Shocking Shoulders!

So you want to look big, even in clothes? Shoulder mass is key—obviously. You gotta take up more space from a width standpoint and fill out your shirts with seam-splitting impressiveness. Then, when you peel it off at the pool or lake, a pair of full, wide delts will have heads turning and eyes popping.

To get that type of attention-grabbing side-to-side wide development, you must train the entire shoulder structure with an efficient workout that doesn’t overstress your recovery ability. In other words, it must leave plenty in the tank for an optimal growth response while still covering all the angles.

And make no mistake: The deltoid is one of the most multifaceted muscles in the human body. It controls the movement around a ball-and-socket joint, so the fibers wrap around the area in bundles, moving in many directions for multiple patterns. Therefore, angle training is a must if you want shockingly full, round development.

Tri-Angle Training Plus

MRI and EMG studies reveal that raising the arm at different angles maximally stimulates different fiber bundles in the deltoid. Even slight angle alterations cause a change in activation patterns in the three individual heads-front, or anterior; side, or medial; and rear, or posterior.

So doing your lateral raises and upright rows with your torso at various angles will make your deltoids pop-but you can’t get carried away or growth will stop. The deltoid is a relatively small muscle group, so you want as little overlap as possible in the exercises you choose. That way you preserve growth-promoting recovery ability and avoid overtraining while still blasting all available fibers.

The Positions-of-Flexion delt-mass program is, in our opinion, one of the best-no fiber is left understimulated. It contains a few more exercises than the three featured in most POF bodypart programs, but that’s necessary because of the deltoid’s three heads and unique fiber positioning.

Shocking-Shoulder Program

Start with dumbbell upright rows, which enable you to attack the side heads with the most force, the key to max-fiber activation, thanks to help from surrounding muscles, like the biceps and traps.

At the top of the stroke your upper arms are in the same position as a standing lateral raise; however, you can use much more weight than on a lateral raise due to muscle synergy, or teamwork. That’s how muscles are designed to function best, so this exercise brings in a maximum amount of growth fibers toward the end of the set, when the reps are the hardest. Also, with dumbbells your hands aren’t fixed, so these are much more joint friendly than barbell upright rows.

Next you hit the stretch-position move, incline one-arm laterals, which provide unique resistance on the medial and rear heads as the arm moves down and in front of the torso. The movement pattern is slightly different from an upright row, but that’s not the only reason you use this exercise.

It’s the most effective at stretching the medial-delt head at the bottom of the movement. We continually refer to the impressive animal study that got a 300 percent mass increase after only one month of progressive-stretch overload. Talk about anabolic acceleration! The incline one-arm lateral raise is somewhat difficult to get the hang of, but make the effort—it’s a serious mega-mass stimulator.

The contracted-position exercise comes next. Since standing laterals would closely duplicate the movement pattern of the dumbbell upright rows, it’s a better choice to do lateral raises with a slight forward lean. For best results try them seated, or you can do them facedown on a high-incline bench (we often do them facedown on an Ab Bench). The key is to have your torso angled forward so you hit the fiber bundles toward the rear of your medial-delt heads.

Larry Scott, the first Mr. Olympia, was a master at the seated forward-lean lateral raise, and he credits the move with helping him overcome his narrow-shoulder appearance (coconut-sized delts will do that). Hitting those fiber bundles along the back of the medial head gives the muscle much more fullness and jutting roundness. Incidentally, two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler often starts his delt routine with this exercise, and he has to turn sideways to make it through most doorways. It’s a definite delt-width builder-if you get the form right. Remember to keep your torso leaning forward.

After the forward-lean laterals it’s time for a big overhead-pressing exercise for the front-delt heads and the front fiber bundles in the medial heads. Dumbbells provide the safest motion. We like to do them standing. You can also do military presses or Smith-machine presses.

Finish with bent-over laterals, which primarily hit the rear heads. Don’t skip this often neglected exercise or think it’s unimportant for delt roundness. If you keep your palms facing the floor, bent-over laterals also effectively work some of the very back fiber bundles in the medial head.

Okay, here’s the simple-but-effective Positions-of-Flexion shocking-shoulder routine:

Midrange (medial head)
Dumbbell upright rows 2 x 7-9
Stretch (medial and posterior heads)
Incline one-arm lateral
raises 2 x 10-12

Contracted (medial heads)
Forward-lean laterals 2 x 13-15

Midrange (front heads)
Dumbbell presses 2 x 7-9

Contracted (rear heads)
Bent-over lateral
raises 2 x 13-15

Rep Range Reverb

You may have noticed that the rep ranges are different for each Position of Flexion. Why? To enhance the mass-building capability of the exercises. For example, using lower reps of seven to nine on midrange exercises encourages more force production, while high reps of 13 to 15 on the contracted-position exercises stress tension and occlusion, or blood-flow blockage. Add the stretch overload of the stretch-position move, and you get complete mass stimulation through a number of different pathways-efficient muscle building at its finest. That’s what POF mass training is all about. Does it work? Check out the shot of Jonathan’s delts as he checks out his abs in the photo on the page at right.

Getting ultimate delt-fiber activation with the fewest number of sets means your shoulders will get more massive and rounder fast-you’ll look much bigger with wider delts, even in clothes (careful, those seams will be stretching to the limit!). Try the above POF delt program on for size, and watch yourself get wide!

Editor’s note: For more on Positions-of-Flexion mass training, see the e-book 3D Muscle Building, available at 3DMuscleBuilding.com or X-Rep.com. IM