How I Blew Up My Shoulders

[00:00] What's the difference between these

[00:01] three physiques? It's the shoulders,

[00:03] right? This person has underdeveloped

[00:06] delts. This person has well-developed

[00:08] delts. And this person has 3D delts. And

[00:11] in this video, I'm going to show you

[00:13] seven shoulder training tips for 3D

[00:15] delts. So, we'll start with a few tips

[00:17] that are a bit more common, and then as

[00:19] we go, they'll get more and more

[00:20] obscure. So, I'd say most of you have

[00:23] tried the first tip before, but I'd bet

[00:25] less than 1% of you know about the

[00:26] seventh tip. Of course, these things

[00:28] that I'm going to show you aren't as

[00:30] important as simply training hard and

[00:32] being consistent, but they are

[00:34] techniques that I use in my own

[00:35] training, and most of them have at least

[00:37] some scientific support, which I'll

[00:38] highlight as we go. All right, the first

[00:40] tip is to take your traps out. This

[00:42] one's pretty obvious, but if your traps

[00:44] are taking over on your shoulder

[00:46] movements, your delts could be getting

[00:47] robbed of precious tension. Now, you'll

[00:50] hear some coaches say that since most

[00:52] guys want bigger traps anyway, getting

[00:54] some crossover work isn't actually a bad

[00:56] thing. And the argument goes, as long as

[00:58] you go to failure, your delts will grow,

[01:00] even if your traps help out. There's

[01:02] some truth to that, but I do think that

[01:04] for some trainees, their delts go nearly

[01:06] silent if the traps take over. And in my

[01:08] coaching experience, a lot of female

[01:10] trainees want to avoid growing their

[01:11] traps. So, this will help with that.

[01:13] Over the years, I found one cue to be

[01:15] most effective in helping people engage

[01:17] their side delts over their traps. Here

[01:20] it is. Picture that you have this long

[01:22] shovel and you're scooping sand out to

[01:25] the side. This will force you to keep

[01:26] your shoulders down and sweep the weight

[01:29] out using your side delts rather than

[01:32] shrugging it up using your traps. To be

[01:34] sure though, I went to the gym and I

[01:35] asked random people to try out two

[01:37] different cues. For the first queue, I

[01:39] just told them to just get the weight

[01:40] up. Use whatever muscles you need to use

[01:43] to move the weight.

[01:43] >> I just want you to focus on getting the

[01:45] weight up. So, use whatever muscles you

[01:46] need to to move the weight.

[01:48] >> Perfect.

[01:49] >> I'm already thinking too much.

[01:51] >> Good. It looks nice. For the second cue,

[01:54] I told them to think about keeping their

[01:56] shoulders down and sweeping the weight

[01:58] out like you've got this long shovel and

[02:00] you're scooping sand out to the side.

[02:02] >> Jesus. Wow.

[02:04] >> It makes it way harder, right? Did you

[02:06] notice any difference in like how it

[02:07] felt?

[02:08] >> Harder.

[02:08] >> It was harder than the second.

[02:09] >> Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Hey,

[02:11] >> I felt it a lot more on the second one.

[02:12] Like I could feel tension more on the

[02:15] way up when I'm like

[02:16] >> Yeah.

[02:16] >> down at the bottom.

[02:17] >> Good. Cuz you can like this motion will

[02:19] take your traps out from the beginning

[02:21] and then Yes. as you start to get

[02:23] through the range of motion, they have

[02:24] to come in because your scapula had to

[02:26] rotate. But

[02:27] >> if you can initiate this way, I feel

[02:29] like you can turn the side delts on

[02:31] faster. Now, this is obviously not a

[02:33] scientific survey, but every single

[02:35] person I showed this to said they felt

[02:36] more side delt activation when they

[02:38] focused on scooping the weight out

[02:40] rather than just lifting the weight up.

[02:42] The second tip is to train your

[02:43] shoulders more often. According to this

[02:45] poll of my audience, most of you train

[02:47] your shoulders twice per week. 24% of

[02:50] you hit them just once a week. But

[02:52] here's the crazy part. Only 11% of you

[02:54] hit them three times per week and just

[02:56] 4% more than that. That's a low

[02:59] frequency. And I think that's a mistake

[03:01] if you're trying to maximize their

[03:02] growth. Here's why. The amount of truly

[03:04] effective volume that you can do for a

[03:06] single muscle in a single workout is

[03:08] lower than most people think. It

[03:10] probably starts to cap out at around

[03:12] six, maybe eight sets in a workout. In

[03:15] other words, after you've done six to

[03:16] eight sets for your shoulders in a

[03:18] single workout, doing more than that

[03:20] probably isn't doing much, if anything.

