Post Your Shoulder Routine

Just wondering what all yours shoulder routines look like.
Mine is
A1. Cable Y Raise: 2x8-10
A2. Cable Lateral Raise: 2x8-10
B. Dumbbell Y Raise: 2x12-15
C. Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 2x10-12
D1. Rear Delt Fly: 2x20
D2. Rear Delt Swings: 2x20
E. Dumbbell Press: 2x10-12
F. Incline Front Raise: 2x12-15

If you guys have any input on this routine, i’ve gotten some good advice from @EyeDentist before so a response would be greatly appreciated.

And if you guys don’t mind sharing your routines, that would also be very much appreciated.

Happy holidays to all!

Main work: 5/3/1 to a PR set at the top with an axle. Then do a first set last set for a PR set with a log. All sets supersetted with weighted chins, working up to a topset of 5, 3 or 1 rep depending on the week (chins done before the press).

Supplemental/Assistance work: 6 rounds of the following giant set: (odd sets) Strict press for sets of 10, bodyewight dips to failure, DB lateral raise sets 10-15, band pull aparts for sets of 15, (even sets) behind the neck press for sets of 10, bodyweight dips to failure, DB lateral raise sets of 10-15, band pull aparts for sets of 15

Finisher: Weighted dip stripset w/25s loaded on a loading pin (start with 5 25s, go to failure, then 4 25s, 3 25s, 2 25s, 1 25, bodyweight, no rest between sets)

Conditioning: “Strongman Fran”, using a 100lb log, push presses and strict chins. 21 reps, then 15, then 9

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Not a program, but if you are cautious at first and want to try something fun I recently discovered doing push-press with a cambered squat bar can be refreshing over dumbbell raises and strict Press routines.

The dip and drive gets the weight swinging…so saying it a second time…be cautious.

What does this work? Beats me but it is fun!

I tried to do a viper with my football bar at 75lbs after the main/supplemental/poundstones curls on this workout and I didn’t make it past my forehead haha.

OP, I do a similar version of this workout that I co-opted from Pwn. The guts are all the same with some minor detail changes. I’d also highly recommend it if you have the space to make it work. When it’s time to clean up my gym at the end I’m having trouble lifting the 25lb football bar and 30lb axle onto their storage hooks (about shoulder to forehead height).

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Not a routine here either, but on the bbing side i like starting with rear delts and maybe a little side delts before getting into bigger movements like ohp (i saw this idea on regan grimes youtube channel). I also find that for me front raises are kinda pointless but i will do them on occasion for a change. On the strength side of things, i like to work up in weight, and do a 3x3-5 type thing. After that i will add a little more weight and do a couple sets of push presses. I like face pulls, band pullaparts and side laterals as assistance with this kinda thing.

  • DB lateral raises
  • Overhead press (currently on a Lever Edge machine)
  • Wide-grip upright row
  • Seated Bent-over lateral raises (or reverse pec-dec)

Thanks for the shout-out, OP. I’ll throw my routine into the ring.

Important background info first:
+My current goal vis a vis shoulders is size/width. I don’t give a damn about strength.

+My current routine is tailored to my split, which was devised with two things in mind: 1) To work everything once every 4 days (is the best frequency for me), and 2) to give my biceps and triceps tendons as much time off as possible. (I’m 58, but my tendons are pushing 80.)

The split:
Day 1: Push (triceps) day: Rear and Front delts (also Chest, Tris)
Day 2: Conditioning; Legs; Abs
Day 3: Pull (biceps) day: Medial (or lateral :rofl:) delts (also Back, Bis)
Day 4: Abs

As an aside, I also get 10K steps/day.

Push day starts with rear delts. Why? Because it’s the most important muscle of the day. (Why would you work anything but the most-important muscle first?) Just one set of one exercise–band rear-delt raises. Fix a band at about knee height, take a step or two back, then start pulling the elbows back (and out) without overly involving the scapulae. Basically, I put the rear delts under tension and don’t let up until the set is over. I will adjust the amount of tension based on pain level, and will randomly switch between isoholds and short flexions for the same reason. At no point during the set will the muscle significantly lengthen, ie, I keep them in or near the maximally contracted state the entire time. How long is the set? It’s one-song long, chosen more or less at random–I admit I intentionally skip over epics like, say, Stairway to Heaven on my playlist. (A >9 minute TUT set? No thanks. I’ll leave existential-crisis inducers like that to @T3hPwnisher.) When the set is over, my rear delts are so pumped, I swear they glow.

