Boulder Shoulders - I Want 'Em!

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I am currently in a maintenance phase, just trying to keep my bench and squat good over the winter, I figure with the light lifting I’ve been doing the deadlifts are sure to suffer a little regardless of my leg and back workouts…

But I do want to get my shoulders bigger. I have tried many approaches to this such as very low rep sets of military press, both dumbbell and barbbell, drop sets, supersets, just about everything but forced reps do to their impracticality in most gym settings (I don’t usually have a spotter for every exercise).

I have been doing overhead squats with progressively heavy weight in the hopes that the stabalizing effect of the shoulders will cause them to grow, no exercise leaves my shoulders so sore as heavy overhead squats.

Does anyone have any good shoulder workouts strictly to improve size? I’m also trying to isolate the deltoids as my traps have gotten bigger simply through deadlifts, snatches, cleans etc.

I want the boulder shoulders. Any help would be great!!

2

Shoulders Overhaul
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=469072

8 Weeks to Monster Shoulders
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=818555

The Shoulder Training Bible
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1578184

3

Try some heavy push presses once a week. Also some bag work (boxing) does a good job building stubborn shoulders. Just hit them hard, shoulders can take a good burnout try drop sets of lat raises too.

At the end of the day size will come with the rest of the body and being lean will give the boulder shoulder look. Keep training hard!!

ShadoW

4

Here’s a crazy shoulder workout:

A. Push press (5 sets ascending from 5 RM to 1 RM)
B1. Straight-arm lateral raise (3x12)
B2. Arnold press (3x8)
B3. Bent-arm lateral raise (3x12)
C. Isometric-eccentric bent-over lateral raise (3 sets w/ weight you can hold isometrically for 7 seconds, then do an eccentric as slow as you can)
D. Down the rack straight-arm lateral raises (3 sets starting with a 3-5RM weight)
E. 100-rep arnold press

This is somewhat based on this 3 times a week shoulder program - HSS-100: Shoulder Specialization. Yes, it also includes a split.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1151810

5

[quote]bhetz864 wrote:
I am currently in a maintenance phase, just trying to keep my bench and squat good over the winter, I figure with the light lifting I’ve been doing the deadlifts are sure to suffer a little regardless of my leg and back workouts…

But I do want to get my shoulders bigger. I have tried many approaches to this such as very low rep sets of military press, both dumbbell and barbbell, drop sets, supersets, just about everything but forced reps do to their impracticality in most gym settings (I don’t usually have a spotter for every exercise).

I have been doing overhead squats with progressively heavy weight in the hopes that the stabalizing effect of the shoulders will cause them to grow, no exercise leaves my shoulders so sore as heavy overhead squats.

Does anyone have any good shoulder workouts strictly to improve size? I’m also trying to isolate the deltoids as my traps have gotten bigger simply through deadlifts, snatches, cleans etc.

I want the boulder shoulders. Any help would be great!![/quote]

How much has the weight you use on basic shoulder exercises (military press, DB press, etc…) gone up in the past year?

Building shoulders (or any muscle for that matter) isn’t about finding some secret exercise or set/rep scheme. It’s about eating enough to support growth, and lifting progressively heavier poundages (for the same rep scheme) over time.

So, my very simple advice would be to just pick a set/rep scheme (program) that you like, choose basic shoulder exercises (that will allow you to make significant increases in weight over time) and work on adding significant weight to the bar.

If you double the amount of weight you’re currently using on strict military presses (and eat enough food) your shoulders will grow.

6

Sentoguy don’t hold out! Tell him the real secrets. :wink:

7

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
bhetz864 wrote:
I am currently in a maintenance phase, just trying to keep my bench and squat good over the winter, I figure with the light lifting I’ve been doing the deadlifts are sure to suffer a little regardless of my leg and back workouts…

But I do want to get my shoulders bigger. I have tried many approaches to this such as very low rep sets of military press, both dumbbell and barbbell, drop sets, supersets, just about everything but forced reps do to their impracticality in most gym settings (I don’t usually have a spotter for every exercise).

I have been doing overhead squats with progressively heavy weight in the hopes that the stabalizing effect of the shoulders will cause them to grow, no exercise leaves my shoulders so sore as heavy overhead squats.

Does anyone have any good shoulder workouts strictly to improve size? I’m also trying to isolate the deltoids as my traps have gotten bigger simply through deadlifts, snatches, cleans etc.

I want the boulder shoulders. Any help would be great!!

How much has the weight you use on basic shoulder exercises (military press, DB press, etc…) gone up in the past year?

Building shoulders (or any muscle for that matter) isn’t about finding some secret exercise or set/rep scheme. It’s about eating enough to support growth, and lifting progressively heavier poundages (for the same rep scheme) over time.

So, my very simple advice would be to just pick a set/rep scheme (program) that you like, choose basic shoulder exercises (that will allow you to make significant increases in weight over time) and work on adding significant weight to the bar.

If you double the amount of weight you’re currently using on strict military presses (and eat enough food) your shoulders will grow.[/quote]

That’s some good advice =) I concur.

8

heavy push presses
heavy log presses
1 arm db push presses
all sorts of cleans.
1 arm db rows
3 way shoulder raises for 10-20 rep sets. (rear raises,side raises,front raises) done back to back. Do whichever is hardest for you first.

Like the other guy said work on getting stronger.

I don’t know wtf a “maintenance mode” is. Sounds boring…

9

I did the superhero workout before from CT. This actually really brought up the size of my chest/arms/shoulders quickly (2 - 3 weeks). I liked the idea of 100 reps of lateral raises, it seemed to actually work pretty well with the rest of the program.