[03:22] A recent meta analysis from this year

[03:24] suggests that the cap could be as high

[03:26] as 11 sets per muscle per workout, but

[03:28] once you get above six or so, the

[03:30] returns are greatly diminishing anyway.

[03:32] Because of this, the best way to get in

[03:34] more effective shoulder work isn't to

[03:36] throw more sets on top of the workouts

[03:38] you already do. It's to hit them more

[03:40] often. Rather than cramming the volume

[03:41] onto just one or two days, spread it out

[03:44] across three or four days. Earlier in my

[03:46] bodybuilding career, I used to do three

[03:48] sets of dumbbell lateral raises after

[03:50] every single workout, 5 days a week. I

[03:52] think that made a difference. But what

[03:55] about recovery? Well, this is anecdotal,

[03:57] but from my coaching experience, your

[03:59] shoulders do recover pretty quickly.

[04:01] They almost never get sore. Like, do you

[04:03] remember the last time your shoulders

[04:05] actually got sore? And in my coaching

[04:07] experience, they can tolerate quite a

[04:09] beating. My shoulder strength bounces

[04:10] back really fast, even after super hard

[04:12] workouts. So, even if you hit them hard

[04:14] with 3 to six sets on one day, you

[04:16] should feel ready to hit them again

[04:18] within 24 to 48 hours, especially if

[04:20] you're focusing on isolation exercises

[04:22] like lateral raises and rear delt flies.

[04:24] And if you want to pause and screenshot,

[04:26] this is how I'd set up a higher

[04:27] frequency shoulder plan, which borrows

[04:29] from my new Minmax program. Okay, tip

[04:31] three is to get a brutally strong

[04:33] shoulder press. For me, that's this

[04:35] machine shoulder press, but it can be

[04:36] any vertical press that you can

[04:38] overload. machine, dumbbell or barbell.

[04:40] Load it up with a weight that you can do

[04:41] for five or six reps and add a little

[04:43] weight each week. Stick with that for a

[04:45] year, a full year. And if after a year

[04:48] you haven't gained some serious shoulder

[04:49] mass, come back to this video, take your

[04:52] leg back, and swap it for a dislike.

[04:54] You've earned it. The reason why this

[04:55] works is simple. As you progressively

[04:57] lift more and more weight on the

[04:58] shoulder press, you're increasing the

[05:00] mechanical tension that your delts

[05:02] experience. Mechanical tension is the

[05:04] main driver of hypertrophy. It isn't

[05:06] that strength directly causes more size,

[05:09] but they are linked. If your delts are

[05:11] getting stronger on the same exercise

[05:12] with the same reps and the same form,

[05:15] you have in all likelihood added new

[05:17] contractile tissue to be able to produce

[05:19] that extra force. Now, you'll often hear

[05:21] that you don't need a vertical press

[05:23] because they only hit your front delts.

[05:24] And your front delts already get all the

[05:26] work that they need on horizontal

[05:28] presses. And yes, your front delts do

[05:30] get a lot of work on horizontal presses,

[05:32] but your side delts are a lot more

[05:34] active on vertical presses than people

[05:36] realize. In fact, I tested this out for

[05:38] myself with EMG and actually saw more

[05:41] side delt activation than front delt

[05:43] activation on this machine shoulder

[05:45] press. And as we'll see when we get to

[05:46] tip six, since you can only add weight

[05:48] to lateral raises for so long, having a

[05:51] strength focused shoulder press makes

[05:52] sure that you keep progress moving.

