Shoulders are without doubt for most people one of the most stubborn muscle groups to grow, it usually takes years and years of painful trial and error to find the correct formula of growth. This is one of the main reasons why I decided to reveal my routine to you guys so you don't have to go through the same annoying process and waste your time on experimenting with different exercises that just CAN NOT effectively stimulate your deltoids into new growth.
It took me a long time to distill what actually works and I think I've finally nailed it 4 months ago, before that I used to change my shoulder routine pretty much every month and I never felt like I was progressing. Strength and size were about the same for 6 months which forced me to review all my changes and read up on all shoulder workout material I could find on the web, so here's the result.
Building Blocks of an Effective Shoulder Workout Routine
After reading all the material I could possibly get my hands on (A LOT OF ARTICLES AND STUDIES) I've realized that most of the stuff out there is highly controversial and just plain confusing. This forced me to looking into the past and go back to the very basics of shoulder development workouts preached by guys like Reg Park who learned simply by a lot of trial and error.
BLOCK 1 – Standing Overhead Barbell Press
The core of ANY shoulder workout the good old Standing Overhead Barbell Press. This exercise is the main building block and develops great shoulders therefore I always do this exercise first in my workout. There are different variations of this exercise like: behind the neck, military version with feet closer together, seated, seated or standing at the smith machine. The one I highly recommend is the basic standing overhead barbell press where you lift the bar outside of a rack and push from the upper chest.
Reason why I don't like to do these variations is because it gets harder to track progress, you're always playing around and changing stuff. I'm not against “Mixing it up” but leave the core exercise always the same, they are responsible for 80% of your results. You can change the assistance exercises such as lateral raises or face pulls but I do not recommend changing the core of your shoulder routine.
Overhead Press Setup – Put the bar on your front shoulders by taking it out of the uprights of your power rack.
- Foot Stance. Don’t put your heels together (that’s a Military Press) but shoulder-width apart. This will increase stability and thus strength.
- Grip Width. About shoulder-width apart. The larger your build, the wider your grip. Hands should never touch your shoulders.
- Gripping the Bar. Grip is same as for the Bench Press. Bar close to your wrist, in the base of your palm. Not close to your fingers.
- Chest Up. Make a big chest & lift it up. Makes it easier to use your back muscles & shortens the distance the bar has to travel.
- Elbows Forward. Elbows in front of the barbell when looking from the side. Not upper-arms parallel with the floor, it’s not a Front Squat.
- Look Forward. Looking up is bad for your neck. Look forward, fix a point on the wall before you.
- Squeeze Your Glutes. Makes it impossible to arch your lower back, thus increasing safety. Squeeze your glutes hard.
Performing the Overhead Press. Press the bar overhead in a straight line, that’s the shortest distance from start to finish. Unfortunately your head is in the way. So you’ll need to move your head & torso during the Overhead Press.
- Tilt Head Back. Quickly tilt your head back so the bar can pass your chin/nose without hitting them. Keep looking forward.
- Shift Torso Forward. Once the bar reaches forehead level, shift your torso forward. Continue pressing the weight overhead.
- Head Forward. Your chin should almost touch your chest when the weight is overhead. Look forward, not down.
- Lock Everything. Squeeze shoulders, traps & back. Lock your elbows. End position should look like in the picture below.
Tips to Improve Your Overhead Press Technique – Common errors you’ll make while learning how to Overhead Press with correct technique.
- Elbows Forward, Chest Up. You’ll forget to reposition yourself between reps at first. Start each rep with elbows in front of the bar & chest up.
- Bar High. The higher the bar on your chest, the shorter the distance it has to travel. Put the bar close to your clavicles. Quickly tilt your head back & forth. Clavicles might hurt at first, your skin will adapt & thicken.
- Go Forward. You’ll miss reps if you stay back vs. getting under the bar. Shift your torso forward when the bar reaches forehead level.
- Breathing. If you breathe at the top, you can bounce the bar off your chest making the next rep easier. Breathe at the bottom & you’ll press from a dead stop, making the next rep harder. The former allows more weight. The latter makes the exercise harder, making the former easier.
