Starting Off

I start every shoulder workout with some kind of lateral raise to both warm up the shoulders and to pre-exhaust the middle deltoids. You can never have wide enough shoulders, the wider your shoulders the smaller you waist looks. Giving you that great V-Taper that all bodybuilders strive for. I opt for seated dumbbell side raises to start my workout. I will perform 4 sets of 12 reps and at this point I am using 45 lb dumbbells.

I like to do them seated because it cuts down on the cheating/body English that most trainers do when performing laterals. I execute the side laterals a little differently than most. I like Jay Cutlers form with this exercise, it looks like a mix between an upright and a lateral than just a dumbbell side lateral. When teaching someone this exercise I always tell them to lift from you elbows not your hands and you will feel it a lot more in the middle deltoids.

Phase 2

The next exercise should be in everyone's routine. Standing full range of motion military presses. This is the mass monster of all shoulder exercises and as you can see, I emphasized FULL RANGE OF MOTION. None of this to your nose or chin bologna. All reps should come down to your upper chest and finish close to lockout. I don’t care if you can only do the bar. Doing these in a full range of motion will do wonders for your all heads of the shoulders.

When performing these I always use a weight belt just to keep my core tight and not to put too much strain on my lower back. I like to do 5 sets of 6-8 reps and as of now I am using 135 lbs. But I was not always using that much weight, when I started doing the full range of motion reps I could only do 95 lbs for the 6-8 reps. I attribute a lot of my recent shoulder improvements to this exercise.

The 101 On The Workout

I like to use heavy and moderate weight in my workouts, 90% of the time I will start my workout with heavy/lower rep work then move on to moderate/higher rep work. My shoulder workout is no different. Now that I have finished my heavy lower rep work I am moving on to some higher rep super set to pump up the deltoids in all three head (front, middle, rear). My next superset (Superset is defined as NO REST between each exercise), which I will do 3 sets of, incorporates three exercises, one for each part of the deltoid. I will start with wide grip barbell rows.

When performing a normal upright barbell row with a close grip a lot of the emphasis go to the traps but when you widen the grip your middle deltoids take over the exercise and it is another great middle deltoid exercise. I will do 12 reps and use anywhere from 115-135 pound. Without any rest I head straight for the dumbbell rack and pick up a pair of 50s and start right into my second exercise which is seated dumbbell presses. As with the military press I make sure that I get a full range of motions. All the way down to my shoulder and to near lockout.

Once I have finished my 10-12 reps (Usually can get 12 in the first superset but on the next 2 I usually fail at 10 or 11) I lower the angle of the bench I was sitting on to 45 degrees and use the same 50 lb. dumbbells to perform incline bent over dumbbell rows. The bent over rows are a great way to bring out the rear deltoids. After I am done with all 12 reps of the bent over rows I rest for 30-45 sec and do it again, three sets in all. Below you will see the workout broken down into a simple routine anyone can use!

Lateral Raises

• 4 Sets
• 12 Reps Per Set

Military Press

• 5 Sets
• 6-8 Reps Per Set

The Supersets


Wide Grip Barbell Rows

• 12 Reps
• 3 Supersets

Seated Dumbbell Press

• 12 Reps
• 3 Supersets

Bent-Over Rows

• 12 Reps
• 3 Supersets

The Finish Line

That is it for the shoulders. Since I have started on this program I have seen incredible improves in all areas of my deltoids. As you can see I focus a lot of work on exercises that work mainly the Front (Military/DB Presses) and Middle (Laterals/Wide Grip Upright Rows) because I am looking to bring up those areas. One thing I do want to point out to you is when you are reading this count how many times I use machines or cables in this routine. NONE. When you need to bring up an area, nothing will replace good old fashion iron. Pick up the free weights and go to work. That is what I have been doing and it has worked BIG TIME.

That is it for day one of my training split. A lot of hard work but that is what it takes to make those improvements. In my next article I will give you some secrets on how I built my monster back and how I am still not satisfied with my best body part.

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