Health · Fitness & Nutrition · 2 hrs ago
Surgeon warns six common mistakes can strain shoulders during gym workouts
Orthopaedic surgeon Naman Wahal outlined six common shoulder-training mistakes that can place too much strain on the joint.
The advice applies to people doing gym exercises such as overhead presses, lateral raises and chest workouts.
Mistakes include poor form, excessive weight and skipping shoulder-specific warm-ups, as well as neglecting supporting muscles and overlooking neck pain.
Using a swing, shrug or twist to finish a repetition can mean the weight is too heavy to lift with control.
Shoulder rest means considering every exercise that loads the joint, including push-ups, planks, and chest and back workouts.
Mild soreness can be normal, but pain that returns with the same movement or comes with new weakness should not be ignored.
Stop the exercise that triggers pain and get lingering pain checked, Wahal advises.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Naman Wahal warned that six common gym mistakes can strain the shoulders.
The mistakes include neglecting supporting muscles, letting elbows move too far back and using poor posture to lift heavier weights.
He also advised adapting exercises when a shoulder is irritated and including shoulder-specific warm-ups.
Wahal said shoulder rest means accounting for all exercises that load the joint, not just shoulder presses.
He advised stopping movements that trigger pain and getting lingering pain checked.
- Who
- Dr Naman Wahal, senior consultant and unit head of orthopaedics at Fortis Escorts.
- What
- He identified six common workout mistakes that can strain shoulders and offered advice on managing shoulder load.
- When
- 2026-10-14.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- Poor form, excessive weight and pushing through pain can stress the shoulders.
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- Common mistakes
- Six
- Expert
- Dr Naman Wahal
- Workplace
- Fortis Escorts, New Delhi
- Experience
- More than 13 years of clinical experience
- Published
- 2026-10-14
What people are saying
Orthopaedic clinics are noticing something too: more shoulder complaints, and increasingly from people in their twenties and thirties, not the older patients you'd normally expect. A lot of it comes down to how people are actually training.
Resting the joint properly means looking at everything putting load on it, not just the one exercise that seems most obvious.
If there's one rule that covers most of this, it's simple enough: the moment finishing a rep needs a swing, a neck shrug, or some twist in posture to force it through, that set was already over a rep or two earlier.