3 movement exercises that emphasize and develop the shoulders. Great for strength, size and mobility!
Conventional exercises are great but you need to have variety. There is no single exercise variation that will target everything, rather you need many different variations of a single exercise to create the best results.
The problem with conventional exercises is that it's very easy to fall into limited and mechanical structures. In reality, you should try all the different angles and positions to fully train the body.
This can be done with the conventional exercises, but more often than not people pick 1 push up and 1 pull up variation they do and stick to them for years (in the beginning I also fell into this trap!).
This doesn't only put limits to your progress but can also create imbalances in the long run.
3 crawl patterns from the 12 hardest animal movements.
Conventional exercises done with plenty of variety will work, but movement exercises are also fantastic if you are looking for a more dynamic and versatile approach.
Movement training is time saving and very effective to make sure the body stays balanced and well-rounded. Most movements are far from one-dimensional and will work the body as a whole.
Movement training will naturally fix weak links of the body thanks to the multi-dimensional and dynamic nature of the movements. Mobility drills are recommended to target stubborn body parts but movement training is still a step in the right direction.
These movement exercises here will emphasize shoulders, but train the body as a whole. Your core and hips are developed as a side product and this is a very nice bonus.
These movement patterns are also far from one-dimensional and you will automatically be working the muscles from many different positions and angles!
You can do these exercises as a part of your upper body workout or full body workout.
Pike Push Walk
Pike push walk is a moving uneven pike push up sequence. Keep your hands relatively wide to target the lateral deltoids.
How upright you keep your body will determine how well you will work the lateral and anterior shoulders. Lateral deltoids are worked the most, but your chest, triceps and anterior deltoids are also engaged.
When you do the pike push walk more horizontally, you will still train the deltoids but your chest muscles will play a much more dominant role.
Pike push walk is also a good movement to improve your pike flexibility. Your pike flexibility will affect how vertically you can press with every step.
In the beginning the angle can be rather wide, but work hard to improve your pike flexibility so you can do the movement more upright.
Lizard Crawl
Lizard crawl is one of the hardest movement exercises you can do but the effects are also outstanding.
One of the goals of Movement 20XX program is to master the lizard crawl, there are are 10 progressions and 10 mobility drills from easy to difficult just for this purpose.
Crawl movement patterns like the lizard crawl offer many unique benefits to the conventional pressing exercises because you need to be in constant movement.
This dynamic element requires higher levels of central nervous system activity, coordination and mobility in the entire body.
Many of the pressing muscles are worked in many different positions and muscle lengths, and you will also heavily train the core and hip musculature. All heads of the shoulders are worked, but the anterior deltoid is developed the most.
In conclusion, you will improve the strength, size and mobility of your shoulders, chest, triceps and also the core and hips.
Wavy Lizard Crawl
Wavy lizard crawl: judo push up and lizard crawl combined into one. Excellent for mobility!
The wave-like movement of your body will nicely improve the strength and mobility of your spine from the lumbar and thoracic regions to the cervical spine.
Your shoulders will also get plenty of work done because you are diving in and then raising up. This will work both the anterior and lateral deltoids.
Similar to the lizard crawl, your core and hip mobility should also improve rapidly.
Before trying the wavy lizard crawl, you should first master the pike push up, judo push up and preferably also the low lizard crawl.