Next I move on to seated DB presses for front delts. I do 3 sets based on Paul Carter’s 350 concept. I force myself to do them in a slow and deliberate fashion, with a short pause at the bottom and the top–doing so makes the movement more difficult, which in turn makes me use lighter weights, which in turn saves wear-and-tear on my hinky shoulders.

Chest pressing is next, the incline portions of which involve a fair amount of front delt. Likewise, my first triceps exercise (occluded band kickbacks) looks an awful lot like the rear-delt work I do, so it’s probably fair to say they get another bite of the apple as well.

Pull day starts with medial delts–again, I work the most important muscle first. Similar to what I do for rears, the first exercise is a one-song set of TUT lateral raises–5# per hand; hands never come down. It’s unpleasant. Next are strict lateral raises done in 350 style, but modified thusly: The goal is 100 reps (not 50), the number of sets is 5 (not 3), and the breaks are 30-s (not 60). I’m currently using 8# DBs for this exercise. I call these ‘strict’ because I scrupulously avoid using ‘body English’ to get the DBs moving, and try to get a bit of a pause/flex at the top. I finish medial delts off with 3-4 sets of conventional lateral raises. These are heavy (relatively speaking)–I’m using 20#/hand lately. The rep range here is 15-25; the breaks between sets are 60-s or so. No attempt to pause/flex at the top, and I’ll start swinging a little toward the end of the set to eke out a few more reps.

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

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You are doing seated dB OHP for front delts?

The 5100 method, it will never catch on.

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Correct.

Ha ha, that’s exactly how it’s written in my phone!

Currently I’m following:

Strength: Push Press–3-5 sets of 2-6 (following a 9 week progression)

Assistance 1: Strict press variation–4 sets of 4-8 (typically +2 reps vs. push press)

Assistance 2: Secondary shoulder movement (like BTN snatch-grip press or muscle snatch)–4 sets of 4-8

Accessory: lighter more isolated movement (like lateral raise, 6-ways, Y-T-Is, Arnold press, etc.)–2-4 sets of 8-15

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I might list everything I do later, but for now I think the number one thing that i’ve done for the past few months that’s brought me the most results is the full ROM Pike Press Up.

This one is unique in a few ways. It’s the only way I know of to train the lateral delts hard with a compound exercise in a stretched position. Your arms are literally lifting more of your weight in the bottom position than the top. A standing press for me works the shortened position more.

It’s also more a very high incline than a true OH press which is handy if ur rehabbing a shoulder and don’t quite have full OH ROM just yet. That doesn’t at all necessarily mean that it’s going to use front delt more than typical OH pressing. Just use something closer to an overhand grip and use wide(er) hand placement. Or use a medium width neutral grip to target the front delts more. It does allow you train shoulder flexion more than a BB OH press which focuses more on shoulder abduction since your elbows will be further in front of your shoulders in the bottom in the pike press.

I use push up handle so I can include neutral grip work and since ur not using a fixed bar you can use any grip angle you want which again offers multiple stimuli and can help keep ur shoulder healthy.

I don’t progress this the normal way because I like that fact that it’s like a high incline and the strength curve and most progressions have it turn into more and more of a true OH press which alters both of these facets. Instead, I’m using a 2x6 as a 2nd class lever. But for now, most of the time I don’t use the lever and have my feet on the ground and rep it out.

Now that my shoulders are healthy and I can push standing OH press hard again, I still always have a spot for the pike press up. I switch between using it as the primary and secondary shoulder exercise.

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I’ve been starting with band pull a parts to warm up
Then 4 working sets of BB OHP, then a drop set back down to almost just the bar

Machine OHP 3-4 sets to failure around 10-12 reps

Reverse pec dec

Supinated cable OHP (these are new and I love them)

3/4 sets ofHeavy lateral raises then final drop set

Rear delt dumbbell flys

Sometimes throw in face pulls.

I’ve seen some growth doing this 2/3 times a week. Still trying to figure out what my shoulder need to grow unfortunately.

Everything your doing trains the delts in the shortened/contracted position. Maybe try mixing in exercises that work the stretched position too.

I mentioned the pike press above which is an option to get a stretch in the front and lateral delt. This will only work well if you do the full ROM option.

