Killer Hypertrophy Training: Shoulders

The shoulders are the link to all upper body movements -- pushing, pulling, throwing, curling, etc.

Without strong, healthy shoulders, even the best athletes are one mistake away from the sideline.

Unfortunately, most people don’t devote the time and attention necessary to build massive shoulders.

That ends today.

Here, we dive deep into killer hypertrophy training: shoulders!

Best Shoulder Training Tips

Train All Three Heads

Most shoulder workouts over-emphasize the front delts, which creates an imbalance between the front and back sides of the shoulder, eventually resulting in poor posture and muscle imbalances, which can lead to pain, irritation, and injury.

So, in addition to training your front (anterior) delts, make sure you’re devoting an equal (or greater) number of working sets to your side and rear delts.

Control the Weight

Look at your typical bro lifter and see him heaving and convulsing the weights up and down. Nowhere is this more evident (egregious) than the side lateral raise.

Not only is this detrimental to your goal to build big shoulders, but also puts the shoulder joint at risk.

Select a weight that you can control on the way up and down. This way you’re maximizing muscle engagement, leading to better gains and healthier shoulders!

Variety is Good

“Gurus” will tell you that you only need overhead presses to build big shoulders. This simply isn’t true.

To develop truly “3D Delts”, you must train all three heads of the shoulders, which means you need more than just the overhead press to fully maximize hypertrophy across the entire shoulder girdle.

While the overhead press can be your main strength-building movement, you’ll also benefit from including some other exercises in your shoulder workouts.

Killer Hypertrophic Shoulder Workout

Rear Delt Flyes: 3 sets x 10-15 reps
Seated Overhead Press: 3 sets x 8-10 reps
Machine Press: 3 sets x 10-12 reps
Cable Lateral Raise: 4 sets x 10-12 reps
Face Pulls: 3 sets x 12-15 reps