Shoulder work, it just never gets easier!

L

lesliew

Cathlete
Hi Cathe!

I've been using your workouts for 4 years and have been weight training that long. I really want to get more definition in my delts, but shoulders are my weak area and I just can't seem to get past 12 pounds for dumbbell military presses, 7 pounds for lateral raises and 5 pounds for posterior delts. I don't feel pain if I go heavier than that, I just exhaust after a few reps. It's very frustrating because I see strength gains in every other muscle group except that one.

Any suggestions, or should I just keep plugging along and if I can only knock out a few reps, so be it?
 
Oh I would love to hear the answer to this one! I so want great delts and struggle with that area as well. My DH laughed at me because a few week back I followed a lady across a little league baseball field and asked her how she got her beautiful deltoids! She laughed and told me she's a personal trainer and delts require heavy weights. Is this true? How do we go heavier for that definition and strength?

Lorrie

"Pain is temporary - quitting lasts forever"
Candace Grasso, CC-V-6
 
Not Cathe here, but I'd up the weights (as long as this doesn't cause any pain) and do as many repa as possible with good form. Eventually, you will be able to increase the amount of reps you do, until you are again doing as many as Cathe, but with heavier weights. With a smaller muscle group like the shoulders, it's a good idea to make small incremental increases in weight. Platemates are magnetized metal plates that you can put on the ends of your dumbbells to increase the weight in smaller amounts than some dumbbells.

A while back, Cathe posted a routine for increasing shoulder strength. I recall she started with overhead presses (because most people are strongest on that exercise), then added other isolation moves. If you do a search (it's in this 'Ask Cake" forum) you might be able to find it.

Another trick: try doing shoulder exercises one side at a time. It takes twice as long, but allows you to stabilize your body by holding onto something with the other hand, and may allow you to lift heavier.
 
Hi Leslie! Each of us has a muscle group that is genetically not as cooperative as the others, sigh!

But don't let that discourage you :7

To get stronger you need to lift heavier with excellent form, eat a bit more protein to help repair micro-muscle tears, put good recovery time between your workouts, and sleep hard.

If you think that shoulders are your genetic weakness, lets do them twice per week with three days off between your shoulder workouts (not all workouts, just your shoulder workouts).

The first shoulder workout will be the one that you usually do with a truly concentrated effort on your form from start to finish :)

The second shoulder workout that week is as follows:

Do a full 5 minute light cardio warm up so that you have nice blood flow circulated all about and then follow through with generous shoulder stretches and light arm circles to warm up the shoulder joint. Now you are ready to start with one lighter set of 15 to 20 reps of seated (with back support) military presses to prepare the muscles and then go right to your heavier sets.

Now you are ready to take on your shoulder workout:

For all of the exercises (listed below) do the following:

Do the first two sets with the heaviest weight you can handle WITH GOOD FORM.....(it does no good to hoist with momentum or make earrings out of your shoulders just to say you lifted it). Do only as many reps as you can with these first two sets (even if its only one rep). Then do two more sets with a weight that allows you to do 8 SLOW REPS (up 4 counts (takes about 5 seconds) and down 4 counts (takes about 5 seconds) So there is a total of 4 sets per exercise.

Rest and stretch between each set.

1) Seated Military Press....Use a bench (or chair) with good back support so that you don't hyperextend your back when you drive the weight up). Palms will face forward (as opposed to facing one another) and only lower your dumbells to about ear level.

2) Seated Lateral Raise...I personally find that I need to sit toward the edge of a bench (as opposed to having my back up against it) to do these with my best effort. Beware, the slow reps are burners....no momentum allowed }(

3) Seated or standing Bent Over Lateral Raises....really focus on bringing those shoulder blades together at the top of the movement (you won't be able to go very heavy here). Yowsa, the slow reps will get you again! I find that if I am bending at the hips to a 45 degree angle I prefer to be seated. If I am bending to a full flat back (with my knees bent about 45 degrees for support) I like standing better.

4) Barbell Front Raise or Dumbbell Front Raise...imagine you are standing in cement from the waist down. Tighten the core, plant the feet down, and exhale as you lift (not thrust) the weight. You probably need to lighten up now that you lost that momentum huh? ;-)

Keep me posted on your progress. Give it 4 to 6 weeks. Good Luck!
 
Another solution is to use the Slow & Heavy series. It allowed me to increase poundage on shoulders when nothing else did.
 
Cathe THANK YOU so much for this!! I'm going to give it a shot next week!!

Lorrie

"Pain is temporary - quitting lasts forever"
Candace Grasso, CC-V-6
 
Cathe I've done this "supplemental shoulder workout (SSW)" for the last 2 weeks now. I do GSBS&B on Mondays and this SSW on Thursdays. I've been giving the strength aspect and form concentration all I can, and I made the overhead presses up to 25#! (YAY!). But I feel like I'm beginning to see some delt definition - is this possible after only 2 weeks or is it my imagination because I want it so badly? (I LOVE defined delts!) Thanks again for this extra workout. I really appreciate it.

