Hey there
i’m 17 and i’ve been training for about a year, with decent results (as others have pointed out in my previous thread as well) so far.
i’m currently doing a slow cut and i will be back to bulking in june.
by the time i get back to bulking, i would like to start working on some specific aspects of my physique in which i think i’m particularly lacking at the moment.
namely, those are shoulders and, to some extent, back.
my delts are pretty small, and my clavicles aren’t particularly widde (although not particularly narrow either), and i really want to achieve a broad-shouldered look as much as possible and more than anything else. to that regard, training the delts (especially the middle and rear) and my back (because of the v taper created by the lats and the postural benefits given by frequent pulling-based training) will do wonders in my opinion.
in this split i’ve tried to put together, i’ve given back and delts priority as far as frequency and volume go. i will post my thought process behind every workout below the split itself, together with my main concerns regarding it.
so here it is
A chest tri delts
B back bi
Rest
C legs middle delt
D back bi
E chest tri delts
Rest
F legs back bi
repeat
A
Incline Db press 6 6 8 10
Flat Bb press 3x6-8
Low to high cable fly 4x12
Seated Db OHP 8 8 10
Db lateral raises 4x10-12
Shoulder press machine 3x10
Rope Tricep pushdown 3x8-10
Overhead cable Tricep extension 3x10-12
B
Chin up 4x8-12
One arm Db row 3x8xarm
Wide grip cable row 3x8-10
Face pull 4x12
Standing cable curl 3x10-12
Rope curl 3x10-12
C
Leg press 12 10 8 6
Leg extension 3x10-12
Leg curl 4x8-12
Pull through 4x8-12
Leanaway Db lateral raises 15 12 8, 2x6 partials with heavy dbs
Db Scott press 3x8-12
D
T bar row 4x6-8
Front lat pull-down 3x8-12
Cable row 3x8-10
Face pull 4x12
Cable pull apart 4x10-12
Standing cable curl 3x10-12
Rope curl 3x10
E
Incline Db press 6 6 8 10
Low to high cable fly 3x12
Standard cable fly 3x12
Standing Db lateral raises 3x10-12
Seated Db OHP 8 8 10
Cable lateral raise 2x8
Rope pushdown 3x8-10
Overhead cable Tricep extension 3x10-12
F
Squat 4x5
Leg press 6 8 10 10
Leg curl 3x12
Pull through 3x10-12
Front lat machine 3x8-12
One arm Db row 3x8xarm
Wide grip cable row 3x8-12
Face pulls 4x8-12
Standing cable curl 3x10-12
- the logic
so as you can see this is an 8 day split.
since most of us agree that frequency is one of the most important factors to take into account if we want to give a specific muscle group priority, i’ve decided to train back 3 times a week, together with delts (the front gets worked twice weekly, whereas the other two heads thrice per week)
i’ve split the volume so that i can work those muscles with a decent intensity and not end up burning them out session after session
if you do the math, you will quickly see that it’s 30ish weekly sets for back, and just about the same number for shoulders. the other muscles have a slightly lesser volume to accommodate for the increased overload on those prioritized muscles.
on workout A, it’s chest, tris, and delts. i start off with chest before moving on to shoulders. there i perform 3 sets of ohp with relatively heavy weight, followed by lateral raises done with db, one arm at the time, bent over at a slightly 30ish° angle and a slight bent in my elbows. those are done without cheating and with a relatively slow tempo. after that, i move on to machine shoulder press and really focus on feeling the muscle burn, with slow eccentrics
workout B is mainly focused on lats and vertical pulling. wide grip rows and face pulls are meant to work the rear delts more than the other muscles
on workout C after legs, i hit the middle delts with lean-away laterals, followed by 2 sets of partials with heavy dbs. after that, i will do 3 sets of scott press, an exercise i found on a t-nation article which i’ve found to be really effective for hitting the side delt
workout D is mainly about rhomboids and horizontal pulling.
on workout E, i don’t do as much horizontal pressing to avoid too much stress on the delts, which already get worked a lot by themselves. so my pecs get worked mainly with flying movements.
this time i will do laterals first, and then move onto ohp to pre-fatigue the middle delts.
after that, 2 sets of cable laterals with focus on the strecthed portion (so i will let my arm come all the way across my body)
on workout F, i work back with slightly less volume and intensity because it will get worked again in 2 days
- concerns
my main concern is that back and delts will actually get overtrained and will not grow. on the paper, this program looks kinda good to me, but i haven’t got enough experience to tell if all that volume is too much and if workouts are spaced enough one from the other.
i would like to know if splitting the volume across so many different workouts could lead me to not really working the muscle every time, thus wasting time not really training.
any feedback is really welcome guys
