I find it peculiar the way shoulders are something of an afterthought for many bodybuilders.
REMEMBER: I call anyone who walks through the door of a gym a bodybuilder… that includes you, ladies.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the muscles involved in shoulder pressing are so similar to those used in chest pressing that they play second fiddle. I’ve seen many bodybuilders and serious weight trainees devote an excessive amount of time and energy on their pecs, but only rush through a few quick sets for delts.
Nothing looks sillier than a guy with a big chest, decent arms and little width and thickness to his shoulders.
It’s a narrow, girlish look.
That’s right – GIRLISH!
Without wide, round shoulders it’s IMPOSSIBLE to have an exceptional physique.
The ideal basic shape of any individual is the V-taper. And the top of that V must be a set of wide, rugged shoulders along with wide lats.
So, unless you’re going to wear shoulder pads for the rest of your life, Sport, you need to pack some meat on top of those clavicles if you want to be considered a real muscle man.
It’s not tough to do. Just follow these rules.
Become Strong at Free-Weight Overhead Presses.
For big legs you must squat. A big chest comes from pressing and a huge back comes from pulling a ton of weight. And the shoulders have ONE simple movement that is the key to overall mass – the overhead press.
Trying to add size to your shoulders without doing presses is like trying to drive cross-country with you’re emergency brake on.
It will take you forever, and you’ll end up kicking yourself in the ass for being so stupid.
There are many useful machines for pressing, but I recommend that you use them only occasionally for variation. Free weights are the hardest tool to use, which translates into greater effectiveness and faster results. Machines also give you a false sense of strength. Pushing up a weight stack of 300 pounds may make you feel powerful, but it pales in comparison to the true power of pressing a 300-pound Olympic bar or a pair of 150-pound dumbbells. The former puts you in the category of pretty strong for the average gym rat; the latter sets you in a group of truly elite strong men.
My preferences are dumbbells or Smith Machine military press, but especially dumbbells… and for several reasons.
One, they are the absolute toughest to handle, requiring every last ounce of balance and coordination.
Two, I believe they do the best job of distributing the weight evenly amongst all three heads of the shoulder complex. Pressing the bar to the front tends to recruit more front delts activation. So does pressing behind the neck, but it carries a greater risk of rotator cuff damage over time. You can’t go wrong with heavy dumbbell presses in good form.
Don’t Turn Overhead Presses Into Incline Presses.
One very common error in form that you see all the time with overhead presses is an excessive backward lean. A SLIGHT lean is permissible, but if you take it too far, you effectively turn your shoulder press into an incline bench press for the upper chest. Supposedly, you’re already doing that when you are training your chest. You want the weight to be traveling in a straight vertical line up from your shoulder joint so that the delts are doing the work. Leaning back puts the resistance over your upper chest instead. The reason for this blatant flaw in form in nearly every case is that the lifter is using way more weight than he or she can actually handle. The shoulders aren’t strong enough to move the weight with their own power, so lifters unconsciously recruit the strength of the chest to assist. Make a mental note to be aware of where your butt is. It should be touching, or almost touching, the seat back behind you. Hopefully you’re lucky enough to have a good training partner that will stay on top of you about your form. If not…reduce the amount of weight, concentrate on what you’re doing, and feel the difference.
Learn How to Perform Lateral Raises Properly
The lateral, or side, raise is an incredible movement for developing round caps on your medial deltoids, but only if you do it right. Most people don’t. Usually you see guys heaving and throwing the weights up like they’re trying to flap their wings and fly. Most times it’s because they are using dumbbells that are far too heavy for them. I have watched thousands of people train over the past 10 years, and I can count on one hand the number I’ve seen who could use perfect form with 50 pounds of weight. Yet I see men all the time trying to use that much weight with horrible form, and they’re crazy enough to think that they’re actually working their side delts hard.
The quick-fix solution is to reduce the weight. I know that bruises a lot of egos, but you should be able to raise the weight under control and pause for a second to contract the side delt before lowering slowly – slower than the speed with which you raised the dumbbells. If you’re doing a little jump or thrusting your hips to help raise the weight, your form SUCKS, and you need to correct it.
This is actually one exercise in which I prefer using a cable apparatus over free weights. When using cables instead of free weights, you can lower the weight under control instead of letting the dumbbell drop down as so many trainees do. Cables seem to provide more continuous tension on the side deltoid as opposed to dumbbells. An important trick is to stop at the bottom of the movement right before the cable gets to your leg in order to keep continuous tension on the muscle. Do not allow the cable apparatus to cross over in front of your body, thus relieving the stress placed on the side deltoid.
Perform Upright Rows
Everyone wants wide shoulders.
If you try to say differently you’re a damn liar.
The only way to get there is to effectively work the side delts. Everyone knows about side laterals, but most people do not realize the value of upright rows for adding width to your shoulder complex. Upright rows performed with dumbbells are extremely effective. So are upright rows done with a barbell and slightly wider-than-shoulders-width grip. Do them in addition to lateral raises – or in place of them – every third or fourth workout. If you haven’t been doing upright rows, you don’t know how much round, full, side-delt mass you’ve been missing out on.
Develop Your Rear Delts
The posterior, or rear, delts are without a doubt the red-headed stepchild of the shoulder complex. Many people don’t train them at all, or if they do, it’s usually a few half-hearted sets before heading out the door at the end of their workout. It’s no surprise that very few men have good development in their rear delts. The solution is simply to train them, and train them hard. Either include three or four good sets of rear, or bent-over, laterals performed with dumbbells, cables or a machine on shoulder day or at the end of back day. They will grow if you just train them regularly and properly. Another suggestion is to train your side delts first on your shoulder day and work your way around to the front delts lastly.
Allow Your Shoulders to Recover
The shoulders are involved in practically every exercise you do for your upper body, and they are VERY easy to over-train.
Think about it: the rear delts get hammered indirectly on back day, the front delts take a beating on chest day, and even biceps and triceps work needs the support of the deltoids. That’s why it’s important that you try to take 48 hours between your shoulder and chest workouts in particular and also between shoulder and back workouts (the traps are involved in most back exercises and shoulder movements too).
Training shoulders the day before or after chest is especially counterproductive to making gains. Also, be conscious of overall volume; keep your overall workout sets to no more than 12 to 16. If you can’t get the job done with that, you need to train heavier and harder.
