lacking shoulders - What helped you grow them when they werent?

Hit the 3 parts of Delts ...

I followed John Meadows advices and got great results...



Highly suggest to ya’ll study it and trying..

For the morons that won’t read it entirely because it’s a lot, ahah, you re losing maybe best free advice out there at the moment..

in combo with other videos on his YouTube channel like these




View: https://youtu.be/biKT7pTWVKI





View: https://youtu.be/nYB6akjXdbI



View: https://youtu.be/xmRvehXB6jc




Crown me hands down the best poster on this thread , you re welcome ...

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Hit the 3 parts of Delts ...

I followed John Meadows advices and got great results...



Highly suggest to ya’ll study it and trying..

For the morons that won’t read it entirely because it’s a lot, ahah, you re losing maybe best free advice out there at the moment..

in combo with other videos on his YouTube channel like these




View: https://youtu.be/biKT7pTWVKI





View: https://youtu.be/nYB6akjXdbI



View: https://youtu.be/xmRvehXB6jc




Crown me hands down the best poster on this thread , you re welcome ...

View attachment 146148

Mountain Dog FTMFW! I like his methods.

Nice bike FrozenBomb. Sweet of you to let your sister borrow it. :p
 
They were popularized by Zydrunas Savickas — arguably the greatest strongman in history.

They don’t isolate the delts quite as much as seated or standing OHP do because you really have to concentrate on keeping your core tight, but for developing pure power in the shoulder girdle and core they’re awesome.
Im looking at them as developing core strength which I am sure I lack. And Zydrunas Savickas was out of this world
 
For me personally I find shoulders need a fuckton of volume. Make them mafakkas buuuuurn. Multiple drop sets, super sets, and ropes. If your shoulders aren't burning too much to lift your arms when you leave, keep fuckin going. I made huuuuge gains in the delts when I started to beat on them like a red headed stepchild. Heavy lifts just made them strong as all fuck and a bit of a pump but no real size gains
Yea same, they didn't start growing till I couldn't put a hood on after a session. I do a bit of everything. Few pump sets around 10 lbs, 15-20 reps, 4 sets of 10 going heavier, 4th being failure maybe 6-8 reps. Then I go even heavier sometimes and do halfs/partials looks dumb but it works lol moving the DBs like 3 inches. I'll hold the heavy weight off my hips as long as I can a few times, then work my way down, 8 reps if I can for about 4 drops till I'm struggling with 10s for 8 reps for a few sets, then I do cables... lol !!!!VOLUME!!!!
 
Hit the 3 parts of Delts ...

I followed John Meadows advices and got great results...



Highly suggest to ya’ll study it and trying..

For the morons that won’t read it entirely because it’s a lot, ahah, you re losing maybe best free advice out there at the moment..

in combo with other videos on his YouTube channel like these




View: https://youtu.be/biKT7pTWVKI

I tried 3 sets of 20 of those partial dumbbell laterals yesterday instead of my normal 4-5 sets of full range 12-15 reps and wow....I really like that. I also did the rear delt pulley pulls like he showed. Usually I have the pulley quite a bit higher. I think I'll stick with those 2 variations for a while. I didn't do his incline raises....never really liked those at all. I started with 3 working sets of 8 rep OH barbell presses though. Really nice WO and my shoulders felt much more trashed than usually, for sure.
 
On chest day say your doing heavy incline presses, that directly hits the chest as well as the front delts. On back days you will be training your rear delts along side rhomboids as well as other upper back muscles (traps, etc)

So training shoulders one their own day I would focus mostly on your medial delts. find mechanically good exercises that work for you to feel the muscle being trained. Overhead pressing isn't generally the greatest shoulder building movement but not saying it's bad either. I just wouldn't start with it being it's a compound that has so many muscles being trained in the movement.

I would focus it like this:
1. Lying cable lateral raises (this keeps the strength curve consistent as opposed to standing DB) work up to 1 rest pause set

2. Machine side laterals work up to 1 rest pause set

3. Standing bradford presses using a barbell 2-3 straight sets

This should be more then enough on direct shoulder work to get a burn and get them to grow in my opinion
 
On chest day say your doing heavy incline presses, that directly hits the chest as well as the front delts. On back days you will be training your rear delts along side rhomboids as well as other upper back muscles (traps, etc)

So training shoulders one their own day I would focus mostly on your medial delts. find mechanically good exercises that work for you to feel the muscle being trained. Overhead pressing isn't generally the greatest shoulder building movement but not saying it's bad either. I just wouldn't start with it being it's a compound that has so many muscles being trained in the movement.

I would focus it like this:
1. Lying cable lateral raises (this keeps the strength curve consistent as opposed to standing DB) work up to 1 rest pause set

2. Machine side laterals work up to 1 rest pause set

3. Standing bradford presses using a barbell 2-3 straight sets

This should be more then enough on direct shoulder work to get a burn and get them to grow in my opinion
I agree that my shoulders never looked better than when I focused largely on various laterals and not so much on overhead pressing.
 
I'm trying a jordan peters like focus, so before I was training three days a week, upper lower upper // lower upper lower, right now I want to focus my work on my arms, biceps shoulders and triceps in order (some years of ppl left my arms behind) and right now I'm going to do:
Upper arms lower arms upper... etc

This could work too for shoulders since the higher frequency and volume.
 
