Shoulder Blasting Circuit/Combos

I believe that you can't have delts that are too big. Big broad shoulders give your body a totally different look... a SUPERHERO look. Not to mention that having big and strong delts can do wonders for injury prevention. Delts have always been one of the priorities in my training because I have a naturally narrow clavicle. Let me get this out first: NOTHING WILL BUILD OVERALL SHOULDER MASS BETTER THAN HEAVY OVERHEAD WORK. The core of your shoulder work should be push presses (the best exercise) and various forms of shoulder pressing (DBs, barbell, seated, standing, high-incline, wide grip, narrow grip, etc.). Basically become a strong presser at many various angles and from many different positions. But to really maximize overall shoulder size I also feel that adding isolation work is crucial especially if you have strong triceps (like I do). With isolation work for delts I like to use circuits (3-5 exercises) or combos (2 exercises) to cause a lot of local fatigue. This should ALWAYS be done one your heavy work has been done.

Here are some of my personal favorite:

THE POWERLIFTER TRIO: I used that one with a female powerlifter who has tremendous triceps and chest strength but lagging front delts when it comes to the bench press... A1. Close-grip barbell front raise 8-10 reps; 10 sec rest; A2. Medium-grip (shoulder width) barbell front raise same weight max reps; 10 sec rest; A3. Wide-grip barbell front raise same weight max reps.

THE BODYBUILDING CAP TRIO: I used that one myself since I wanted to emphasize width, as well as with a Canadian National Bodybuilding Champ... A1. 1-arm lateral raise sideway on an incline bench 8-10 reps; 10 sec rest; A2. 1-arm standing leaning away laterals same weight max reps; 10 sec rest; 1-arm front raise same weight max reps...

THE HEALTH AND SIZE TRIO: A1. Barbell cuban press 8-10 reps; 10 sec rest; A2. Barbell front raise same weight max reps; 10 sec rest; A3. Bradford press same weight max reps

THE ORIGINAL BODYBUILDING CIRCUIT: This is the one used by Daryl Gee: A1. Deadstart laterals x 8-10; 10 sec rest; A2. standing laterals same weight max reps; 10 sec. rest; A3. Deadstart front raise same weight, max reps; 10 sec. rest; A4. Standing front raise same weight, max reps.

Normally we do a circuit 3 times. Yes I do allow some slight cheating at the end of a set as long as the delts are still doing most of the work.

Gotta go to the gym and film some complexes, be back in a few hours to post a few more of these shoulder combos.

Christian Thibaudeau - 04/21/2011 © 1998-2011 T NATION LLC