[05:54] Okay, tip number four is to bring your

[05:56] waist down. And it's funny because out

[05:58] of every tip on this list, this is the

[06:00] one I think most people will skip, but

[06:02] it's also the one that'll have the

[06:03] biggest impact on how 3D your shoulders

[06:05] look by far. Here I am at 20% body fat,

[06:08] and here I am at 9% body fat after using

[06:11] my Smart Nutrition app macro factor for

[06:13] my cut. My shoulders are definitely

[06:15] broader and rounder at 9% because my

[06:17] waist is smaller and there's less body

[06:19] fat around my deltoid muscle. The cuts

[06:21] are deeper. There's more separation

[06:23] between the heads. And that creates the

[06:25] illusion of a more 3D look. Honestly,

[06:27] you could ignore every other tip in this

[06:29] video and just get leaner while training

[06:31] your shoulders hard, and they'll look so

[06:32] much more 3D. So, if you need a little

[06:34] help with your nutrition, you can try

[06:35] out Macroofactor for 2 weeks for free at

[06:37] the first link in the description box

[06:38] below, and I'll have a little more info

[06:40] about that at the end. The fifth tip is

[06:41] to lift through a variety of muscle

[06:44] lengths. Real quick to get everyone on

[06:45] the same page. A muscle is shortened

[06:48] during the contracted half of the range

[06:49] of motion and a muscle is lengthened

[06:52] during the stretched aspect of the range

[06:53] of motion. That's because the muscle

[06:55] gets longer as you stretch it and

[06:57] shorter as you contract it. So the

[06:59] deltoid is shortened from here to here

[07:01] and lengthened from here to here. But

[07:04] here's the thing. For the front delts,

[07:05] when most people do shoulder presses,

[07:07] they go from here to here and back to

[07:10] here. That's a pretty short range of

[07:12] motion. For the side delts, most people

[07:14] do lateral raises from here to here and

[07:16] back to here. There's some length here

[07:18] at the bottom, but peak tension doesn't

[07:20] hit until the delts are pretty short.

[07:22] And for the rear delts, it might be

[07:24] worst of all. Instead of going from here

[07:26] to here and back to here, most people

[07:29] just go from here to here and back to

[07:32] here. That's a lot of short length

[07:34] emphasis. But longer length training

[07:36] really seems to have benefits. These

[07:38] three studies showed between 130 and

[07:41] 190% more growth when training at a

[07:44] longer muscle length for the quads,

[07:45] biceps, and calves, respectively. For

[07:48] the delts, there's only one 8week study

[07:50] that kind of looked at different muscle

[07:52] lengths, and it compared the dumbbell

[07:53] lateral raise to the cable lateral

[07:55] raise. Dumbbell laterals provide more

[07:57] tension when the delta is short. Cable

[07:59] laterals provide more tension when the

[08:00] delta is long. And based on prior

[08:02] research, the authors hypothesized that

[08:04] cables would result in more growth since

[08:06] they offered more lengthened tension.

[08:09] But there was actually no difference.

[08:11] Both cables and dumbbells grew the

[08:13] shoulders about the same. That's why I

[08:15] think as the research stands, you should

[08:17] include both short length and long

[08:19] length exercises. But since most people

[08:22] overemphasize short length deltraining,

[08:24] here's the fix to balance things out. On

[08:26] your shoulder presses, go deeper. Don't

[08:28] stop once your arms hit parallel. Sink

[08:30] your arms as low as they can comfortably

[08:32] go. On lateral raises, use a cable and

[08:34] stretch it across your body rather than

[08:36] stopping at your side. So, sweep it

[08:38] across your body like this and the range

[08:40] of motion here rather than stopping at

[08:42] your side. In fact, they actually did

[08:44] stop at their side in that 8week study,

[08:46] which I think might be part of the

[08:48] reason why they didn't find a difference

[08:49] with dumbbells. One of the potential

[08:51] advantages of using cables is that you

[08:53] can increase the adduction range of

[08:54] motion and sweep the cable across your

[08:56] body while keeping tension. You can't do

[08:58] that with standing dumbbells. Or you

[09:00] could try crossbody cable Y raises. I

[09:03] love these and they offer about as big

[09:05] of a range of motion as you're going to

[09:07] get for your side delts from fully

[09:09] lengthened to fully shortened. If you

[09:10] don't have cables, lie back on a 20°ree

[09:12] incline bench and do cross body Y raises

[09:15] with a dumbbell. For rear delts, just

[09:17] make sure you're crossing your arms over

[09:18] across your body and sweeping the weight

[09:20] back until you feel a nice rear delt

[09:22] squeeze. Whether you do that with

[09:23] cables, dumbbells, or a machine. Okay,

[09:26] tip number six is to pick the right

[09:28] progression scheme for the right

[09:30] exercise. We all know that progressive

[09:31] overload is the key to keeping a muscle

[09:33] growing. You need to add a little more

[09:35] stress to the muscle each week over

[09:37] time. If you keep using the same weight

[09:39] for the same reps week in and week out,

[09:41] the muscle has no reason to keep

[09:43] growing, but there is a slight problem

[09:45] with progressing on shoulder exercises.

