Need to Add Serious Shoulder Mass

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

The title says it all really. I think my shoulders, or lack thereof, can be directly attributed to my flat bench idling. I guess it didn’t really hit me until I was looking at pictures of myself and it was sort of a jaw-dropping moment like “…where’d my shoulders go?!”

I was following this about 4-5 months ago: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=461100

I did it for a couple months and I think it may have helped my bench a little.

At this point, I’m not really worried about my bench, but I am definitely concerned with my shoulders. I’ve gotten a lot of disinformation from different people, so I figured I might as well head over to the T forums, cause if anyone knows, it’ll be you guys right?

I’m wondering if I should do like a light shoulder day on one of my off days. I’m going to change up my split next week and I’m trying to get it all set out right now. Do you think it would be OK to have a light and heavy shoulder day in the same week?

Right now on my shoulder day I’m doing something resembling this:
Military press- 1 warmup +3 sets
Side lat raises- 3 sets
Front raises- 3 sets
Bent over or upright rows- 3 sets

And for traps:
Behind the back shrugs-4 sets

For MP I do lower reps, everything else is closer to 8-12 rep range.

I am VERY open to suggestion…and can handle getting flamed.

2

Over the head shrugs are good especially if you have never done them before.

Dumbell seated shoulder press (standard or arnold) are probably one of the best for muscle. I reccomend wide grip upright row (better for shoulders, and more focussed on side delts)

Do shoulders every workout (unless they are so sore it’s unplausible)

3

Hit them heavy once a week. Your shoulders CAN NOT take a multi-day beating and not ask for an injury. Stick to the basics:

Military Presses
Arnold Presses
Bent Over Lateral Raises
Lateral Raises

For traps I just stick with HEAVY DB shrugs.

4

It’s amazing the number of more qualified people than you that disagree.

5

I just started the Shoulders Overhaul program by Thib. I think that might be a good one for you. Like you,i think shoulders are killing my bench. I was naive enough to think just because i have naturally wide shoulders that i didnt need to bother with direct work, other than the occasional military press here and there. This workout so far is a slap to reality. My shoulder endurance is PATHETIC! Hell i had to bring myself down to a friggin 8 lb dumbell by my 3rd set of 15 in lateral raises…and it was pure hell! lol.The high rep weeks when you start out are very tough, there was no way i could hit the RM% guidelines he has for the sets,…so keep that in mind as you might have to go lighter.

6

[quote]Willith wrote:
The title says it all really. I think my shoulders, or lack thereof, can be directly attributed to my flat bench idling. I guess it didn’t really hit me until I was looking at pictures of myself and it was sort of a jaw-dropping moment like “…where’d my shoulders go?!”

I was following this about 4-5 months ago: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=461100

I did it for a couple months and I think it may have helped my bench a little.

At this point, I’m not really worried about my bench, but I am definitely concerned with my shoulders. I’ve gotten a lot of disinformation from different people, so I figured I might as well head over to the T forums, cause if anyone knows, it’ll be you guys right?

I’m wondering if I should do like a light shoulder day on one of my off days. I’m going to change up my split next week and I’m trying to get it all set out right now. Do you think it would be OK to have a light and heavy shoulder day in the same week?

Right now on my shoulder day I’m doing something resembling this:
Military press- 1 warmup +3 sets
Side lat raises- 3 sets
Front raises- 3 sets
Bent over or upright rows- 3 sets

And for traps:
Behind the back shrugs-4 sets

For MP I do lower reps, everything else is closer to 8-12 rep range.

I am VERY open to suggestion…and can handle getting flamed.[/quote]

Hi fella, for me in my first big growth period for delts i used military presses… so thats standing military, seated barbell, push presses, clean and press, seated db presses.
I would choose 2 exercises from the above list and perform upto 3 - 4 sets of each exercise.
Then i would go with 2 - 3 sets of lateral delt work and posterior delt work. (My front delt is not in need of isolative work with all the benching and shoulder pressing i do).
Plus i would train delts 2 - 3 times a week, as long as you balance growth with a equal ratio of vertical pulls and an equal ratio of horiz. pushes and pulls, with the addition of external rotations and rotator cuff stretches… injury should not present :wink:

Go for it, this will work.

