Boulder Shoulders

If you're trying to bring up your delt cap or in layman's term, your shoulders, try this very psychological approach. The shoulders are a very hard to target muscle group and it requires much concentration and imagination to activate the three heads individually (posterior, medial and anterior). 


The Exercise:


Bent laterals superset with lateral raises - I get a very good pump using two 5 lbs dumbbells with these. remember, you don't need heavy weights to engage the muscle fibers in the delts. they're a small muscle group and you can't train them the way you train your legs or back. Train them with light weights til you get stronger. Let us begin... Grab a light pair of dumbbells that you can handle for 15-20 reps. Now, bend over from the waist keeping your chest up and your chin tucked in to your upper chest while letting the bells hang freely at arms length and your shoulders protracted without slouching from your back. With your elbows slightly bent, imagine you're trying to touch the ceiling with your elbows retracting your shoulders as you lift off. Bang out 15-20 reps and without rest, stand erect for the laterals using the same weight as you did for the bent laterals. With your chest high and your tucked to your upper chest and a slight bend on your elbows, again, imagine you're trying to touch the ceiling with your elbows. Don't bring the bells in front of your thighs on the bottom of the movement, this will cause you to swing and use momentum. Instead, bring the bells to your sides or to your hips and pause for a second before every rep. You will feel a very painful burn in your delts and thank me later. But hey, that's just your first set. Do four sets of this combination and let's move to the next exercise.


Machine Presses - If your gym has a decent pressing machine for your shoulders use them. It isn't because it's a machine it's not hardcore.There is a proper way of using this gadget. But if your gym doesn't have any, then use a barbell. First, grab the bar or handles at shoulder width. Keeping your back arched, chest high and your chin tucked to your upper chest, begin the movement having the bar or handles at ears level.Wait, here is the most important part. Pressing up doesn't necessarily mean you should be pushing the weight upward with your hands.Try this instead. At ears level, imagine you're trying to make your elbows meet above your head. this will activate your delts. Do not lockout your elbows at the top to keep the tension in the targeted muscles. Do four sets of this and practice entering doors sideways...

Back... Hard and Heavy...

For the last couple of m0nths, i have n0ticed my back growth was on a standstill... i kept thinking, what am i doin' wr0ng? Am i lifting to0 heavy or am i doing to0 much? I Tried to experiment... did less but heavier sets... it didn't c0nvince me that it was the volume. So i experimented once again by bringing up the volume.. also, it wasn't so satisfying... so i tried to back off from back training and rethink my program. And so i returned to my back training after a couple of weeks and i thought it was time to get back to the basics. I Did what i used to do. And surprisingly i discovered what i was doing wr0ng. I wasn't c0ncentrating en0ugh... yes, that was it. It's funny how we learn s0mething and get used to it, and do it mindlessly sometimes. That was the case... i thought i learnt it and i thought i can't go wr0ng anym0re. But i was wr0ng... all al0ng, i didn't n0tice that i was unlearning what i have learned in back training... it's all about c0ncentrati0n... visualizati0n of the back muscles c0ntracting and extending... but what complicates this is the fact that our back muscles are jointless muscles and we cant't see them while we work them... we all know how hard it is to train a bodypart we can't see... so for you folks out there, train mental...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Not just another shoulder workout...

i like start a shoulder workout with either wide grip upright rows or lateral raises. I don't start with compound movements like dumbell or barbell presses because of the very sensitive nature of the rotator cuffs. It need to be warmed up properly so i cho0se to start with raises... i pyramid up and down the rack with raises until the lateral delts pop out. Next exercise is dumbell presses. D0ne with rest pause or drop sets. Very heavy and strict. This exercise is very go0d for fr0nt delt size... then followed by bent over laterals for the rear delts. Giving that thick lo0k for the shoulders... pyramiding up and down... 6 to 8 reps. Enjoy!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Shouldering on...

My passion for bodybuilding started way way back in the mid 90's. 1995 to be exact. I remember joining the ymca in chinatown manila. The gym was full of equipments we d0n't get to see n0wadays. Ymca was hardcore. Back then bodybuilding for me at a young age of 18 was all about building a thick chest and a huge biceps. I Didn't care about training my back, my shoulders... i work my back and shouldrs yes, but i didnt put to0 much of my mind into it. That time it was all just going through th3d m0ti0n.. and so i to0k the military press stati0n, the t bar row, the seated row stati0n for granted... n0w im full of regret dat i didnt take advntage of those important to0ls for sculpting my shoulders and my back. Ymca's military pres stati0n is just like d 1 ron coleman uses in metroflex gym in texas. The kind that you hav d barbel in front of you. With it, you can pres the bar from your clavicles upward. The 1 i crave for n0w that im addicted to training my delts..

