shoulder routine Archives

Upper-Body Move for Size or Worthless Exercise?

Q: I like the heavy/light approach you lay out in the Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout 2.0. I also do [Mr. America] Doug Brignole’s Super TORQ for only one exercise per muscle every few workouts. Great change to gain! My question is, when I do TORQ, shouldn’t I use overhead presses for delts? In your TORQ routines and Brignole’s Super TORQ program, the shoulder exercise of choice is one-arm cable laterals. But you have heavy presses in the Power-Density programs, which aggravate my shoulder joint sometimes. Still, shouldn’t I do presses in my TORQ workouts? It’s the best shoulder exercise, right?

A: We have a love-hate relationship with presses—and Brignole’s is mostly hate (as we’ll explain)… [Read more…]

How to Fix Flat Shoulders

Q: I have flat shoulders. I do lots of sets of dumbbell presses, but they aren’t helping. Should I try doing lateral raises first in my shoulder workout?

A: We both have to fight and do everything right to sculpt our delts into round mounds of muscle so we don’t suffer from flat shoulders. One thing we’ve learned is that overhead presses—for us, anyway—tend to put almost all of the stress on our front deltoids, and those front heads don’t add to the roundness you’re after… [Read more…]

Bigger, Rounder Attention-Grabbing Shoulders

Q: Broad shoulders get girls’ attention, but mine are narrow. And on top of that, my delts are flat. Should I do more presses to round them out? I notice in 3D Muscle Building that you have presses as more of a front-delt midrange exercise. Aren’t they good for side delts, too? BTW, I love 4X mass method and am using it almost exclusively.

A: Overhead presses primarily train the front-delt heads. Plus, they can impinge the shoulder capsule if performed incorrectly. That’s why we generally suggest doing them at the end of our delt routine. A good Positions-of-Flexion full-range shoulder hit, 4X style on every move, would be…

[Read more…]

Double-Duty Mass Moves

Q: In Positions-of-Flexion mass training you classify the one-arm cable lateral as a stretch-position exercise for the medial-delt head. But isn’t it really a stretch- and contracted-position exercises? There is resistance all the way through the stroke, so you get resistance at contraction [top] as well as at stretch.

A: You could classify one-arm cable laterals as both stretch and contracted, but it’s more of a stretch-position move because of the angle of pull. [Read more…]

Let’s Get Big

Q: Right now I’m into your idea of using a basic workout to get big, so I’m using The Basic X-traordinary X-Rep Workout [pages 28-30 in that e-book]. I’ve been on it for three weeks, and I already feel bigger. I’m also stronger every time I train. Unreal results for workouts that take an hour. My question is, What can I do or add to that program for my slacker bodyparts? Like my shoulders desperately need extra roundness. Should I just add sets?

A: Simply adding sets to the existing delt workout is one way to go (but there’s another way that we like even better coming up). For example, the delt routine is dumbbell presses, and you pyramid the weight. Your reps should go 9, 7, 5-6, and on the last heaviest set you do X-Rep partials… [Read more…]

Eye-Popping Shoulders: Full-Range Workout

Q: I’m using the full Positions-of-Flexion delt routine [from the 3D Muscle Building e-book], but my shoulders still suck. I do dumbbell upright rows (midrange), incline one-arm laterals (stretch), and standing laterals (contracted). I also do dumbbell presses after that and bent-over laterals [for rear delts]. I do two working sets for each exercise. I’m wondering if I should add more exercises and more sets. Or should I just train harder?

A: It sounds like you’re pretty frustrated, so you’re probably blasting your delts damned hard already. Training harder probably isn’t the solution.

How about increasing volume? A few more sets may produce more mass; however, before you go that route, which can sap recovery ability, we suggest you try some exercise manipulation… [Read more…]