7

I am not huge but comparatively have decent shoulder mass, I contribute this to almost exclusively doing OH work for pressing. (due to my sport).

ME Push presses, military press, 1 arm db press/1 arm db push press. etc. Don’t forget the rear delts as well, face pulls, 1 arm db rows, etc.

I also liked something the westside guys do. they do light 3 way shoulder raises, for 15-20 reps a set. no stop between front/side/rear lateral raises. Its more for rehab/prehab but when doing these I think I added some size to my shoulders.

8

You could just throw on 2-3 sets of heavy bradford presses on the end of every workout for 1-3 weeks (however long you can handle it). I did that and it seemed to help a lot, I also threw in a couple extra workouts, after 2 weeks my shoulders felt a little beat up, I backed off the pressing for a week and it was better.

9

At 6’2" and 205, you just need to gain weight. You arent going to have cannonball delts at your current size unless you were at a pre-contest level of leanness, and even then it would be questionable.

10

Check this article out, specifically the section titled “Shoulder Width 911”.

http://www.T-Nation.com/article/bodybuilding/question_of_strength_january_1&cr=

I liked the first tri-set best. With lateral raises, Upright Row with a rope, and seated DB press.

I did it for 4 weeks,1x/week, ate a bunch, and then took a week off before I took the tri-set out and resumed my normal training.

I was doing a body part split at the time with some heavy push presses and then the tri-set.

My shoulders were lacking and that seemed to bring them on par with the rest of my body.

11

[quote]Blongo wrote:
Check this article out, specifically the section titled “Shoulder Width 911”.

http://www.T-Nation.com/article/bodybuilding/question_of_strength_january_1&cr=

I liked the first tri-set best. With lateral raises, Upright Row with a rope, and seated DB press.

I did it for 4 weeks,1x/week, ate a bunch, and then took a week off before I took the tri-set out and resumed my normal training.

I was doing a body part split at the time with some heavy push presses and then the tri-set.

My shoulders were lacking and that seemed to bring them on par with the rest of my body.[/quote]

thats total BS! stop lying

12

[quote]Skull_Crusher wrote:
I just started the Shoulders Overhaul program by Thib. I think that might be a good one for you. Like you,i think shoulders are killing my bench. I was naive enough to think just because i have naturally wide shoulders that i didnt need to bother with direct work, other than the occasional military press here and there. This workout so far is a slap to reality. My shoulder endurance is PATHETIC! Hell i had to bring myself down to a friggin 8 lb dumbell by my 3rd set of 15 in lateral raises…and it was pure hell! lol.The high rep weeks when you start out are very tough, there was no way i could hit the RM% guidelines he has for the sets,…so keep that in mind as you might have to go lighter. [/quote]

Do you have a link to this so I can check it out?

I appreciate all the help I’ve gotten so far. I think I’ve picked up a little something from each of the articles posted on here.

13

[quote]diamonddelts59 wrote:

thats total BS! stop lying

[/quote]

Get a life douschebag

14

[quote]Willith wrote:

Do you have a link to this so I can check it out?

[/quote]

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=469072

there ya go! If that doesnt work for whatever reason just type in “shoulders overhaul” in the search thing and itll be first on the list.

15

jump roping and hitting a punching bag makes them big…

16

I hear giving nazi salutes helps build front delts

17

I’ve built my shoulders mainly with heavy overhead pressing (I favor behind the neck presses) and shrugs.

18

Be careful with the behind the neck press it impinges the shoulder and can put you on the road to many problems; upright rows are the same way.

19

Those who know push press with high intensity. High intensity on Monday, then hit them again with moderate intensity Thurs/Fri. Work the rear delts both days too using cables to keep tension on the muscles the entire range. Bent over cable lateral raises rock…lock your scaps in and force the rear delt to work hard. My shoulders are my hard gainer zone and this works wonders with me. Shrugs are a great trap builder and also help add to delt development.

20

[quote]sumgai wrote:
Those who know push press with high intensity.[/quote]

Those who know? Are you one? Who the fuck are you even talking about?