Its been nice getting back into the swing of things. After the initial "suckiness" of Laurie being back on the east coast has settled training has been going well.

I have been hitting shoulders twice per week for a while now. My body structure allows me to carry a lot of mass in my chest which over shadows my shoulders. So this has always been a muscle group I try and improve on. I mainly focus on rear delts and medial delts. There are actually 7 different heads to the delts if you dissect them, which I have in grad school. So the old school thought of "3" is wrong but often used for simplicity reasons. So here is some advice train your shoulders at multiple angles just like you would anything else. A mild change can go along way over time.

Shoulders were trained today. In this training session I focused on density and "metabolic" adaptations. So it went as follows

A1. Seated Side laterals-8 sets of 8 alternating arms non-stop until all reps were finished. I used a 25# db for these. The first 4 sets were fine the last 4 sets were burning. When I come back to these I will increase weight by 5 lbs.

A2. Smith Machine Upright Row ss Banded overhead Y's (rear delt emphasis). I pyramided up in weight 15,12,10,8 then did a triple drop set of 8,8,8. I ended up with 3 25's and a 10lb plate on each side for 8 then pulled some weight each time. For the banded Y's I really focused on externally rotating my palms (so thumbs out). This hits the rear delts but also aids In shoulder health.

A3. On this training day I only usually do one press. So I did a seated machine press. I worked up to1 heavy rest pause set. Worked up in sets of 8 until I reached a tough 8-10 reps then did a rest pause set. The video below was of my final rest pause set. I over shot the weight on this set. So next time I will repeat and adjust the weight. Don't abandon something just because it didn't go your way. Break down why and adjust for next time.

A4. Last super set was lying cable side laterals ss bent over cable rear delts. I'm loving this variation for side laterals. Its gravity friendly and helps you take the traps out of the movement. Plus, you can really find the angle that best works for you. 12-15 reps for the supine lying side laterals then high reps to failure for the rear delts 20-30 reps. I go real light with this and stay within a ROM in which I can feel the muscle the entire time.

So.... I wanted to touch on structuring your individual hypertrophy training sessions. I feel there's a disconnect  knowing how to structure your sessions. Walking in and just going from exercise to exercise is pointless. Keep in mind there are a million ways to skin a cat. It depends on what the goal of the training session is and how it feeds into the next session. So here is how I structure this session.

Again the goal of this session is density and metabolic type training. I don't want my shoulders to catch a break. I want them pumped and warm the entire session. So I achieve this by using different intensity techniques mainly super sets, tri-sets, short rest periods and cramming as much into a small amount of time, usually 45 minutes. I will track the volume and increase the following session or change the intensity technique to increase intensity.

STRUCTURE:

A1. This is an exercise that is joint friendly and that you know you can feel the muscle working. It is not going to affect the proceeding exercises. This is a great time to "activate" the ranges of motion in which you have a hard time feeling, short, middle range or stretched position. This should be logged in your inventory so you know what works and what doesn't. This exercise usually never changes or is rotated with only a select few.

A2. Here is the first exercise in which you really get to fatigue the muscle. Its usually within your strongest range of motion (short or middle ranges) and something you can work up to a decent weight without sacrificing form. This is short of failure but you def know your working.

A3. Now depending on the volume you can repeat another exercise similar to A2 but in a different range of motion or with a different muscle. For example switching from medial delts to rear delts of vice versa. Your other option is to head into your strength of power movement, i.e. your pressing movement. Depending on your goal and movement capabilities this should be barbell or db or machine.

A4. This is where the metabolic portion can come into play. This can range from giant-sets, tri-sets, super-sets, extended sets etc. The options are endless. Keep in mind the goal is not weight but creating as much metabolic breakdown as possible.

I don't want to go into too much more bc I think this is worth going into further, so I think I will write an article on it! Thanks for reading!