Nothing screams “I lift heavy ass weight” than a big set of delts sticking through your shirt or bro tank. Shoulders are one of the most used muscles in every exercise, yet people cannot grow them properly.
This shoulder workout routine will give you the tools to grow massive shoulders safely. Over development of the front delts due to pressing can lead to a lot of shoulder problems. This routine will help develop the medial and rear heads of your shoulders to create a more appealing and functional shoulder.
Indicators that you may have over developed front deltoids are clicking, popping, and pain. Don’t let concern you, now that you are aware, I’ll show you how to fix this.
While we build up our shoulders, I will add in a few exercises to help build up some mountain traps.
Strive for progression and you will make marked progress. This is the only way to get stronger and build muscles.
I would recommend doing a short 20-30 minute cardio session post workout at least twice a week for optimum muscle growth and recovery.
| Shoulder Workout Routine | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Standing Military Press | 3 | 15 |
| Arnold Press | 3 | 24 |
| Face Pulls | 3 | 36 |
| Reverse Flies | 3 | 36 |
| One Arm Side Lateral Raise | 3 | 36 |
| Shrugs* | 3 | 24 |
| Farmer’s Hold** | 3 | – |
* – Picking barbell shrugs or dumbbell shrugs here is fine. Pick the exercise that you are able to do the best. If you are able to do both, run 4 weeks of barbell shrugs and then 4 weeks of dumbbell shrugs. Do not roll your shoulders from front to back or back to front when doing shrugs. This is putting strain on your rotator cuff and puts unnecessary strain on your delts.
** – Farmer’s holds are where you stand with weight in each hand and hold them. Using straps for this exercise is fine so you can tax your traps and upper back with more weight, not letting grip be your limiting factor. Record the amount of time you hold the farmer’s holds for. The goal here is to increase weight and time under tension; log your progress so that you will be able to see your progress easily.
This is a hardcore shoulder workout and in order for you to grow your shoulders like the pros, you will have to eat a lot of whole foods and get enough rest to recover after this intense workout. A common flaw with people who run my routines do not eat enough to grow muscles.
Shoulder Safety
In order to ensure that you have healthy shoulders, proper warm up is crucial. You will many forums and websites where people advocate a full range of motion no matter what for some exercises, and if your shoulders are too tight and unable to move a certain way, that is just asking for an injury.
I personally can’t do a behind the neck barbell press and if I drop my shoulders too low on military press I have pain in my rotator cuff. You have to do the exercise properly and in a fashion that will not injure your shoulders. What works for someone else doesn’t mean it will for you. Listen to your body and learn what works for you.
This routine is built to run as long as you are getting stronger and building muscle. Give this routine an 8 week trial and show us your results! Leave any questions or comments below and I will get to them as soon as possible! Be social and like us on Facebook!
Hi Cutty this is the routine I’ve been looking for my delts are lagging so much and as you stated here my front delts are overpowering my middle and rears!! How would you implement this into a 3 day split as I can’t get to the gym anymore than that at the moment due to work/back injury. I have just started a mini cut to strip some fat from the bulk I’ve been on for the past few months but could I still do this routine whilst in a deficit ?
Thanks
Yes you can do this on a deficit, although it’s not ideal to bring up lagging body parts. As for the injury I’d find ways to do exercises so that it doesn’t aggravate your injury. Sit down exercises and anything that keep the back safe should be ok.