Weighted Shoulder Stretches
Slabs of muscle ahead!

Weighted shoulder stretches will always be done immediately after your shoulder exercise on the WLC program. Whether you're on Beginner WLC, Intermediate WLC, Advanced WLC, or Abbreviated WLC, you will always do your weighted stretches. Here at WLC, we don't think of stretching as an after thought. We think of stretching as one of the most important aspects of this weight lifting program.

Once you start weighted stretching, you'll never stop. You'll see the results you get and you'll be addicted for life. It's a good addiction, though. We focus on living a healthy lifestyle here at WLC. We provide you with instruction on weight lifting, stretching with weights, diets, and cardio for a balanced program. So, let's see how these stretches are done for your shoulders!

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Stretches are pretty hard to find for your shoulders. Especially a stretch that really helps you target the shoulder area without involving too much of the other muscles in your body. I've been using one stretch that I especially like. But I continue to attempt to find new ones each and every week.

There's nothing more impressive than a wide set of shoulders and this stretch will help your shoulders explode with growth. Wide shoulders help your waist to look smaller and that's always a good thing. Who doesn't want a smaller waist?

The stretch that I like the most involves the use of a smith machine, but you could easily use a stable barbell set at the correct position in your power rack. I like to set the smith machine bar at shoulder height. I am facing away from the bar to start the stretch. I grab the bar one arm at a time with an underhand grip. My palms are facing the ceiling and not the floor. I space my arms at about shoulder width.

I then step forward until I get a very good stretch in my shoulders. Play around with the position until you get it right. The position will most likely be slightly different for each and every person. Walk forward, walk backwards, move your upper torso, try everything until you find that sweet spot.

Time your stretches and try to improve the stretch on your shoulders each and every workout. You'll be looking in the mirror in a few months and wondering why you didn't start stretching your shoulders sooner! I've even included a rear deltiod stretch to help those rear shoulder muscles.

This should be the only stretch you need for now. You'll only need a barbell or some kind of stationary bar to perform this stretch. You need to get an underhand grip or a grip with your hands facing the ceiling. You'll be able to feel a good stretch in your shoulder regions.

Play around with your hand spacing to get the most comfortable position or the optimal position for the stretch. I want you to experiment with moving your feet forward during the stretch. You can really find the sweet spot by moving around. Once you find that sweet spot, hold it there for the duration of your stretch. DOn't give up before you reach the time limit. The pump you have in your shoulders will sometimes make this a tough stretch to hold. Just do it, though. You'll be rewarded later!

I wanted to include this stretch for a few different reasons. First, I wanted to give those people who need rear deltoid development a good stretch to progress with. Second, I wanted to show you what creativity will do for you when it comes to finding good stretch positions. I've used the cable pulley system on my power rack to develop this stretch.

I simply grab the handles one at a time with the opposite hand. You can see the position much better in the image below. I like to change hand position from workout to workout so that the opposite hand is alternated from top to bottom from workout to workout. You will be able to add weight thru the use of the cable pulley system. This is a great shoulder stretch that you'll learn to love. Give it a try. Always be careful and start out light when stretching.

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