Thread: Need to murder my shoulders!!

20 sets is an awful lot

Interesting. I'm having trouble getting my damn shoulders to develop as well. If anyone has any advice I'd also love to hear it.

Originally Posted by Duncans Donuts

20 sets is an awful lot

not really.....atleast i don't notice it. i don't even feel a pump. Or sore the next days. hmmmmm....

Maybe up the intensity and lower the sets. Cut the sets in half and try techniques like forced reps. Pumps are completley irrelevant, imo.

ya, unless youre juicin' it up, too many sets.

I do 7 - 9 sets/week

Originally Posted by Arnie's left nu

ya, unless youre juicin' it up, too many sets.

I do 7 - 9 sets/week

i do 5 sets for every body part like that and they grow!...just not those blasted shoulders

If you lower the sets and up the intensity, you'll have some amazing gains.

intensity as in more reps or more weight?

3 or 4 sets? same amout of exersices? 3 sets sure feels like i'm doing nothing at all..

Delts get a lot of work from rows and pressing, I do almost nothing and they are one of my best parts.

1x Side laterals
1x rear laterals
1x barbell front raises (not upright rows)
1x rotator cuff work with very light weight

are you saying just one set of each!?

I do two working sets a week for my shoulders

Originally Posted by CRASHMAN

are you saying just one set of each!?

the anterior deltoid gets hit with all chest pressing movements, the posterior deltoid gets hit with most back exercises. you are definetly doing WAY to much direct stimulation of 2-3 heads of the shoulder...

it is my guess u are working your shoulders 2 or 3 times/week. i used to do that, it doesn't work. i think any routine is fine, but only do your deltoids once a week to failure if u want it to gain size.

u said it all yourself when you said that your delts dont hurt at all they next day, that is usually a sign that the muscle is overtrained.

I only work my shoulders once per week since they get murdered by all the other indirect stuff I do and they tend to be over trained. Two of the shoulder exercises I did like though was the Arnold Press and the Reverse Overhead Dumbell Laterals.

OD

Originally Posted by mino lee

u said it all yourself when you said that your delts dont hurt at all they next day, that is usually a sign that the muscle is overtrained.

Not neccessarily, detraining sets in around the five day mark, which means every week you're starting behind the 8-ball if you are only training it once per week. That soreness is DOMS. If you trained your shoulders twice per week you wouldn't get DOMS because you'd never allow them to get detrained at all.

Detraining sets in around the five day mark? Is there evidence to support that?

Originally Posted by gmea

Not neccessarily, detraining sets in around the five day mark, which means every week you're starting behind the 8-ball if you are only training it once per week. That soreness is DOMS. If you trained your shoulders twice per week you wouldn't get DOMS because you'd never allow them to get detrained at all.

5 days to detrain??...Depending on the intensity of my workout and the muscles that I worked, my muscles may still be sore 5 days later. I know that it is delayed onset muscle soreness but I always thought if the muscle is still sore that it can't be totally recovered from the previous workout.

If I trained my shoulders twice a week like you mentioned I would always be "behind the 8-ball" ...I would never give my body time to repair, and this would lead to overtraining.

Originally Posted by CRASHMAN

I was thinking about competing soon (February) but my shoulders are being little bastards about growing so if any of you guys have any Monster shoulder routines i'd love to have em.

my Routine:
Presses 5 sets 12
laterals raises 5 sets 12
front raises 5 sets 12
rear raises 5 sets 12

ya i say twelve but its usually till my muscles can't lift anymore...(around 8)

do you have a kitchen knife?

Originally Posted by CRASHMAN

are you saying just one set of each!?

Yep, with rows and pressing everything is already getting hit hard.

Originally Posted by mino lee

it is my guess u are working your shoulders 2 or 3 times/week.

Each muscle group once a week.

Originally Posted by Mudge

Yep, with rows and pressing everything is already getting hit hard.

wow that makes me hate shoulder day alot less

If you are competing soon, why are you doing 12 reps? Cut down to 5-8 reps and only 3 sets.

Also, whenever I want to really work my shoulders, I do this:
With 5 lb dumbbells in each hand, I punch a heavy punching bag until I cant lift my arms, rest for a minute, and repeat. Then, I jump rope until they are burning again. Finally, I do some actual lifts, I use standing presses, side lifts, and L-laterals. If this routine is possible for you, see if you get some improvement.

Originally Posted by kick_boxer

If you are competing soon, why are you doing 12 reps? Cut down to 5-8 reps and only 3 sets.

Also, whenever I want to really work my shoulders, I do this:
With 5 lb dumbbells in each hand, I punch a heavy punching bag until I cant lift my arms, rest for a minute, and repeat. Then, I jump rope until they are burning again. Finally, I do some actual lifts, I use standing presses, side lifts, and L-laterals. If this routine is possible for you, see if you get some improvement.

If anything that will cause the muscles to just gain more endurance rather than mass. You don't want to completely drain he muscle before lifting b/c then you have nothing to put into it, same concept as cardio before weight lifting.

If you want to grow you need to be in a posotive cal intake and focus on your lifts. Try lowering the sets you are doing b/c they delts get hit so hard with everything else. I do no more then 4-6 sets for my delts and they are growing just fine. Try to build up the medial delts some, its plays a little mind game and makes it look like your shoulders are bigger then they actually are, not to mention it helps with a killer "V" shape.

Hey, Im just sayin whats worked for me...my shoulder have grown the most out of any body part. But youre right, dont overload on endurance exercises right before a lifting session.

Originally Posted by gmea

Not neccessarily, detraining sets in around the five day mark, which means every week you're starting behind the 8-ball if you are only training it once per week. That soreness is DOMS. If you trained your shoulders twice per week you wouldn't get DOMS because you'd never allow them to get detrained at all.

Even if detraining occurs within 5 days, which I doubt because I have never heard anything of the sort before, then it doesn't matter. Shoulders get hit during rowing and pressing movements as said previously, so they are really getting hit more frequently than once every seven day.