This probably isn’t gonna be anything ground breaking but, here goes.
1. FULL range of motion
2. Select movements that put together over a workout cover the whole strength curve
3. Get strong (with good execution) especially in compounds (yet to see anybody with weak shoulders that could press 315)

I know a lot of people here advised against a lot of pressing, but I personally built my base on a shit ton of presses. Machine and DB mostly, smith is also a good option. The key to making them effective is not arching and slouching to be strong (because you use your chest) but sitting upright and pressing with the bar coming right infront of your face or DBs besides your head.

If upright rows “fit” you, theyre another amazing compound movement.

For raises: I think front raises are shit. Learn to do laterals with extreme focus on the lateral head by doing them with your arms locked completely straight. Once you know what a pure lateral head contraction feels like you can add weight and get a little looser.

the problem with rears is usually the mind to muscle connection and that takes time and conscious effort.
 
Damn the z press is a real humbling exercise. Fawk. Not unhappy though, i mean im disgusted by my weaknesses but this is what its all about.

I cant get my arms up long enough to take my headphones out. Holy sheeit
Yeah they’re no joke. If you have a weak point in your torso they’ll let you know it right quick.
 
This probably isn’t gonna be anything ground breaking but, here goes.
1. FULL range of motion
2. Select movements that put together over a workout cover the whole strength curve
3. Get strong (with good execution) especially in compounds (yet to see anybody with weak shoulders that could press 315)

I know a lot of people here advised against a lot of pressing, but I personally built my base on a shit ton of presses. Machine and DB mostly, smith is also a good option. The key to making them effective is not arching and slouching to be strong (because you use your chest) but sitting upright and pressing with the bar coming right infront of your face or DBs besides your head.

If upright rows “fit” you, theyre another amazing compound movement.

For raises: I think front raises are shit. Learn to do laterals with extreme focus on the lateral head by doing them with your arms locked completely straight. Once you know what a pure lateral head contraction feels like you can add weight and get a little looser.

the problem with rears is usually the mind to muscle connection and that takes time and conscious effort.
I'm far from against pressing I believe they are a foundation of shoulder and chest growth, but I believe exercise timing could help some as well. I personally am shoulder dominant I don't have to do shit I get most my shoulder work from high incline chest presses to rowing and I sprinkle heavy side laterals in between. But I have helped grow some shoulders as well with timing and understanding how the muscle and joint work.

Upright rows I agree are a damn good exercise for shoulder growth as well especially for a compound movement. Just don't focus on going too high and making it a trap shrug with an upright row in between kind of exercise.

And yes I also agree front raises are mechanically shit and just boring and lame to do and uncomfortable lol.
 
I would keep shoulder day the same except I would undulate the intensity.

So, you normally do 85lb presses for 10 @ 10rpe. Instead, do 65lbs for ~15 but keep 2-3 reps in reserve (RIR). The following week, do it again but lower to 1-2rir (maybe ~70lbs). The goal is to repeat this until you're in the 8 rep neighborhood at 0rir... Then you begin the block again but start with higher weights because you've adapted.

Next, volume. Add laterals after chest. Ideally, you'd hit them 3x a week. I would focus more on the middle delt because you'll get the most visible results from that.

However, it's wise to take a week every month or so where you're going very light as a deload. If you continue to adapt, you'll need more and more volume to grow until you exceed what you can recover from feasibly.

TLDR - change rep ranges with weight changes, and increase volume.
The only thing I would add is never do the same exercises from workout to workout other than that, this really is the concept, basic as it is, and will eventually work given a good diet and appropriate overall and aligned volume and rest.
 
The only thing I would add is never do the same exercises from workout to workout other than that, this really is the concept, basic as it is, and will eventually work given a good diet and appropriate overall and aligned volume and rest.
Why..?

Getting strong and perfecting execution on bread and butter movements week in and week out will drive progress far faster than novelty.

I advise the exact opposite. Pick movements that have been around and fit your structure and mechanics and get really fucking good at them. Only change movements when progress stalls or youre bordering on overuse issues (rare if you execute every set and rep well). You will never reach and be able to gauge intensity if you’re doing this muscle confusion shit and guessing at what weight = failure at what rep range.
 
Why..?

Getting strong and perfecting execution on bread and butter movements week in and week out will drive progress far faster than novelty.

I advise the exact opposite. Pick movements that have been around and fit your structure and mechanics and get really fucking good at them. Only change movements when progress stalls or youre bordering on overuse issues (rare if you execute every set and rep well). You will never reach and be able to gauge intensity if you’re doing this muscle confusion shit and guessing at what weight = failure at what rep range.

Every 4 weeks is the ideal time to rotate movements - every workout is too often and never rotating them isn't really feasible... To get enough variety in movements, while rarely rotating them, would result in way too much volume. Probably work out great at first but not so much long term.
 
Every 4 weeks is the ideal time to rotate movements - every workout is too often and never rotating them isn't really feasible... To get enough variety in movements, while rarely rotating them, would result in way too much volume. Probably work out great at first but not so much long term.
Volume is just one variable and should be weighed against what you can recover from. Inside of that you can progress load and reps (in a small range) without adjusting volume hardly at all. Be interested to see what you’re basing 4 weeks off of. I’m not saying every 4 weeks is bad, but I don’t think there’s any hard rules here. Always up for someone doin’ me an educate.
 
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