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Going 50...

No kids, I'm not turning 50 yet. My new workout intensity boosting technique is called 50's... Why the name? read on. You may notice that my last post is about to turn 1 year old. Well, I have been busy the past months, as a matter of fact, I took a time off from the gym. As you would all expect, my body shrunk. And along with the size, my confidence lessened. Stress came alongside too. Then after more than six months, I decided, it's about time to go banging weights again. At the 1st 2 weeks of trying to get back in shape, working out was a torture. But it gets easier as i realize my desire to get back in shape. now after less than 2 months of toiling in the gym... i have developed a new way to boost intensity. It's called 50's...

Explanation:

After working on your normal workout, let's say chest, follow it up with 50's.

choose a weight that is not too heavy for you. But not too light to keep it challenging. let's say you can do 200 pound bench presses with 10 reps, the weight should be around 150 or 160... start doing reps untl u can do no more. if you cranked out 12, don't lose count, put the weight down, rest 4 a max of 15 secs, then crank out more. If you were able to crank out 8 reps, then that's already 20 counting the 12 you did. carry on til you complete 50 reps. the key to this intensity booster is the rest period. just 15 secs. any more and u'll be resting too much thus lessening the intensity potential.

that's it, enjoy this technique...

What pisses you off in the gym part 2...

He walks like he's as big as ronnie coleman, he screams and slams a pair of 20 pund dumbells after his set of flat dumbell presses. He approaches the mirror with his arms 1 mile away from his sides.. Tese people who suffers (ILS) imaginary lat syndrome are the worst nuisance in the gym. Sometimes they approach u and tell u that what u're doing is a bit off.. Sometimes they try to act as the guru trying to teach poor beginners in the gym who i think know better than what they know.. Tsk tsk.. Sometimes i fear that i might lose cntrol upon seeing these individuals do they're stuff, and i just might unconsciously give them a smackdown! Don't you just hate 'em?

Not just another bench pressing technique...

Many of us who aspire to have massive, muscular chest depend on the bench press. Heavy bench presses bring mass to the pec area. Only if we do know how to execute the exercise properlyl the proper form when bench pressing is to have our back arched a little bit. This way we can be sure that the chest is higher than the shoulders when we're doing the exercise. Another pointer is to keep the back muscles tight while benching. This will support the whole body while being under such heavy barbells. Bench pressing is as much psychological than physical. We need intense mind muscle connection here. Instead of tying to push the bar upwards, try to imagine that u're trying ti straighthen ur elbows. Eliminating the work or the push from the hands and wrists. This way we are targeting all the muscle fibers in the chest. And at the same time lessen shoulder and elbow injuries. Til next time!

Psyched up and ready to rumble!

I am so pumped up today that i am so excited to hit the gym! Im traing chest tonyt and its no secret that i love traing chest! I have renewed techniques with the bench and im lookin forward to putting it to a test. See y'all in the gym!

Heavy mettle part 2

Doing the military presses bhind the neck gves me full cntrol over the weight. And it allows me to lift more weight. Thus targeting the side deltoids to make my shoulders appear wider. 5 sets of military presses bhind the neck gave me that perfect pump i needed. After havng my delts pre exhausted by the side laterals, the pump was directly hitting my delts with the presses. So no waste of reps done. After, i proceeded to do dumbell presses. This tym targetng more of the front delts. 5 sets and i'm off the gym. Great pump! Wide shoulders! Try it!

Heavy mettle...

Now let me tell you guys about my brutal workout last nyt.. I worked shoulders. I have nevr been satisfied with the way my shoulders are built. Althought i have a fairly wide frame in the shoulder area, my delts lacked fullness and that is what i am fixing now. My game plan for shoulder development is to target the area twice every week. I heard that the oak had the same problem and the method he used to bring it up was to train delts more frequently than usual. So my plan is to try if the said technique could be applicable to my goals. I did 5 sets of lateral raises. Light weight. I used to go heavy with laterals and they nver failed to give me that burning pump. But alongside the pump, i have injured my rotator cuff doing it. So ive changed a bit and decided to leave my ego at the door when doing laterals. Instead i do the exercise with a weight i can control. With hi reps, i can get the same pump i get with heavy laterals. Minus the stress in my joints. So after doing 5 sets, i did mltry presses.Continued