Flex UK - June 2017

46 FLEX| JUNE 2017

CLASSIC MUSCLE LOOKING BACK

In conventional shoulder
training, bodybuilders prefer to
start with heavy basic
movements, followed by
isolation exercises. For
example, presses behind the
neck would be followed (after a
rest, of course) by standing
dumbbell laterals. Next would
be dumbbell bentover laterals.
However, there comes a time
when even a tried-and-true
routine like this becomes
unproductive. The reason? The
muscle and neural pathways
have become so accustomed
to the stresses of this
particular routine that the
tissue refuses to respond any
further to the same old
stimulus.
Whenever this happens, I
slip into pre-exhaust mode. For
shoulders, I’ll reverse the usual
approach by commencing with
my isolation movement,
standing dumbbell side
laterals, to the point of
muscular failure. Then, rather
than put the weights down and
rest until I’m able to perform
another set of side laterals, I’ll
immediately hike the dumbbells
to my shoulders and perform
standing (or seated) dumbbell
presses until failure. Man! What
a killer!!
I find that this type of
superset is unbeatable for
really flushing the entire deltoid
complex with blood and the
resulting pump is unbelievable!
The theory behind pre-

EXERCISE SETS REPSSETS REPS

Standing Dumbell Standing Dumbell

Side LateralsSide Laterals 4 1010

Pre-Exhausted with Pre-Exhausted with

Standing Dumbell PressStanding Dumbell Press 44 1010

Seated Bent Over Seated Bent Over

Dumbell LateralsDumbell Laterals 4 1212

EXERCISE SETS REPSSETS REPS

Standing Dumbell PressStanding Dumbell Press 44 1010

Standing Dumbell Standing Dumbell

Side LateralsSide Laterals 4 1212

Seated Bentover Seated Bentover

Dumbell LateralsDumbell Laterals 4 1212

SHOULDER ROUTINESSHOULDER ROUTINES

exhaustion is pretty sound,

too. Whenever you start with a

deltoid compound movement,

the smallest muscle involved in

the exercise will give out first.

In this case, that means the

triceps. The triceps cave in

long before the larger deltoid

complex has reached a state of

full stimulation. To get around

this problem, I perform my

lateral raises (an isolation

movement) first, to pre-fatigue

the deltoids. This way, when I

move on to my shoulder

presses, my already-zapped

deltoids continue contracting

beyond normal failure, due to

the assistance of the (as then)

untaxed triceps muscles.

It doesn’t really matter if you

use dumbbells, barbells, or

machines for the pressing part

of your superset. The only key

factor is one of time. You must

not rest at all between the two

movements. The transition time

from laterals to presses must

literally be “zero.” It goes

without saying that you must

maintain strict form, and

nothing sloppy, so as to ensure

minimized potential for injury to

the delicate shoulder-girdle

structure.

Give this technique a try if

you’ve been experiencing some

difficulty in firing up your delts.

I guarantee that, within a few

workouts, you’ll have

monstrous deltoid caps

blasting outwards in new

grow th.”

PRE-EXHAUST ROUTINE REGULAR ROUTINEREGULAR ROUTINE