The Upright Row exercise is both excellent and terrible for your shoulders at the same time.
It's excellent at targeting the actual "meat" of the deltoid muscles but terrible for the shoulder joint in terms of action and positioning.
Some people can use Upright Rows for years on end and never have an issue. Some people (like myself) can't even do a single rep due to shoulder joint structure.
What I've come up with here is a way to get most of the benefits of the Upright Row without the problems for the shoulder joint.
This is done by using a dumbbell instead of a barbell and holding it in a very particular way so that you change the action at the shoulder joint, minimizing stress in the joint.
I'm using a 100 lb dumbbell in the demo here. You'll want to start lighter to gauge how the exercise feels on your shoulder joints first, but I definitely DO recommend you move up in weight once you establish that it's not a painful movement for you (I'll tell you why, after I show you the exercise...it'll make more sense then).
How to Do Underhand Dumbbell Upright Rows
Hold the dumbbell with an underhand grip, under the ends of the "bells." Lean slightly forward.
The underhand grip takes a good portion of the internal rotation out of the shoulder joint (which is the problematic part of the Upright Row and what leads to tendon impingement and pain).
Now row the dumbbell directly up, keeping it close in to your body while the elbows come up and out to the sides.
As you can see, this is very similar to the pattern of a normal Upright Row.
Bring the dumbbell up as high as you can and hold briefly. This height will be around lower chest level. The range of motion is necessarily shorter than a regular upright row, which helps to keep joint stress down. The underhand positioning will stop the range of motion before you can get into a range where the joints get compromised.
Lower under control and repeat.
I will tell you right up front, it's not the same as a regular Upright Row. It's similar but you won't get the same degree of delt muscle activation from it.
That being said, it's a variation you might be able to actually DO without messing up your shoulders while reaping much of the benefits of the upright row movement pattern, which to me is a big positive.
In terms of loading, here's why you actually want to move up in weight as much as you can while keeping good form...
The movement includes a LOT of biceps...like mostly biceps, to be honest. It's almost like an upright bicep row because of that.
And when you're using lighter weight, the biceps will dominate the movement.
You need to use a weight that's heavy enough that the biceps can't do it on their own and your body HAS to bring in the delts to assist. That's the sweet spot of weight, form and activation. For me, it was the 100 lb dumbbell that gave me the best shoulder activation.
And yes, your biceps will get a GREAT workout as well, so you're getting twice the fun with this one.
If you've been wanting to make use of the Upright Row to hit your delts from a different angle, this is one you'll want to try. I also recommend using it as a pre-exhaust exercise, doing a set of light lateral raises right before going into these rows. Your biceps will help push the lateral delts even harder.
An excellent exercise for targeting the lateral delts is the Barbell Lateral Raise.
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