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Basketball-sized Shoulders: Here’s how to get ’em

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So, you want boulder shoulders huh? You press, you flail, you lateral raise and still nothing. “Where’s my shoulders??” you scream. You want bigger, boulder shoulders? This is your guide to bigger and wider shoulders with the best shoulder workouts. Keep reading.

Let’s take it back to basics.

Your shoulder is comprised of 3 “heads”. Just like your triceps have three, and biceps two, you shoulder has three different heads. There’s the front delt (used in many pressing movements), side or lateral delt (used in lateral raises) and the rear delt (used in many back exercises).

Shoulder muscle anatomy

Best Shoulder Exercises

Barbell Shoulder Press

Oh baby. Nothing else makes you feel like a monster than lifting some heavy-ass weight over your head.

The barbell shoulder press is a mass-building exercise that you need in your program if you want big shoulders. Nothing says “that guy lifts” than huge basketball-sized shoulders.

The barbell shoulder press, either standing with a barbell or seated in a smith machine, works the front deltoid (hint hint thats the part you want bigger!)

For best results, load it up with heavy weight. Get your small accessory shoulder work in (lateral raises, rear delt flyes, etc) and go apeshit on the barbell shoulder press.

Front delts respond best to heavy weight, usually under 12 reps. Any more than that and it’s more of an exercise in pain tolerance.

A proper workout program should also include specific warm ups for each exercise too, as a way to reduce injury and prepare the body for lifting.

Behind The Neck Barbell Shoulder Press

Nothing else made my shoulders feel so good than behind the neck barbell pressing. If you have crappy mobility, this is not an exercise for you.

Just as barbell shoulder press, the difference here is that the bar is lowed to behind your neck (usually to about ear level). For some, this is more of a natural pressing movement since you’re pressing the weight straight up instead of in-front of you (normal barbell press).

Behind the neck pressing nails your shoulders that barbell shoulder press may not. Since it’s force you to come “back” more (rather than having the bar in front of you), it hits more of your lateral and posterior (side and rear) delt more.

Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Next to the barbell shoulder press, the dumbbell shoulder press is the second best choice for getting huge, boulder shoulders.

This exercise is great because it helps you build stabilizing muscles, making any pressing movement easier and more efficient on your joints. You can do this exercises seated, but you can do it standing for an ultimate gym power move (don’t say that though).

Dumbbell Front Raise

If you want a rock-solid pump, the dumbbell front raise for you. Since it’s not a pressing movement, this exercise is best done in the higher rep range (15-25 reps).

Alternate reps but you’ll get a mind blowing pump. Aim for 3-5 sets of 15-20 reps with a good moveable weight. It’s a smart idea to get heavy pressing movements in for shoulders and fill in the gaps with high-rep shoulder work.

How Many Times Should I Workout Shoulders?

This, like all other questions pertaining to frequency of workouts, will always be subject to change. To cut the BS and give you an actual answer is once or twice a week.

Your front delts will get taxed in pressing movements (think bench press) so you’ll be hitting shoulders on chest day. That leaves the rest of the week.

If you demolish your shoulders, your chest work will suffer. Stick to higher rep work if exercising shoulders affect your chest workouts.

Rear and side (lateral) delts are used much less in lifting, unless you’re doing specific exercises that also use the muscle, such as upright rows. Depending on how well you recover, rear and lateral delts can be hit 2-6 times per week.

Rear delts, like biceps, can be hard to biomechanically target. Having said that, it makes it difficult to overload and annihilate the muscle.

Side delts have a very fast recovery, allowing you to hit the muscle group even by the next day. That’s not to say if you did heavy lateral raises you can hit it again the next day. Listen to your body and recover appropriately.

If you stick with the original recommendation of working out shoulders once or twice a week, you can structure your program in such a way that you get heavy pressing work in one day (front delts), then higher rep work on another day (rear and lateral). This way your workout program is balanced and you hit all heads of the shoulder, thus creating that mass you’re after.

What Workouts Cause Shoulder Impingements?

All of them unless you warm up properly and have proper form.

Unless you are somehow prone to shoulder impingements, usually it’s a sign of improper technique and/or not enough warming up. It could also relate to limited mobility, which could cause improper form due to muscle tightness or imbalances.

Looking over my lifting career, I use to damage my shoulders and then I’d be out of the gym for a while. Looking at it now, I can realize my warm up program sucked. Now I perform some rotator cuff exercises as well as some lighter shoulder exercises (band pull aparts, front raises) and I’m injured much less.

Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises

This is a tricky one that isn’t as easy to target the shoulders with just bodyweight. Since shoulders are primarily used for pressing movements, with just bodyweight there’s not much to press.

Handstand Pushups

Certainly not the easiest to perform, but by the far most effective for bodyweight shoulder exercises. The body position of a handstand pushup is the upside down version of the position you’d be in if you were dumbbell pressing. The trick here is getting yourself up the wall…and not falling over.

The set up for the handstand push up is easy: facing away from a wall, walk yourself up the wall with your feet. Keep your legs straight as possible, leaning slightly against the wall. Keep hands at outside of shoulder width and press!

Workouts for Seniors and Older Adults

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Age is just a number, isn’t it? As you age, your joints and muscles become more brittle and more prone to injury. What’s the best course of action? Exercise of course! In this article I’ll go over the common issues you’ll have as you age and the best workouts to help improve mobility and overall strength. Just because you’re aging doesn’t mean you have to feel like it either!

Exercise (and movement in general) will help lubricate your joints and help with joint-related pain. As you age, cartilage changes in your joints.

What is cartilage and why do I care?

Cartilage is the connection tissue used for joints. Without cartilage, your joints would be bone to bone and be very painful. Cartilage is made up of synovial fluid and water. As you add load to a joint (let’s say your knees during a back squat), the fluid stored within cartilage is redistributed as to cushion the weight (as you lower and raise the barbell). This helps “soften the blow” and allows more fluid (hehe) movement.

With such diseases like osteoarthritis, the cartilage can be completely broken down and your joints rub bone to bone, making movement very painful.

While not conclusive, it has been show that regular exercise can reduce the overall damage to cartilage in a lifetime. This gives to the saying “motion is lotion”.

Common Problems Among Older Exercising Adults and How to Fix Them

Think about all the movements you perform in a normal day. Getting up, lying down, stepping up, placing items on a shelf. The most common pain in older adults is usually knee and shoulder. And guess what? You use those joints the most.

Let’s start with the knee first.

Knee Issues

First and foremost lets start with your legs. You’re going to use your legs the most in daily life, so you better protect them now before they get worse.

Generally speaking, most people use their quadriceps more so than their hamstrings because, well, it’s easy and the most convenient. If you’ve ever barbell squatted and have knee pain, chances are you’re not engaging your hamstrings.

When you’re not engaging your hamstrings, all the lifting is done with your quadriceps instead of splitting the load with the other muscles in your legs

If knee pain is going to happen, think about investing into knee wraps. They provide constant support and stability.

Shoulder Issues

Next to your knees, your shoulders are secondly used the most. From lifting to rotating, your shoulders do a lot more work than you think. Strengthening the muscles around the shoulder (similar to strengthening the hamstrings to take the load off of the quadriceps) help easy the pain and take the load off that the shoulder is carrying.

Unfortunately, if you have osteoarthritis there’s not much you can do other than try to regain some flexibility in your shoulders. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage wears down protecting the joints and can cause immense pain.

If shoulder pain is due to flexibility or rotator cuff damage, there are some remedies available. Strengthening the muscles around your shoulder as mentioned, such as your rear deltoid muscle and your upper trapezoid muscle can increase stability until you can add a load to your shoulders.

At Home Workouts for Seniors

Not everyone has the time or money to visit a gym. Having said that, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a good workout in. Latex resistance bands are an excellent alternative to visiting the gym and perfect for rehabilitation work.

These are the bands I use, I wrote a review about them HERE.

Band pull aparts are one of my go-to warm ups for mostly everything upper body. Easy to do and a good stretch before jumping into things.

Assuming you have a gym membership, here are low-impact workouts to help protect your joints and strengthen your muscles.

