Size Surge

In our workout e-books we’ve often discussed why dumbbell upright rows are a better choice for building wide, round shoulders than overhead presses. In fact, in The Ultimate Power-Density Mass Workout we classify dumbbell upright rows as the ultimate exercise for the deltoids—but one version of the move may be even better in many cases: rack pulls.

Most trainees do them in a power rack, which is why they’re called rack pulls, but you don’t need a cage. All you have to do is hold a loaded barbell at arm’s length with a grip slightly greater than shoulder width, and then with a bit of body English, or hitch, pull the bar to your upper abs. The wide-grip rowing motion trains the precise function of the medial-delt heads that gives your shoulders width and roundness.

Consider rack pulls a power exercise: Do them first in your shoulder workout. You may also want to pyramid the weight on each successive set. That will effectively build the power, or fast-twitch, side of the important type 2A fibers, which are most prevalent in the biggest bodybuilders; to mass them up to the extreme, however, you also have to train the endurance side of the 2As. We call that density training.

To go for density after your power sets, try a drop set on one-arm cable laterals; that is, do a set, reaching exhaustion on about rep nine, reduce the poundage, and immediately do another set to exhaustion. It’s an efficient power-density mass attack for building boulder shoulders!

—Steve Holman
and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Workout.com