You could do scoop presses for the front delt. You start with db’s at your sides and elbows at a 90 degree angle. “Scoop” the db up into your pressing position and press OH and control the eccentric the whole way.

You could do bottom range partial lateral raises for the lateral delt. Go a fair bit heavier than regular lateral raises.

The side-lying rear delt raise will train the rear delt in the stretched position.

I could never get my shoulders to grow very well either until I started training my shoulders in the stretched position in addition to the contracted positions.

I’ll have to look into the shortened stuff. I purposely don’t train my front delts (directly). It seems to get enough love.

As someone with bad shoulders from bad lifting habits–oh how I wish I knew then what I know now–I would recommend you youngsters proceed with caution re working the delts in the ‘stretched’ position. Frankly, I don’t think the payoff is worth the risk. During OH pressing, dropping the elbows to one’s sides invites the head of the humerus to rotate forward within the capsule to a degree that is not healthful. (In fact, any stretch one feels is not in the delt, but rather the muscles and ligaments of the rotator cuff and capsule.)

As for heavy partials: I know John Meadows (and others) swear by them, but in this case I think they’re off-base, for a simple anatomical reason: The initial portion of arm-abduction is the responsibility primarily of the supraspinatus muscle, not the delt. Thus, heavy partials impart tremendous stress to this tiny muscle and its easily-impinged tendon. Again, from a cost-benefit perspective, IMO it’s not worth it.

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Yeah… I hear you on the shoulders bit dude. My problem is. And this is partly in my head im sure. I dont get the pump I need if the first three exercises didn’t blow them up in 3-4 sets each.

So there’s no way in hell im doing 10 shoulder exercises because for me to survive that im exerting next to no effort through most of them. If were talking 3 sets each or so.

I just do facepulls for the rear. Side cable raises and forward cable raises. They blow up. If I need more sets on different exercises than my first 3 didn’t do anything for me.

Once they’re properly pumped. Gorilla tight skin tearing. Feels heavy like lead weights. Then I cut the weight in half and just chase the pump on those 3. Slow reps big focus on the squeeze. Rotate sets. So I do set of 10 for the front. Then the side. Then the rear. Then I repeat.

Reason being is those 3 exercises I’ve got the motion down so well as to not stress anything out. OHP nothing intuitive about the positioning in my head which means I always at some point trigger some unwanted joint pain.

Not knocking it. That could be muscle fibre differences or some ego shit in my head. I definitely stopped doing the overhead press though. I could dial it back and be smart about it. But for now cut all of that out to take that strain off of them.

Next time I go to the gym I might do the same 3 equivalents with Dumbbells this time. But within the same day. One exercise for each part im trying to hit.

I see routines like yours and it makes me a little envious sometimes because alot of guys do that. 10 exercises maybe 2 per part of the muscle they’re trying to hit. I’d love to sit there and grind my shoulders out for an hour or two. And if I tried it. Either im not accomplishing anything. Or im over training and injure myself. I’ve tried logging my workouts. Etc I can never dial that sweet spot in.

Shoulders are just one of those weird things for me. I can keep them swollen and my delts are decent but I can’t for the life of me train them like other people do. I suspect it could also be im 6’3 and have longer arms than the average dude because of my height. Puts more torque on the joint for any given weight because your hands further away.

The scoop press does require one to be able to keep the shoulders retracted in that position. This takes mobility and body awareness. That can be trouble for many and I can see how it could definitely be contraindicated. It’s not an exercise I’d ever load heavy and you have to be careful not to use momentum and to lower under control.

The head of the humerus rotating forward into the capsule is something that also commonly occurs during dips, close grip bench press, and neutral grip DB presses all of which have the elbows at one’s sides theme going on. Definitely something to be aware of, I’m glad you mentioned it.

What do you think of the side lying incline bench lateral raise? Same issue?

Absolutely. Consider what’s being asked of the supraspinatus in this exercise: the force required of it goes from zero (when the DB is resting on the hip) directly to 100% (when the DB just leaves the hip, and the lever arm is perpendicular to gravity). Ouch.

Depending upon the loads used, lying laterals have the potential to be harder on the supraspinatus than heavy partials. This is because during partials the force curve has at least some run to it, ie, the (lever) arms are parallel to gravity at the start, so the load is inertial only. In contrast, the force curve for lying DB laterals is essentially all rise, no run.

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