10

[quote]itsthetimman wrote:
I did the superhero workout before from CT. This actually really brought up the size of my chest/arms/shoulders quickly (2 - 3 weeks). I liked the idea of 100 reps of lateral raises, it seemed to actually work pretty well with the rest of the program.[/quote]

i cosign this, the superhero workout is a great program for bringing out massive shoulders and arms, although the 100 rep lateral raises were a killer and deadlift squat day was brutal

11

[quote]Scott M wrote:
Sentoguy don’t hold out! Tell him the real secrets. ;)[/quote]

Oh sure…and while I’m at it I supposed you’d like me to tell him who really shot JKF, and and the truth behind scientology. Oh and how about the alligators living in the sewars. Jeez man, isn’t anything sacred these days? :wink:

12

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Scott M wrote:
Sentoguy don’t hold out! Tell him the real secrets. :wink:

Oh sure…and while I’m at it I supposed you’d like me to tell him who really shot JKF, and and the truth behind scientology. Oh and how about the alligators living in the sewars. Jeez man, isn’t anything sacred these days? ;)[/quote]

Are you inferring that JFK was shot by Tom Cruise who discarded the weapons by feeding them to oversized alligators in the sewers of Baghdad? j/k lol

13

What I like. You can do all these in a single cycle, and I think that’s the best way to get some good growth in the shoulders.

One-arm DB clean and press - I’m doing it right now. It’s a very nice full shoulder stimulus.

One arm row - when I do this it seems to blast the rear delt

Overhead squat - I encourage you to keep doing these, I love them as well. They REALLY, I mean REALLY, help your other exercises overhead even if they don’t specifically make the shoulders grow

Turkish get-up - Here’s another off-beat one for the shoulders. If you go heavy enough it really stimulates them and in a unique way, too.

My favorite, really, is just doing clean and presses, with the clean either from the hang or the ground. I see no reason not to do the clean if you’re doing the press.

Also a really great one is the face pull with neutral grip (see the Robertson article that describes it). Hits the rear delts great. If you want great front delt growth, hit the back really hard while doing do tons of overhead work.

Dumbbell swings (I like to use a fat rope) are good, and fun, and you can do them super high rep and get great stimulus.

Leaning-away lateral raises (CT style) and cable lateral raises should cover the side delts…I mean lateral delts…I mean medial delts.

Which reminds me, I don’t really think you should worry about your traps growing too much. Other than in really fat “athletes” I have never seen stupid big traps without great development elsewhere. It’s a non-issue IMO. Maybe you don’t need to do shrugs, etc, but I’d still leave the cleans if you’re doing presses.

14

Oh yeah, “pushup rows” or “renegade rows” (same exercise) give a great rear delt stimulus.

15

[quote]sic wrote:
Ok, I stole this from another thread:

1-2 reps, Power
3-4 reps, Strength
5-6 reps, Strength, Sarcomere hypertrophy
7-8 reps, Sarcomere and Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
9-10 reps, Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
11-12 reps, Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, Strength-Endurance
13-20 reps, Strength-Endurance
20+ reps, Endurance

I’ll try to explain these terms as basically as I can. First off, think of a bodybuilder vs. a powerlifter. A powerlifter is training for strength, not size. He utilizes low reps and heavy weights. A bodybuilder trains for size and not strength. He utilizes high reps and lighter weights. The reason for this is in the difference between sarcoplasmic and sarcomere hypertrophy.

Stressing your muscles with lifting causes the accumulation of sodium and calcium in your muscle cell. This triggers an increased protein synthesis and fiber hypertrophy. Basically the muscle “grows bigger in an effort to deal with this ionic disruption. This type of training also leads to a storage of glycogen and fluid within the muscle.”

When a person trains with high reps, this causes a greater than normal storage of glycogen. “The extra glycogen and fluid build-up is termed non-functional hypertrophy because it causes growth of the non-contractile tissue, or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Sarcomeres are the actual contractile elements of the muscle cells, or protein structures, whereas sarcoplasm is the fluid in and around the cell”

So basically:

High reps = sarcoplasmic hypertrophy

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy = increase in non-contractile portion of the muscle

Low reps = sarcomere hypertrophy

Sarcomere hypertrophy = an increase in the size of contractile muscle tissue

Low reps = stronger muscles and more, longer lasting, muscle tissue

------------------------------------------------ [/quote]

sentoguy is right, but not exactly. Rep ranges 5-6 and 9-10 will grow more muscle tissue AND fill them out with glycogen. Voila! More, bigger muscles.

Stick with:

  1. over head presses, primarily dropping the bar in front of the face, not behind the neck (for anterior deltoids work).

  2. lateral raises (for medial deltoids work).

  3. bent over (horizontal) raises (for posterior deltoids work).

Do all three using both rep schemes.

Thanks to sic for the brilliant research and explanation… on the women’s forum, no less!

16

I think the explanation is decent, but the type of hypertrophy can have as much to do with the individual’s training history and individual response as the number of reps per set.

Apparently sic also kind of threw around “power” and “strength” interchangeably.

Not to mention that 1 rep can still cause growth, try 25x1 for example.

17

[quote]conwict wrote:
I think the explanation is decent, but the type of hypertrophy can have as much to do with the individual’s training history and individual response as the number of reps per set.

Apparently sic also kind of threw around “power” and “strength” interchangeably.

Not to mention that 1 rep can still cause growth, try 25x1 for example.[/quote]

I put on more size since I started just focusing on lifting heavy, With a rough Westside template.

HEAVY singles for the win.

conwict: its freaky how much your avatar looks like my brother in law.

18

It’s me. Is your sister hot? Just kidding.