Not true. There's a big thread somewhere on Pendlay's forum about a guy that went to China to train with the Olympic lifters. They swear by leg extensions for knee health and also do a lot of 'bodybuilder' work after training their main lifts. Below is gold medalist Lu Xiaojun hitting some laterals for example:
And on topic...
I had to go to physical therapy in the last couple years to figure out a scapular instability issue. I worked with a few PT's that regularly work with MLB players to remedy their shoulder problems, and the first thing they had me do was a lot of front/side/rear raises. It was just one piece of my overall program that rehabbed my shoulder, but I definitely notice a difference not doing them at least in a warmup before pressing work. My shoulder feels normal the first time in 7+ years doing this.
And on a broscience note, my front delts 'pop' more when including front raises. Most would roll their eyes at this but I notice a difference. Yates swore by front raises and said you simply can't get full development out of the delts by just relying on presses. I never agreed with this and thought it made zero sense on paper until I tried it myself.
That's a great post, that's kind of what I was wondering about front raises as far as shoulder health movement.
On the topic of oly lifters, obviously not everyone is going to train exactly the same. I am going of off what someone who was on the Soviet Union national weightlifting team experienced in his training. Supposedly the Bulgarians used a similar approach to isolation work from what he told me.