Credits: Mehdi from StrongLifts.com – How to Master The Overhead Press
BLOCK 2 – Upright Barbell Row by Vince Gironda
Second exercise which is always part of my shoulder routine is the Upright Barbell Row as taught by Vince Gironda a genius innovator in the field of bodybuilding. Here's how it's done, explained by Gironda himself:
Gironda Barbell (Wide Grip) Upright Row Guidelines
This exercise alone is just incredible for adding pure width, you're gonna feel the lateral portion of the shoulder muscle working extremely hard. So far I haven't found a movement that stimulates the middle deltoid as good as this exercise.
Gironda is a master who worked to build some of the greatest physiques of all time including Steve Reeves, Larry Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Frank Zane. I urge everyone to read more of Vince's articles because he's the real deal.
BLOCK 3 – Assistance Exercises
This is the last part of your routine which includes all the common exercises such as:
- Cable Lateral Raises
- Front Dumbbell Raise
- Seated Dumbbell Press
- Machine Shoulder Press
- Face Pulls
- Side Laterals to Front Raise
- Reverse Flyes
- …And many many other exercises
All of these exercises are good “finishers” and can stimulate shoulder growth but they should only be included for a the final portion of the workout once the first 2 blocks have been executed.
Shocking Shoulder Workout REVEALED – Putting it All Together
This is how my entire shoulder workout looks now:
- Warm-up (Total 10-20 min)
- Bike or Treadmill slow pace 5 minutes to raise the body temperature
- Dynamic Shoulder Joint Warm-Up
- Mind-Muscle Warm-up routine for shoulder muscles
- 3 x 10 reps – Explosive (Move bar as fast as you can) Standing Overhead Barbell Press with no weight
- 2 x 8 reps – Explosive Standing Overhead Barbell Press with 5 kilos on each side
- 1 x 6 reps – Standing Overhead Barbell Press with 10 kilos on each side
- Workout (CORE LIFTS – Exercises don't change. Goal: Get stronger, master movements and do as much weight as you can)
- 5 x 5-6 reps – Standing Overhead Barbell Press
- 5 x 6-8 reps – Wide-Grip Gironda Upright Barbell Row
- Workout (ASSISTANCE LIFTS – Exercises change every 2 weeks. Goal: Stimulate muscle from different angles)
- 3 x 10 Face Pulls
- 3 x 15+ reps on each side with Side Lateral Raises (Slow and controlled, minimum 15 repetitions on each side, aim for 20-25 reps, feel the burn and breakthrough the pain)
- 3 x 10 rep Rotator Cuff Exercise – External Rotation (This exercise will balance out your shoulder and strengthen other lifts such as Bench Press)
- Stretching
- Static shoulder stretches
IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you have at least 2 days between your Chest and Shoulder workout because heavy pressing movements from your chest workout will interfere with the shoulder workout and make it less effective.
REALITY CHECK – It Takes Time To Build Great Shoulders
As I've mentioned above shoulders are for most guys very hard to develop and we just have to be realistic about it. The workout above is not a magic pill, if you expect to add inches to your shoulder width in a few months then you should find another workout however if you want to build your shoulders up to their maximum genetic potential I highly recommend sticking to the basics and going from there.
There's a lot of variables and shocking methods to play around with, some of my favorites are:
- Super-sets
- Drop sets
- Forced Negatives
- Giant sets
- Forced Reps
All of these tools are at your disposal but just keep in mind that the core of great shoulder development is mastering the basic movements that are proven over and over to give the best results. The best thing we can do is just stick to it, track our progress, make small tweaks with assistance workout, experiment with things like rest between sets and have faith in the process.
Conclusion
Hope you enjoyed the article, the workout routine presented here gave me great results and made me go full circle in terms of shoulder development. I went from doing the basic lifts to experimenting with new exercise for almost 2 years just to revert back to the basics. Biggest lesson for me was that the often praised New and “improved” exercise or routine isn't necessarily the one that gives the best results.
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