Analyzing Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman’Äôs training has given us a lot of insight into how to trigger bigger mass gains fast. On almost all of his exercises he overloads the semistretched point, which is down near the turnaround where maximum fiber activation and force can occur. (Keep that key semistretched point in mind, as you’Äôll soon see how it can give you some incredible shoulder mass for attention-grabbing width that’Äôs obvious, even in clothes.)

For example, to isolate and fully activate his side-delt heads’Äîafter heavy dumbbell presses with 160s!’ÄîColeman wedges himself into a Nautilus lateral-raise machine and only does the bottom half of the stroke. That attacks the sweet spot where his arms are next to his torso (the semistretched position). In other words, he uses short bottom partials, as he never gets the handles up to where his arms are parallel to the floor. And at the bottom of each partial he explodes at the max-force turnaround point, when his arms are at his sides, to reverse the movement (remember, that’Äôs the important X Spot).

But if you think about it, regular dumbbell laterals lack resistance down at the bottom. The real overload doesn’Äôt occur until your arms are about a third of the way up through the arc, arms away from your torso. And here’Äôs the real kicker: If you use a weight that you can drive all the way to the top, weakest position’Äîwhere your arms are parallel to the ground’Äîthe poundage will be way too light to do much overloading down in the strongest position.

Can you just do heavy partial laterals with dumbbells, only raising your arms about halfway through the bottom of the arc of your lateral raises? Well, you will get more overload near the semistretched point, but it’Äôs not nearly as effective as a machine that forces your arms against your torso so there’Äôs significant resistance at that turnaround point.

Due to the nature of dumbbell laterals and its arc of movement, when your arms are hanging straight down, gravity pulls the weight toward the ground, putting more stress on your traps not your delts. If only you could get the resistance to pull to the side instead of down, you’Äôd have better turnaround overload on your delts (and wickedly wide shoulders!).

Did the light bulb go off in your head? How about cable laterals? One-arm cable laterals are a better solution than standing laterals for overloading the X Spot because the cable pulls your hand and arm across your torso rather than straight down like a dumbbell; however, torso twisting and leg thrusting can make the exercise less delt specific and more of a trap builder. Once again, if you use enough weight to blast the strongest low position, you won’Äôt be able to move your arm very far without some heaving’Äîbut it’Äôs still a decent delt exercise. There is a better one, however.

We call it the incline one-arm lateral raise. You sit sideways on a 45-to-55-degree incline bench, leaning your nonworking side against it. Now your torso is at an angle. With a dumbbell in the hand of your outside arm, move the dumbbell down in front of your body till it’Äôs just lower than your waist. Don’Äôt allow your arm to move all the way down till it’Äôs perpendicular with the floor; that will take tension off your delt. Reverse the movement right when the dumbbell is even with your hip area that’Äôs against the bench. Then raise it till your arm is just about parallel to the floor. A slight bend at your elbow is acceptable.

Illustration: Incline one-arm laterals from The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book.

The e-books on this site were written to help you get closer to your physical potential with sensible bodybuilding strategies. Weight training is a demanding activity, however, so it is highly recommended that you consult your physician and have a physical examination prior to beginning a weight-training program. Any comments provided are for general information purposes only and do not represent medical advice. Proceed with the suggested diets, exercises and routines at your own risk.

Results using the programs and diets in these e-books vary from individual to individual. Testimonial endorsers’ results using it may be considered atypical.

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