Why Are My Shoulders So Weak?
This is from last night’s workout. I have really been struggling with my shoulders for a while. They seem to either stay the same or get weaker.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 50 RP: 7+3+2 (for 12 total)
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 45: 8, 7
Supinating DB Curl: 40 RP: 8+4+3 (for 15 total)
Supinating DB Curl: 35: 8
Pinwheel Curl: 25: 20 per side
EZ-Bar Preacher Curl: 75: 10, 8
Dumbbell Preacher: 25: 11+4 per side
Last time I did DB shoulder presses, I got 16. This time, I only got 12! I don’t know what’s causing this weakness, and I don’t want to make excuses, but I wonder if it’s because of that pain I’ve been having in my left rotator cuff. Is there any injury preventing me from using all my strength? Whatever it is, it’s frustrating. Another theory is I have just been pushing it really hard for so long that my central nervous system might be overtaxed. It’s possible I just need to take some time off to properly recover. Anyway, after the rest-pause set with the 50’s, I rested 2 minutes and did a set with the 45’s for a couple regular sets of 8 and 7 (better than my 6 from last time.)
After trying out the seated military press on the Smith machine last time, and finding it really uncomfortable, I went back to the standing barbell press last night. I had a good rest first, then loaded it up to 95 lb. I was only able to get 6 reps, which was pretty hard to swallow. I didn’t even bother trying for a second set; it seemed pointless.
Onto biceps, I’m continuing to see small but steady gains. With supinating curls, I hit 15 reps on my rest-pause set again, and was really happy to get 8 with good form in the first part of that. Then after resting 2 minutes and grabbing the 35 pounders, I scored another 8 reps. This had me feeling really good after my poor shoulder performance.
Next I went for some forearm work with pinwheel curls. I wanted high reps with good form, so I only used the 25’s getting 20 reps on each arm.
Back to biceps on the preacher bench. Sticking with 75 lb, I got a set of 10 followed by a set of 8 (1 more rep than last time.) I then grabbed a 25 lb dumbbell for some single arm preacher curls, and did 11 reps on each arm (3 more than last time) followed by another 4 on each arm without resting. I finished up my biceps work by getting in a good 60 second extreme stretch.
Before heading home, I had an urge to get in a small amount of core/ab work. Just for fun, I tried a dragon flag. That’s right, just 1 
They are still really hard for me. I had to bounce a bit to get up the first couple inches, but from there it was slow, controlled, and straight all the way up and even slower on the way down. Next time I do these, I think I won’t go as slow and will try for a few reps. I followed up the dragon flag with a set of 20 vertical leg-hip raises and called it a day.