SOME THOUGHTS FROM YESTERDAY’S AND TODAY’S TRAINING:
YESTERDAY: was back day.
I followed my typical setup, rows first, mid/lower trap activation SS with bb shrugs
since i had my trap fibers activated, i decided to follow up with some rack pulls (as i really want to add considerable to my every dimension traps)…
I got set up to pull (from a couple inches below the knee), then i thought to myself, “everyone seems to be so concerned with pulling the weight, lifting it up and down as opposed to contracting their muscles”.
long story short, after squeezing my lats and traps (same principle as flexing hamstrings before SLDL), i decided to perform my rack pulls with my scapulae COMPLETELY retracted throughout the entirety of the movement, lifting and lowering the weight Slowly, controlling every inch of the motion, for higher than typical reps (8-10)
Of course, this meant i could not handle nearly as much weight, but bodybuilding is not about lifting heavy.
This movement felt absolutely incredible. I then moved on to my standard neutral grip pulldown variation after my work sets on my rack pulls were complete
I woke up this morning, and all of my trap fibers, upper, middle, and lower, absolutely STUNG when i performed any movement of my arms/shoulders that recruited them… (they quite literally… stung)
i was very worried that i had damaged my spine… but quickly realized (after rotating my head/moving neck without any measure of pain), that i had simply severely brutalized my traps.
While of course, DOMS is not any indication of a good session, i am led to believe that this is how deadlift variations are meant to be performed… i will certainly be performing mine in this fashion from now on.
which leads me to TODAY: shoulders and arms
because of the sensitive condition of my traps, i had to put in extra effort to avoid their recruitment during my shoulder workout (if my muscles are really sore, i tend to feel them more even though im not trying to target them).
This led me to perform my lateral raise variation on the lateral raise machine (i almost never use this machine, and when i do… i never grab the handles that the machine provides, opting instead to grab the moving arms themselves). Remembering the form that john meadows adopts during his partials, i decided to keep my head back throughout the entirety of the movement to try to minimize the recruitment of my traps.
(i also leaned forward). I performed each rep with a very slow tempo and a solid contraction at the top. all i can say is WOW! INTENSE pump/burn/contraction/isolation etc in my lateral delt (basically exclusively)! I do not consider my shoulders to be a strong point (though i always get asked what i do for them…), and i attribute their second-rate growth to the difficulty that i have always had in obtaining a solid contraction, and performing a controlled negative on lateral variations. Cables never worked because my traps took over.(lateral partials have helped substantially though, but you can never have big enough shoulders)
this method provided me with both of those things, and the ability to perform partial reps, and isometric holds (which i also used). I attribute the incredible degree of isolation entirely to the stance that i adopted (head back, arm placement, and leaning forward)
needless to say, my shoulders are experiencing severe DOMS, and i anticipate a similar “stinging sensation” tommorrow morning. Even though, as i said before, DOMS generally means nothing in terms of hypertrophy, i finally found a way to get a solid contraction on my lateral delts, and perform a slow, controlled negative…
round shoulders, here i come!