[09:48] Isolation movements like lateral raises

[09:50] are really hard to overload. If you

[09:52] start with 15s and just add 5 lbs each

[09:54] week, by week eight you'd be up to 50 lb

[09:57] laterals. That's simply not realistic,

[09:59] even if you get some serious cheating

[10:01] going. So, you need to make sure that

[10:02] your progression scheme actually matches

[10:04] the exercise that you're doing. For your

[10:06] heavy shoulder press, use a simple

[10:08] linear progression. Add 5 or 10 lbs each

[10:10] week at a fixed rep count of five or six

[10:13] reps. Every 4 to 8 weeks or so, do a D

[10:15] lo week where you drop the weight back a

[10:17] bit and don't go quite as hard. For

[10:18] isolation exercises like lateral raises

[10:20] and rear delt flies, that linear

[10:22] progression won't work because you'll

[10:24] quickly max out how much weight you can

[10:26] add. So instead, use something called a

[10:28] double progression. In this case, you

[10:30] pick a rep range rather than a rep

[10:32] target. Let's say 10 to 12 reps. Start

[10:35] in week one with a weight that you know

[10:36] you can do for 10 reps and hit failure

[10:38] or get close to it. The next week, do

[10:41] that same weight, but this time for 11

[10:43] reps. Then the next week, 12 reps. Once

[10:46] you hit the top end of that rep range,

[10:48] add some weight and go back to 10 reps

[10:50] again. The next week, at the new weight,

[10:52] add one rep again, and so on and so on.

[10:54] And if you're doing three sets, you

[10:56] don't need to add a rep to all three

[10:57] sets. Just one rep to one set is enough

[11:00] to keep progression moving, especially

[11:02] as you get more advanced. But

[11:04] eventually, you won't even be able to

[11:05] add one rep to one set without your form

[11:08] breaking down. At that point, here's the

[11:10] fix. Rotate in a new exercise and start

[11:12] your progression over. If you were doing

[11:14] dumbbells, switch to cables and run a

[11:16] new double progression there. Once you

[11:17] max out what you can do on cables,

[11:19] switch to a machine and run a new double

[11:21] progression there. You'd be surprised

[11:22] just how much of a difference actually

[11:24] having a planned progression scheme that

[11:26] you actually track and stick to makes

[11:28] over time. Okay, we've gone through

[11:30] keeping your traps out, increasing

[11:32] frequency, getting a brutally strong

[11:33] shoulder press, bringing your waist

[11:35] down, including some longer muscle

[11:37] lengths, and picking the right

[11:38] progression. At the very bottom of the

[11:40] iceberg, we have the seventh tip, which

[11:42] is to target all heads of the delts.

[11:45] This anatomy research took 60

[11:47] cadaavvers, dissected them, and found

[11:49] that instead of the commonly known

[11:50] anterior, lateral, and posterior heads,

[11:53] they're actually seven intramuscular

[11:55] segments to the deltoid, each with its

[11:57] own separate tendon. What we think of as

[11:59] the posterior head actually branches

[12:01] into three separate tendons. The middle

[12:03] head has just one tendon, and the front

[12:05] head also branches into three separate

[12:08] tendons. So each of these seven segments

[12:10] has a slightly different function. So

[12:13] instead of your usual front, side, and

[12:14] rear raises, add in some movements for

[12:16] the planes in between. To bias the

[12:18] fibers of the A2 and A3 segments, I do

[12:21] incline dumbbell Y raises by lifting up

[12:23] and out in a Y. You'll place the path of

[12:25] resistance directly in line with those

[12:27] in between fibers. For the P1 and P2

[12:30] segments, try a movement like the 45°

[12:32] cable rear delt pull. Stretch your arm

[12:34] across your body at around a 45°ree

[12:36] angle and sweep the weight down and back

[12:38] almost like you're pulling out an arrow

[12:40] to use for a bow and arrow. As a ball

[12:42] and socket joint, your shoulder has a

[12:44] massive amount of freedom of movement in

[12:46] all three dimensions. So, if you're

[12:47] trying to build some 3D delts, make sure

[12:49] you're training them in all three

[12:51] dimensions. Okay, huge announcement

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