Exercise Plan - Candle Stick and Shoulder Raises

Michelle Beaumont: Hi! I am Michelle. I am demonstrating a candlestick raise. This is for the front of the shoulder. You want to make sure that you go with appropriate weight because you don t want to over train this muscle. It can easily be injured. You also want to make sure you don t go too heavy or you will lose you form. The front of the shoulder tends to be a little weaker than the rest. You are going to maintain good form by sitting in your core position, whether you are sitting or standing, it doesn t matter. Beginners, you may want to try standing to start.

Your feet are flat, knees are hip distance, feet are hip distance, abs are tight and lifted, shoulders back and down, spine is long, and the neck is nice and upright. As we inhale, you are going to raise the shoulder up through the front of the shoulder, don t let the arms do the work, stay with the shoulder and you will just raise straight up and down. Palms face each other, maintaining good form throughout and try not to rock your middle at all. When you start to rock that s an indication to you that you may want to stop and that you are losing your form and that s it.

I am going to demonstrate variations of shoulder raises that you can do sitting on a bench or even standing. You want to make sure your feet are hip distance apart, knees are soft, if you are standing. If you are seated just keep them bent and sit, shoulders roll back and down. And I am going to show you three variations.

The first one is with your palms open and you are going to keep you elbows in line with your shoulders and just push over the crown of your head straight up and to touch in the middle or you can just take it straight up and down, if you have a bar or using dumbbells, so I am going to go ahead and just tap the dumbbells to make sure, I am extending all the way up. The other variation is to bring the palms in and just push straight up and down. This incorporates the front of the shoulder a little bit too, you will feel that. So, you are getting front and sides of the shoulder and strengthening that muscle and that s it.