I saw a lot of growth from my delts by doing the following:
m.press
seated db press
lat raise
shrugs or rear delt
I dropped the seated db press, because I thought two pressing movements may of been too much. Then my strength/size on my delts slowed down, so I am I going to add them back in.
So, tonight I’m doing DB shoulder presses (high incline), and I just can’t kick up the 110’s and higher. I know, I’m a big pussy.
But, what’s worse is that I couldn’t find anyone in the gym that looked like they could even hand them to me. After about 10 minutes I grabbed one of the employees (maybe 5-9", 150) and he volunteered to hand them off (I had to hand them to me then he had to heft them up). One guy flat out told me ‘no’, he wasn’t touching those.
lol.
lately i have been doing dumbbell snatches to 90, where my left arm fails. i suspect i could hit 100 with my right but i want my left to catch up. if its a heavy shoulder day i start clean and pressing, though the most there is 100. i do 2 reps with each arm at every weight. 2 at 65^90, but the total sets varies. i pause, and balance the weight on my hand really working on pulling the shoulder into its socket and lettin my scapula do the work, then a controlled lowering phase, safety occasionally requires 2 hands.
if i clean and press the 140s i’ll take a pic
Well, IDEALLY I’d be doing DB shoulder press. I progress fastest on the DBs, getting to 7-8 reps before moving to the set of DBs, where I’ll get 4-6 reps initially. When I stall on that, I do one week of push presses with weight I can get for about 1-4 reps for the top set, then next week I’ll easily be able to move onto the next DBs.
This works fantastically. Huge problem, the DBs in my gym are fucking PATHETIC, they go up to 40kg (~90lbs), so you outgrow these very fast for pretty much everything except lat raises and curls, which is super fucking annoying considering I progress fastest on DBs for everything, and prefer DBs for chest a million times over.
Now I’m currently switching all the time trying to figure out what I should do. For a few months I was doing seated shoulder press, but I can’t get this into position once I get over 200lbs - problem is initiating the movement at the bottom. I tried using the squat rack to no avail.
So now I’m stuck using a smith, which sucks because that gives me elbow and/or shoulder aggravation on all pressing movements (don’t do any pulling on it, ever, but that’s besides the point), sometimes (rarely) I get into “the groove” and the aggravation on elbows/whatever is minimal or if I’m really really lucky non existant.
/rant
current routine is:
Seated Smith Shoulder Press
Seated Shoulder Machine Press (WEIRD ANGLE)
Shrugs
Lat Raises (maybe)
I’m pretty sure I do something else since I don’t do lat raises all that often anymore, but I can’t think of what it is. I do at least do 4 things, so there’s got to be something else in there.
Over the past year or so, ive changed my routine considerably from a high volume program to alot less volume program.
Last true shoulder session (im changing to a more DC style approach)
Standing Barbell Press - 75kg/165lbs x 5 [Last/Main/Work set]
DB Laterals - 22.5kg/49.5lbs x 7 [Last/Main/Work set]
Hammer Strength Press - 30kg Per Side x 5 [Failure]
Standing BB Press (aka ‘military’) from racks done as 5/3/1 then 5 sets of 10 as BBB assistance, Once per week. Then Face pulls last each workout ,working up to 4x12 with my top weight, twice a week.
Managed to feel my first delt pump on Tuesday after BB Press 47.5kg x 10 (3+week)
followed by 28.75kg x 4x10 + 1x15.
(28.75kg because I have some 'home made fractional plates, 0.625kg each)
Dead Stop BTN-presses, laterals and Military Presses.
The Dead Stops are just below ear level, and I love, love love them.
Just posted these in the current “OHP Thread” that has turned into a seated v. standing debate. All I’m saying is I don’t see guys this size doing most (if any) of their work standing.
McGrath
Levrone
Warren
I’m not adverse to standing Mil. Presses, but if BB for size is the goal, then lift for the goal. If a 1RM standing mil press is your goal, then do it that way.
Tonight’s shoulder workout (x-posted in my log). I do my DB Lat raises standing sort of behind and to the side of an inclined bench, with one arm on the bench to square up and lift with the other one. Keeps technique honest. Hit a couple PR’s tonight.
SHOULDERS
w/u, YTWL crap
DB Lat Raise: 20x10, 40x10, 50x10, 65x9+3 rep PR, 70x5 + 50x5 wt.PR, 55x10
R.Delt Raise (face down, incl. bench, pinkies up): 20x15, 25x11, 30x10, 35x10+1
DB Press (seated, high-back): 55x10 + 10 neut. grip, 70x10, 85x8, 100x6
BB Shrug: 135x30, 225x30, 315x30 (mini pauses), 405x20 (mp), 455x12
Quickie tonight. Changed up a bit and started with laterals and r.delts. Hit 2 pr’s with good form on the lat raises, likely because I put them first versus the presses, which were much lower tonight (weight and reps), but that’s OK. I may proceed like this for a month or so depending on noticeable progress.
