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The shoulders are a fairly simple muscle group to work, but in order to build them into thick, fully developed boulders, you must study the anatomy of the shoulder. It is very important to understand the anatomy of a muscle before you begin developing it, to ensure you are stimulating all of its dimensions. For example, although the delts have the look of one round muscle, there is actually three separate parts or dimensions that make up the entire muscle: the anterior (front) head, the medial (middle) head, and the posterior (rear) head. The most common mistake that I've seen people make while developing the deltoids is being completely unaware that the posterior head even exists and therefore causing them to develop unaesthetic shoulders. This ends up being very counter productive for any bodybuilder with the intent of becoming competitive since building an aesthetic, symmetrical, well defined body is the key to winning competitions. The anterior and medial heads of the delt should be thick and round, while the posterior head should be large and square. The main advantage of having huge, well developed delts is that they give the entire upper body the illusion of being much bigger then it actually is, therefore giving you a major advantage in competition. Remember: judges very rarely are aware of your stats.
The Traps and shoulders are two of my favorite muscle groups to work. I train them, like all muscles, with one ultimate goal, to Shock and Destroy. Considering the fact that shoulders are a fairly small muscle group, I find that training them along with back muscles is very effective since the majority if not all of the back exercises indirectly stimulate the shoulders. Therefore it makes sense to train them with back, allowing them to attain the most effective stimulation possible.
Super-sets: Alternating back and forth between two exercises until the desired number of sets and reps are completed. This is one of the most valuable tools for breaking plateaus and getting maximum growth in your training. It makes more sense to work towards avoiding a plateau than it does reaching one, and then having to work out of it. To avoid plateaus, simply incorporate a super-set for each of your body parts every two weeks, but depending on your muscles response to exercise, you may need it every week. From my training, I've found that super setting dumbbell presses and dumbbell shoulder shrugs is very effective in developing huge shoulders and traps. I like to use dumbbells as opposed to barbells because it does not restrict the angles which you can work the muscle. Although this works well for me, like anything, you should experiment with different exercises, number of sets and reps and the resistance used until you find what works best for you.
I believe that the majority of your upper body pressing power comes from your shoulders, weather it be bench press or shoulder presses. In order to build a up to a big bench press, it is VERY important that you train the delts for extreme strength. The most effective strength building exercise for the shoulders is the standing military press. Execute this exercise in front of your head to avoid shoulder injury.
by Bryan Locke
Shoulders Workout and tips
DIET: THE FOUNDATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
Where diet is concerned, proteins are the fundamental nutrient for the bodybuilder. Some bodybuilders highlight the importance of carbohydrates –which they are so- and there are even ones who champion high-fat diets, which have been proven to offer certain advantages.
However, it’s been made patently clear that proteins are the instrumental macronutrient in the formation of muscle tissue and the repair of those demolished on a daily basis. Without proteins the body is unable to carry out the repairs, and the bodybuilder cannot achieve their prime objective: to build extra muscle.
Weight training wears away muscle fibres, which the body must mend afterwards, and in the wake of the over-compensation process these fibres are not just repaired, but also built thicker and stronger to reinforce them in anticipation of a further onslaught in the future. That’s how the development process works, but protein is the
material required for this repair and redevelopment, so you either have plenty of it in your diet or you miss out. In other words muscles aren’t put together with thin air but with proteins.
The food we eat each day fuels the “human machine,” for thanks to the food we acquire the necessary calories for the body to go about its vital functions and us to carry out our daily tasks.
Calories, as you’ll be aware, come from the three macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Proteins and carbohydrates contain four calories per gram, whereas the same measure of fats will give you nine.
The job of the carbohydrates and fats is to provide us with energy. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy and all of the body’s cells will opt for these over fats. However, when the body has no need for carbohydrates it stores them as fat and saves them for a future occasion on which it might need energy. It could be said
that the body is slower to use the fat up as energy, but that this energy does last longer.
Calories surplus to requirements join the existing adipose tissue (fat under the surface).
Proteins can also be employed for energy Today, both professionals and standard
bodybuilders are aware that if they fail to observe an appropriate diet, tailored to their objectives, then no matter how much they pound the weights it will be to little or no avail.
Theory doesn’t come into it: these are facts confirmed by millions of bodybuilders.
Furthermore, it has been illustrated time and time again that serious training is required to urge the development, but that without the right nutrients in the right quantities, this exercise will stray into the realms of overtraining. Exhaustion
will overcome you and the body will begin to part with muscle tissue, even allowing illness to creep in if you persist with all this graft and don’t have a diet to match the exertion.
Besides, if your diet is inappropriate you’ll have a tough job keeping up the intensity of your training, since our food provides us with the energy to make this possible. So if your body doesn’t have nutrients of the finest quality and in the correct quantities, not only will it refuse to build a single scrap of muscle, but also forbid you from training at a certain intensity regularly. when the body has no carbohydrates. Then they become glucose as a result of the process known as “glycogenesis.” However, they’re a poor source as such compared to carbohydrates, and even to fats. The true function of proteins is plastic, for they mend and form all bodily structures, from the skin, hair and internal organs to the muscles and enzymes themselves.
A sound diet must be perfectly balanced,comprising all three macronutrients in the
correct proportions. Yes we’ve said that proteins are the primary one for bodybuilders, but that’s not a licence to be slack with the other two, or to
disregard them all together even. Carbohydrates and fats are in fact crucial to a bodybuilder as well as for day-to-day survival. It’s their proportion within the diet, one which varies according to our personal features and goals, that stands at the core of it all. This proportion won’t be the same for a 20-year old student
weighing 60kg (132lbs) at a height of 5’9”, who has all the comforts of home and is looking to put as much muscle together as possible, as it
will for a 40-year old father of three, weighing 90kg (198lbs) and standing 5’4”, in full-time employment and aiming to slim down. That’s why I’m totally against those stereotypical diets which publications passing themselves off as health and fitness magazines tend to present us.
Some food tips in this muscle video
by Greg Kaufman