At the moment I’m working a 4 way split as follows, cutting:
Shoulders/core
Legs
Cardio (sprints)
Chest/triceps
Back/biceps
Cardio
OFF
The thing is though, with the pump I feel in my front delts from chest day I’m not sure if I’ve worked out the right workout for shoulders day… anyone take a look and comment?
Shoulders (saturday):
BB Military Press (12-10-8-6)
DB Upright rows (3x12)
Cable front raises (3x12)
DB lateral raises (3x12)
Machine rear delt flyes (3x12)
Does this look balanced, or should I perhaps take out the front raises on shoulders day and replace them with shrugs for example? Or is looking OK to have them in there? Any other improvements? Thanks.
Hmnnn, well, I for one have always had to deal with shoulders that just want to dominate a lot of movements, so in my own training sessions I always do my front delt work (pressing) last, after I’ve really focused on the other heads. Also, by eliminating any flat work for chest, I’ve found that my front delts aren’t as taxed by the end of the week.
You might want to back off on a lot of direct anterior head stuff on shoulder day if you’re pounding them so much when you hit your chest (possibly just do presses OR front raises?)
Thanks for the reply Stu. My anterior delts also seem to be particularly bossy when it comes to benching, but I’m wary of dropping the slight incline bench as my upper chest is less well developed than my middle and lower. How about having a tweak of the shoulder day to put the emphasis more on the other heads? For example:
BB military press (12-10-8-6)
Dumbbell upright rows (3x10-12)
DB lateral raises (3x10-12)
Machine rear flyes (3x10-12)
Would it be overdoing it to have another lateral deltoid iso in here too? Or would something like shrugs to finish off be better?
I certainly don’t think a second lateral exercise would be too much, I sometimes do seated laterals from a dead stop (Christian’s idea, resting the 'bells on a bench), but then almost as a finisher in case I’ve got anything left, will do heavy leaning away one arm laterals afterward.
I do wonder why you insist on doing the heavy pressing first when you’re asking for advice on emphasizing the other heads. My first suggestion for most people is always the same thing,… do the pressing last, after the ‘less fun’ stuff.
If you can safely perform behind the neck barbell presses, or behind the neck push presses I recommend you do. They are an excellent way to hit the shoulders without placing all the burden on the anterior deltoids. That way you could continue with the flat bench and not have to worry so much about ‘overtraining’ the anterior delts. Don Howorth did this and his shoulders were just a little better than alright.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I certainly don’t think a second lateral exercise would be too much, I sometimes do seated laterals from a dead stop (Christian’s idea, resting the 'bells on a bench), but then almost as a finisher in case I’ve got anything left, will do heavy leaning away one arm laterals afterward.[/quote]
OK, well how about something like this as an overall shoulder workout:
DB upright rows
Seated DB lateral raises
Leaning DB lateral raises
Rear delt flyes
Military press