Shrugs felt good, no leg drive, mini pauses, like 1-2 seconds to get the reps in.
I do
Muscle clean & press
Dumbell lateral raise (I get a strenge pain in my delt/triceps area when doing these if I’m not careful with rom and gradually gripping weights… tendinitis problem)
Rear flies machine
then again I don’t have big shouldes (or anything big for that matter lol… yet.) I don’t know how effective muscle cleans & presses are as a “main exercise” seeing as people rarely do them, but I love them and really feel it in the delts.
Okay, just did shoulders…
I got a nasty sharp pain @ rear delt/triceps area when doing pretty much anything. Cleans, barbell presses, side laterals, even rear flies. However, one thing doesn’t hurt: dumbbell shoulder presses with palms slightly facing the body, elbows in. Kind of like the bottom of an arnold press, and then pressing up.
Probably just an overstressed tendon so I’ll let it rest for some time, while trying to do everything I can do for the rest of my upper body as long as it doesn’t hurt. Muscle cleans do get a bit heavy on the joints and tendons when reseting for each rep.
BHTN presses with a smith machine that has a fat bar. I don’t do shoulders with the conventional 90 degree angle, I go out wide, as far as I possibly can. While it does shorten my ROM , it lessens the triceps involvement in the lift and focuses more of the tension to my shoulders. Recently, I’ve been applying CT’s 'Perfect "Rep method into the mix and it seems to be working quite favorably. I have around, 5 ‘feeler set’s’ and 5 work sets.
After that it’s on to cable laterals. I superset side laterals with front laterals for a total of 6 sets, also using the ‘Perfect Rep’ method - explosive on the concentric and controlled on the eccentric.
As for rear delts. Bent over laterals with high reps (usually around the 25-30 rep range). Then with no rest it’s on to the seated low row where I take a straight bar and use a slightly narrower than shoulder with grip and perform face-pulls to around the nose area. After that, no rest it’s on to the rear delt/pec fly machine just to make sure they’re fried!
Well, I guess since I haven’t posted a pic in years, now would be a good time to show my progress.
This is a current pic, it was taken about 2-3 weeks ago
My most recent shoulder routine looks like this:
OH BB press. Ramp up to a set of 3-5 reps (not quite max but close) and finish with an all out set of 10-15 reps.
Push press. 3 sets of 3-5 reps with a fairly slow eccentric.
DB lat raise. 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps, sometimes I superset with machine lat raise.
A couple of sets of upright rows, 10-15 reps. I’ve been avoiding this movement because of some mild shoulder pains but I’ve recently started doing it in the cable with two handles so each hand can move individually, I feel no discomfort at all that way.
Today for shoulders and arms I did:
Seated BB OH press 5 feeler sets of 3 and 6 work sets of 3 using the CT’s perfect rep.
Cable curls (straight bar) 10,8,7 - lifting explosively and terminating the set when bar speed slowed
Push Press 3 feeler sets and 6 works sets of 3 using the perfect rep, finished with a set of max reps
BB curls - 3 sets aiming for 25 reps, lifting explosively and terminating the set when bar speed slowed
Delt Triad - 2 giant sets of 30 reps (front raises SS lateral raises SS rear delt flyes)
A) Cable Tricep Ext. (v-bar)
B) Cable Curl (v-bar) - 3 sets each, alternating exercises, aiming for 25 reps, lifting explosively and terminating the set when bar speed slowed. 4th sets were max reps w/ working weight.
I made this up as I went. I usually lift with my school’s gym teachers, we lift together using the same routine. This week we just came back from exams and start with our scheduled routine next week.
[quote]Seize wrote:
Well, I guess since I haven’t posted a pic in years, now would be a good time to show my progress.
This is a current pic, it was taken about 2-3 weeks ago[/quote]
Great stuff, man.
[quote]LarryDavid wrote:
[quote]Seize wrote:
Well, I guess since I haven’t posted a pic in years, now would be a good time to show my progress.
This is a current pic, it was taken about 2-3 weeks ago[/quote]
Great stuff, man.[/quote]
Thanks bro!
After watching some Vic Martinez, Dexter Jackson, and Darrem Charles vids, I added Smith Machine BTN presses last night.
All rep ROM from no lower than ears and no lock outs. Kept the rep range 10-15. I haven’t done these in 2 years and they felt great and I’m really feeling it this morning, no doubt because it’s something different, but they really felt good last night.
I’m going to keep moving up with this rep range for awhile.
Behind the neck smith machine presses followed by dumbbell presses - nothing better
Javeline Presses I find is a great finisher to a Shoulder workout, it seems to hit my lateral and even front delts very well. I use a barbell and add another 20 - 30 lbs.
