Over the years, the only body part that ever really responded to weightlifting was my back. But, the body part that I most desired was not big arms or massive Pecs, but cannonball delts capping the ends of a door-wide shoulder frame. Being a skinny kid with narrow shoulders, that had to be understandable.
As far as I am concerned, the real strength of the upper body rest in the shoulder area, to include the upper Pecs. I mean, who really cares how much you can bench? After all, short of being stuck underneath a car, how often to does anyone get a chance to bench press anything in real life?
Not so with your shoulders. All real life pushing is up and out. The closest chest movement is an incline press. Think of football players and mechanics of how they block and move. It is incline and standing press movements – okay, not so much standing press.
Man, I love standing military presses. Back when I first loaded up 225lbs and pushed it up in the air for 3 reps (I think it was 3) I was stroked. That was big weight for me and I felt great. I see guys doing 300 plus lbs and I am in awe.
Powerful shoulders demand to be noticed. Whether you wear a polo shirt, a sport jacket, or go shirtless; great set of delts with muscular traps that triangle out from your neck is most impressive.
And so for all the skinny guys out there with narrow shoulders, let us talk about what it takes to cook up a pair of succulent shoulders with some meat to it. First, here is a brief layman’s layout of what constitutes the shoulders. When I talk shoulders, I basically mean the deltoid, of which there are 3 parts, and the trapezius.
The deltoid is a 3-part muscle that caps the ends of your shoulder. The trapezius is a huge, diamond shape sheaf of muscle that inserts at the base of neck to the ends of the shoulder down to the middle of your back.
Now with that out of the way, here are the recipes and tips for shoulders flambé. I generally like push/pull workouts. Over the years I have done all the possible splits out there and I think basically it comes down to keeping it simple. There is a sequential logic to the push/pull split that works for me.
On the other hand, if you are going to prioritize your shoulders, this is the only other split I would recommend. For day one, the body parts worked would be shoulders, back, hams, biceps, and forearms. Day two, the body parts worked would be quads, calves, chest, triceps, and abs.
Workout 1A – Shoulders, back, hams, biceps, and forearms:
- Standing military press
- Seated dumbbell press
- Standing lateral raises
- Dumbbell shrugs
- Wide grip pull downs behind neck
- T-bar row
- Stiff legged dead lifts
- Standing dumbbell curls
- Barbell reverse curls
Workout 1B – Shoulders, back, hams, biceps, and forearms:
- Seated press behind neck
- Wide grip upright row
- Standing lateral raises
- Barbell shrugs
- Wide grip pull downs behind neck
- Bent over row
- Stiff legged dead lifts
- Standing dumbbell curls
- Barbell reverse curls
Alternate the two workouts. As for your other body parts, you could do:
- Squats (Regular, smith or front)
- Lunges (any variety)
- Standing calf raises
- Incline dumbbell presses
- V-bar dips
- Lying triceps presses with ez bar
- Hanging leg raises
Very important – key points:
- Barbell presses are your power movement. Load up the weight and max out at 6 reps.
- For the upright row, use double shoulder width grip and pull with elbows pointing up, bar should go no higher than lower chest line. If you go higher, your elbows are drifting back.
- For lateral raises and scott press, elbows are back and outer bells are higher than inner bells
- Keeping your elbows back and pinkie higher than thumb is critical to focusing the stress on the lateral delts versus the front delts. If your elbows drift forward or thumb side turns higher, you will be able to use more weights but you lose the emphasis on the side delts.
- For sets and repetitions, perform 3 sets of 12, 10, and 8. For pressing movements that start the workouts, perform 4 sets of 15, 12, 10, and 6.
The purpose of this program is to focus on your side delts and build wide shoulders. Although most knowledgeable and respected iron scientist will pooh-pooh the thought of using wide grip pull downs to spread the shoulders out (after all shoulder and skeletal structure is genetically set). I do not care. Man, after pumping up the shoulders – jump right into a great set of wide grip pull downs. Afterwards, you will feel like you are a yard wide.
Are you going to listen to some egg head (with 20 inch arms) who knows what they are talking about, or are you going to listen to me? That is what I thought.