Leg Workouts for Seniors

Warmup

  • Walking Lunge (use dumbells or kettlebells for added difficulty)
  • Glute bridge walkouts for hamstring stretching
  • Glute bridge for glute stretching prior to lifting
  • Light incline on a treadmill

Workout

  • Horizontal Leg Press – 3 sets of 12-15 reps
  • Lying hamstring curl machine – 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps
  • Leg Abductor machine – 3 sets of 12-15 reps (highly recommended to maintain hip motion)
  • Kettlebell swings – 2-3 sets of 12 reps

Upper Body Workouts for Seniors

Warmup

  • Resistance band pull aparts
  • Childs pose (yoga)
  • Scarecrow rotator cuff warmup

Workout

  • Chest flyes using cables – 2-3 sets of 12 reps
  • Rope facepulls – 3 sets of 15 reps (highly recommended)
  • Dumbbell row on incline bench – 3 sets of 12-15
  • Barbell bicep curl – 2-3 sets of 12 reps
  • Seated dumbbell shoulder press – 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps (use light weight here!)
  • Dumbbell shrugs

If you start now, you can help strengthen your joints to ease the pain in the future. Generally, use a light weight so you can complete all reps and sets of the exercises. As with any shoulder injury, the last thing you want to do is make it worse.


Best Tricep Stretches For The Gym To Avoid Injury

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We’ve all been there: you get so pumped up going to the gym you don’t properly stretch and you end up injuring yourself. You say “next time I’ll stretch more!”. But you don’t.

Chances are if you’re working your triceps, you’re moving some heavy ass weight. And when you injure yourself moving heavy ass weight, the results aren’t good. Stretching your muscles prior to warm-up is crucial in preventing injury, increasing range of motion and mental focus. Start your workout with these easy and effective tricep stretches.

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Your Guide To Upper Body Bodyweight Exercises: Grow Without Equipment

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You’re at home with no equipment and you want to work out; what do you do? No matter where you are, bodyweight workouts are your best friend. Today  I’ll go over the best upper body bodyweight exercises so you can still get a pump in when you’re away from the gym.

 

Bodyweight exercises also can be classified as callisthenics, are exercises that use your own bodyweight. Meaning no external equipment, just you and your limbs. While you’re not going to look like Arnold after doing a few sets of dips, it’s still going to stimulate your muscles.

 

Bodyweight exercises can be performed anywhere, whether you’re travelling or just sitting at home. Since these exercises require no tools or equipment, you can increase the difficulty easily depending on your skill level.

 

Chest

 

Gold standard: Push ups

 

Push ups are the go-to exercise to working your chest with no equipment. Like the bench press, push ups work your shoulders, triceps and chest muscles.

 

Tips: Keep your legs straight and brace your core. Your body should be tight and rigid, don’t lose form as you complete a push up!

 

Variation: Stretch Push Ups

 

Stretch push ups are a modified push up with an increased range of motion. Start by getting yourself in a normal push up position. Now put your hands away from your body, approximately one foot from where your hands would normally be. Another way to perform a stretch push up is by having your hands elevated.

You can see that from the start the stretch push up puts tension on your chest. From the stretched position, you stretch out your chest, even more, recruiting more muscle fibers.

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What are Rack Pulls and How Effective Are They? Gain Back Mass

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Lower back exercises are constantly neglected, so you end up with a weak back because you don’t do any. How do you fix it? Rack pulls are the answer.

What The Hell Are Rack Pulls?

You’ve probably seen guys do rack pulls at the gym but you may have thought they were doing barbells rows funny. I don’t find it’s a very popular exercise in of itself, but it’s definitely effective.

In short, rack pulls are a modified deadlift with a limited range of motion.

Rack pulls are performed in a rack (duh). The bar is set on the safety guides at about knee height, depending on how deep you want the range of motion.

Rack pulls are effective at really working your lower back since you’re not limited by leg strength like deadlifts. This way you can target your lower optimally, without relying on your quads or hamstrings.

How Are Rack Pulls Different Than Deadlifts?

When you deadlift, whatever grip it may be, the bar is set on the ground. In some instances, you can step on a platform or plate to increase the range of motion of the deadlift.

As you straighten up with a deadlift you metaphorically push your feet through the floor, using the strength of your legs and back to raise the weight.

Now for rack pulls, the barbell is resting on the safety guides of the rack. For most, the safety is set to around knee height. If it’s too low, you’re just doing a deadlift and if it’s too high, the range of motion will be too short.

Just like a deadlift, you want to hinge your hips as you complete the exercise. Since your legs will be left out of the equation, your lower back will be constantly worked during the exercise.

Since the range of motion is shortened, you can overload the weight on rack pulls. Having said that, if you have a sensitive or weak lower back, this will be the last thing you want to do. Warm-up with a lighter exercise such as hyperextensions, with or without additional weight, before you jump into rack pulls. This will reduce the chance of injury by literally warming up the muscle.

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