maintain your balance, but these are not their primary target muscle group.
Similar Exercises To The Upright Row
Some people may find that upright rows do place a very high degree of stress on their shoulders and as such, it can lead to shoulder pain. If you have a past history of shoulder injuries or feel that you are always sore and tight the next day after performing them, this may be one exercise that you do want to void.
Instead, you could choose to look at alternative exercises that can be done instead of upright rows that offer similar benefits.
One of these alternative exercises would be the shoulder press, which works the front and side of the deltoids as well as the triceps, which was mentioned earlier.
In addition to that, you could also substitute in some lateral front and side raises instead of upright rows if you prefer this instead.
So there you have some of the important information that you should know about upright rows. This exercise can be added instead of the shoulder press exercise, or if you’re really doing a hard shoulder work, done in addition to the shoulder press movement.
Just be sure that you do keep an eye on the total workout volume for the shoulders when adding it to ensure you don’t start to overtrain.
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