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Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 286: Don Howorth’s Legendary Delts

Don Howorth posing at Vince's Gym

When you meet your cellmate your first day of prison and he says, “We’re going to have so much fun,” do not believe him.

Don Howorth posing at Vince's Gym

That’s actually Don Howorth, a Vince Gironda disciple and 1967 Mr. America. The photo was taken under the skylight at Vince’s Gym and had the bodybuilding world buzzing about his incredible shoulders. (Steve Downs photo)

One of Gironda’s and Howorth’s favorite cannonball delt moves was wide-grip upright rows. Vince often had trainees use a Smith machine, but dumbbells can be less restrictive…

Always stop the upward movement when your elbows are on the same plane as your shoulders to avoid joint injury.

Vince was a legendary Hollywood trainer who berated, er um, convinced us to move to Density Training—short rests between sets with moderate poundages.

He emphasized sculpting the physique rather than hammering it into submission. Here’s how Vince looked in his late 50s…

Vince Gironda at almost 60 years old

Now that we’re past middle age, we’re glad we latched onto his advice before the hammer—and possibly scalpel—came down on our joints.

Remember, you don’t have to use joint-crushing poundages to build massive muscles. And you should be able to train hard as you age without debilitating aches, pains, and/or surgery.

Use Density Training, like moderate-poundage STX, and emphasize the ideal exercises, the safest, most effective mass moves. For more, see the ebooks below.

Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.

Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
X-Rep.com
 

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Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: bodybuilding zen, round delts, shoulders, vince gironda, vince's gym, wide delts, wide shoulders

Forgotten Delt-Trap Mass Builder

Trainee demonstrating dumbbell lateral shrugs

After the newsletters on direct-indirect work for each muscle, my first training partner from way back in high school emailed me about lateral shrugs… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: delt exercises, delts, shoulder exercises, shoulders, traps

Arnold’s Shredded Shoulders

Arnold doing seated one-arm cable laterals - colorized photo

Q: You mentioned that Arnold liked a seated cable lateral. Did he do them sitting on the floor? Why not just do them standing?

A: He actually did them sitting on a low stool. He could probably tell by feel that the low position put him at a better height for an ideal resistance curve than doing them standing when the pulley is set near the floor… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: delt exercises, delt workout, delts, ideal shoulder exercise, shoulder exercises, shoulder workout, shoulders, wide shoulders

New Shoulder-Size Details

Delt fibers in the stretch position

Q: The before and after photos showing your new shoulder roundness were impressive. You did not mention sets. Did you do a lot more volume to get those gains?

A: I did not do more sets for shoulders; it was the key details that made the big difference (more on those in a moment). Here are my photos again for those who may have missed that newsletter… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: delts, shoulder exercises, shoulder size, shoulders

Unique Shoulder-Size Exercise

Start, middle, and finish positions of two-arm cable delt pulls

Yesterday I discussed the one-arm cable delt pull, a hybrid front raise-lateral raise with a low cable.

I’m experimenting with it as an add-on move after the ideal medial-head exercise, striving for new shoulder roundness and fullness.

It puts the medial head in the high contracted position similar to [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: best shoulder exercise, delt exercises, delt workout, delts, ideal shoulder exercise, shoulder exercises, shoulder workout, shoulders, wide shoulders

Older, Boulder Shoulders

Start and finish positions of cable delt pulls

Yesterday I discussed how, after using only the incline one-arm lateral and one-arm cable lateral for a while, the ideal medial-delt-head exercises, my shoulders had decent detail but remained somewhat flat.

I needed more roundness, a “cap” on my shoulders… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: delt exercises, delt workout, delts, round delts, round shoulders, shoulder exercises, shoulder workout, shoulders, wide shoulders

Standing Laterals Blow for Delt Growth (Arnold pics)

Rounder delts can make you look wider and your waist look narrower. That’s two aesthetic reasons to get shoulder training right, especially the side head that’s most responsible for those two effects. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: aesthetics, delt exercises, ideal shoulder exercise, resistance curve, shoulder exercises, shoulders, Steven J. Fleck Ph.D, William J. Kraemer Ph.D

One-Sided Training for Shoulder Mass?

Steve Holman doing incline one-arm laterals with muscle-curve diagram

My daughter and her future husband were over for dinner, and after talking about our dogs, they veered into my favorite subject: training. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: delt exercises, delt workout, ideal shoulder exercise, shoulder exercises, shoulder workout, shoulders, wide shoulders

Specialize for Size with Power-Density

Jonathan doing dumbbell presses with Steve spotting

Q: I’m making my best gains ever with the Power-Density Mass Workout. I’m already up six pounds in four weeks, and I see new muscle somewhere every workout, training just about 40 minutes a session. I have a question about my lagging bodypart, shoulders. Can I add sets to the listed workout, or how should I force my shoulders to grow like my other bodyparts?

A: Most of the bodypart routines in the Basic Power-Density Mass Workout consist of only one Ultimate Exercise per muscle group. That makes for quick, simple workouts: First you pyramid the weight over three sets for max force, or Power; then you reduce the weight and attack tension, or Density with a 10×10-style sequence, but using only four sets… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: capillary bed expansion, density, endurance, fast-twitch fibers, lagging muscle, muscular force, Power, power pyramids, power-density, pre-ex, pre-exhaustion, shoulder specialization, shoulders, specialization, specialize, ultimate exercise, vascularity

Behind-the-Neck Shoulder Safety

Behind-the-neck presses

Q: I’ve seen you guys recommend behind-the-neck pulldowns before in your newsletter as long as lighter weight and a specific range of motion is used, but you never seem to mention behind-the-neck presses. Is the behind-the-neck press not a good shoulder exercise?

A: First understand that any type of behind-the-neck move—pulldown or press—can overstress the shoulder capsule. It’s not a natural position; however, the behind-the-neck position can provide a unique angle of pull on the target fibers for new development… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: behind-the-neck presses, behind-the-neck pulldowns, bullet-proof shoulders, negative-accentuated, no more shoulder pain, rick kaselj, shoulder capsule, shoulder exercises, shoulder pain, shoulder presses, shoulder size, shoulders, slow negatives, x-centric, x-centric mass workout, x-centric method

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