This video is part of a longer series on how to work out the shoulders. Here UK Nationals winner Rob Riches focuses on the front shoulder, or the anterior deltoid. In the video, Rob shows us how to properly give that front shoulder the added definition craved by so many bodybuilders.
Here are some highlights:
- The first segment involves the use of an Olympic barbell for the first couple of warm-up sets. You’ll use a shoulder-width, over-the-hand grip for your front row raise. Since it’s just the warm-up, the first set uses the barbell without any additional weight. That means you’re lifting 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds. You just raise the barbell to your shoulder level by keeping your arms straight in front of you.
As you can see from the video, Rob exhales when lifts the barbell, and he slows down when he lowers it so that his arms stop an inch before it touches his thigh. Then he throws his weight back to restart the lift. The warm-up set shows 8 reps, and you can use the video to set the pace for you.
- The next part shows Rob adding a bit of weight to the barbell. You need to continue raising your arms until they’re parallel to the floor, and you should also continue slowly lowering the barbell so that your arms don’t though your thigh. You should also increase the reps just a little bit. Here, Rob does 10 reps and added 5 pounds.
- Pay special attention to your stance when you start adding more weight. You may want to try as Rob did, by putting one leg behind with the heel raised to act as some sort of kickstand. Without this, you may start putting your body weight forward and this will affect your balance. The third set sees Rob adding another 5 pounds, with 10 reps again.
- The fourth set is more of the same, with an additional 5 pounds for greater difficulty. Rob does only 8 reps, as that is all he can do for that set.
- The fifth set involves just the large weight, and by this point Rob can do only 5 reps. That’s the final stage, and you are supposed to give everything you got in the end.
The great thing about this set of exercises is that developing your muscles makes you stronger, and that means you can tackle heavier weights as time goes by. Obviously, if you are not yet as strong as Rob Riches, the weight you add may not be as substantial. Yet it should be enough to challenge you, and you can increase the weight incrementally as you progress.
Also in keep in mind that this super workout involves very basic exercises, so you may want to put in some variety so that you don’t plateau right away. Remember that your shoulders, like the rest of your body, will adapt if you keep on doing the same thing over and over. Always try to keep things different and varied — but the goal should remain the same: to improve your shoulder muscles.
