| Shoulders |
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| Shoulders |
| Shoulders - The Deltoids Rising up the arm we come to the shoulders. A nicely capped shoulder adds width to the upper torso and finishes off the arm beautifully! When I first started training, a guy who had great shoulders told me that to get good delt development you had to press! "Press everthing in sight." Barbell Overhead Press - This exercise can either be done from a seated behind the neck position or standing and pressing from the front. I prefer from the front since behind the neck, for me, causes pain. When standing make sure your feet are even and your body is straight as any twisting in the torso when doing the movement can cause injury. Grasp the bar so that when you go through the movement your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Press the bar up to an almost locked-out position but not all the way so as to keep stress on the muscle you are working and return the bar to the staring position for one complete rep. Visualize the deltoid muscle contracting to press the weight upward, just don't move the wieght up and down with your arms. Repeat for 12 reps. Front plate raise - A variation of the front dumbbell raise. Grasp a weight plate that you can comfortably lift for 12 reps. With your back to a wall and your knees slightly bent, hold the plate in front of you. With a slight bend in the elbows, raise the plate upward from your thighs to just above eye level, pause and return to the starting position. Again visualize the deltoid contracting to complete the movement, don't just toss it up there with your arms. Repeat for 12 reps. Dumbbell Side Laterals - If you've been to a gym before, you've seen this one done hundreds of times. This isolates the outer head of the deltoid. With a pair of dumbbells in hand, hold them at your sides. Raise them out and away from your body so that they are slightly above parallel to the floor and return to the starting position. Repeat for 12 reps. Bent-Over Lateral Raise - This can be done from a seated or standing position. Seated - Sit on the end of a bench and lean over so that your torso is resting on your upper thighs. Grasp the dumbbells, which are placed behind your heels, with your palms facing each other. Now raise the dumbbells by pulling them outward to a position even or slightly higher that your back so that you are forming what looks like a cross position when viewed from overhead. visualize and contract the muscle - the rear delt - that is working. Return to the starting position for one complete rep. Repeat for 12 reps. Standing - Same movement but you are bent over with your kness slightly bent and your torso somewhat resting on your upper thighs. Try this great quad-set for shoulders when there's no time! Grab some dumbbells and hit a set of front raises followed by bent-over laterals followed by side laterals and right into a set of overhead presses! Feel the burn? Work up and down the rack for an extremely intense shoulder session! |
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