Lorrie

"Pain is temporary - quitting lasts forever"
Candace Grasso, CC-V-6
 
Here is the post Kathryn was referencing:

Cathe's Shoulder Workout - No Video
From Cathe on Building More Shoulder Mass:

"Since many people are strongest with MILITARY PRESSES, lets start with that and do a two warm up sets of 10 pounders (when I say that I mean 2 dumbbells at 10 pounds each) at 15 reps.

Now start a third set with 12 pounders and do 12 reps. Now a fourth set with 15 pounders and do 10 reps. Now for your fifth set use 10 to 12 pounders (you'll have to see which one you can handle)and shoot for 8 to 10 SLOW reps. For your SLOW reps, go up 6 seconds and down two seconds.

(Your shoulders should have some nice warmth in them now).

Next exercise: LONG LEVER SIDE LATERAL RAISE
Do two sets of 12 reps with 8 pounders
Do one set of 8 to 10 SLOW reps (up 6 seconds down 2 seconds)with 5 pounders.

Next exercise: FRONT RAISE
Do two sets of 12 reps with 8 pounders
Then one set of 8 to 10 SLOW reps (up 6 down 2)with 5 pounders.

Next exercise: REAR DELT RAISES
Do two sets of 12 reps with 5 or 8 pounders
Do one SLOW set of 8 to 10 reps with 3 or 5 pounders.

Final exercise: SIDE LYING EXTERNAL ROTATIONS
Lying on your side, knees bent, head supported with arm that is under you. Now with a dumbbell in your top arm and your top arm bent in a 90 degree angle at your side, rotate your arm upward as high as it comfortably can go without moving your elbow from its position.

FORM POINTER: Do not let top arm touch body at all. Rotate the dumbbell upward, keeping your elbow in a fixed position as if your elbow is a rotisseri stick.

Do two sets of 10 reps with 5 pounders.
Then do one SLOW set(up 6 down 2)of 8 to 10 reps with 3 pounders.

Do this workout 2 times per week. If you are ever pressed for time, you can leave out the rear delt raises since the lying rotation calls upon the rear delts too. If you do not start to see a difference in three weeks, change things around again. Good Luck!"

Upper Body

Equipment Used:
dumbbells




runathon
 
I posted Cathe's previous Shoulder workout right under Kathryn's reference to it, if anyone is interested. HTH

runathon
 
I am also adding Kathryn's reply (I hope you don't mind Kathryn!) to the orignal post (back in August 2005) because I think she provided great information then. I saved her post as well as Cathe's post. ;-):

From Kathryn:

GS back/shoulders/biceps has a good shoulder section. I really feel the burn in that one (especially with the addition of the band moves).

More than any particular shoulder workout, it's also important to give any muscle recovery time to grow. The shoulder is worked not only when doing specific shoulder exercises, but also when working chest and, to a lesser extent, back, so make sure that you leave good recovery time between chest and shoulder workouts, for example. If I do a 3-way split routine like GS, I find that my sholders get the best recovery and chance to repair and grow if I put the two upper body workouts as far appart as possible, so I will do chest/triceps on Monday, Legs on Wednesday, and Back/shoulders/biceps on Friday. Putting the leg workout in between the two upper body workouts gives me that extra time, and is also kinder to my shoulders.

On another note, make sure that whatever workout you choose, it includes work for the rear delts and side delts. The rear delts are often "forgotten" in workouts (Cathe doesn't hit those in her earlier workouts), and developing the side delts gives width to the shoudler area.

I personally often omit isolated front delt work, especially when doing an "all upper body workout," because chest work hits that area as well, the front delt can easilty be overworked because it's used in so many daily activities, and muscle imbalance between front delts (strong and tight) and rear delts (weak and stretched) can cause posture problems (rounding forward of shoulders, that you can see in some body builders, like that John Basdow guy on TV) and increase risk of shoulder impingement.

For the isolated front delt raises in PUB, for example, I sub an overhead press (but I do it at the beginning of the shoulder exercises, before the rear and side raises, so I kind of "do my own thing" in this section while working out with Cathe and the crew).

For "non-Cathe" workout, P90X has some excellent shoulder exercises. I just did "Shoulders and Arms" the other day. A great workout!
Kathryn >^. .^<
 
Thanks runathon. I just switched from GS to S&H this week, and will keep Cathe's SSW as my second for the week. Kathryn's advice was so helpful!

Lorrie

"Pain is temporary - quitting lasts forever"
Candace Grasso, CC-V-6
 
>Kathryn's advice was so helpful!
>

I did give some good advice back then, didn't I! I'd completely forgotten about it! Thanks for finding it, runathon!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top