“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
After reading this article, you are guaranteed to build your shoulders in the quickest way possible!
I have personally trained MANY people (including myself) to develop healthy shoulder muscle.
In order for you to get the shoulders you want, we have to start with your mindset and why you must access the most masculine state possible for you to get in the gym.
Everything starts with YOU. So here’s my trainer rant for this article.
Get Out Of Your Head and In To Action
Nothing happens when you’re in your head. In fact, I would go as far to say that if you are consistently contemplating getting in a workout, and not following through, then your goals of getting fit are fucking useless.
You have to want it bad enough that you’re willing to discipline yourself to go to the gym on the days that you absolutely don’t want to go at all.
Half of fitness is in your mindset, and the other half is the sheer masculine spirit that you must acquire to hit the gym hard and become the best, most healthiest version of yourself possible.
Fitness starts in the mind, and filters in to your body. That’s why I’m addressing your mindset. You came to a blog called Masculine Mindset. That means get out of your head about working out.
“When you’re in your head, you’re dead.” -Tony Robbins
Develop The Discipline to Get In A Hard Workout
I’m going to cut it to you straight. You my friend must develop the sheer fucking will to get yourself out of bed when you wake up and hit the gym hard like your life depends on it.
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Now it’s time to talk about why having good shoulders screams “Alpha Male” in a woman’s mind and why it’s so damn attractive to have good healthy shoulders.
Diamond Delts Are Highly Attractive to Women
Did you know that women find shoulders extremely attractive? True story, when they first size you up, they are looking at you when you have good shoulders.
I can’t tell you how many times I was at the bars and nightclubs, women would just walk up and start feeling my shoulders. Double standard, however, now you know what having good shoulders can do for you.
Having big, broad, diamond delts is one of the most noticeable body parts that women see on guys and it often gets you more attention from young, beautiful women.
However, I don’t want you to get too approval seeking. Because that’s a turn-off. When your internally validated and compliments from women don’t stroke your ego so much, you have the right mentality.
If you want to look lean, athletic, fit, and have good shoulders, then look no further. You are in the right place. Before we get in to the exercises, I want to give you one more tip to maximize your performance in the gym.
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Now let’s talk about the exercises and the sets because this is guaranteed to build your shoulders my friend.
The Barbell Clean and Press
I want you to start out this shoulder workout with 3 sets of barbell clean and press.
Aim for 8 to 10 reps. The higher the weight, the lower reps you do. Don’t ever bend in the back.
Keep your core tight, bend the knees throughout the movement.
This is an excellent way to start this off by doing a big explosive lift to burn a lot, I mean A LOT of calories!
I love this move for many reasons:
- It builds strength in lower and upper body combined because of the total body movement.
- The total body element adds a layer of cardio to it.
- When you keep your core tight, you work it, which means you burn fat and build your shoulders!
So now that you’ve completed this first exercise, we aren’t done with the athletic lifts. In fact, this next one is going to increase your heart rate even more!
Dumbbell Power Push Press
Now it’s time to do more explosive work! For this next move, you are significantly reducing the weight because you’re not using a barbell.
I want you to crank out two sets till failure. Wait, what did you say Adam? Yep, I’ll say it again. This move is not designed for a particular rep count, it’s to increase heart rate and for YOU to burn out your shoulders!
Power push presses are used by athletes. You want to incorporate athletic movements if you want healthy shoulders.
When you train till failure, you are burning out the muscle. So don’t go super heavy.
Don’t ignore this move either. I know, training till failure sucks. Sometimes you have to embrace the suck.
Face Pulls
This is how to get your back and shoulders looking very attractive! Do this move as it’s going to correct muscle imbalances you may have in the back of your shoulders.
I love this move, one of my favorites and my clients love it too. So I want you to complete 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps. Pick a weight that you will feel it, but don’t overdo it.
I cannot think of a better exercise than this one when it comes to hitting the rear delts. Do this move NOW!
Not doing it can actually hurt your back due to having shoulder instability! It improves overall general shoulder health, I say you are doing yourself a disservice when you don’t do it!
So get these 3 sets of 10 reps done!
Overhead Trap Raises
This is more about your shoulders, rear delts, and lower traps.
Overhead trap raises are extremely powerful in hitting the traps, however, when you train your traps, all portions of your shoulders can work more efficiently.
That’s why I’m putting this exercise as a great way to build your shoulders because of how many people I’ve trained that have poor posture.
And when you include traps exercises, they all connect to your shoulder which influences how your shoulders work in every day life.
When you raise the plate overhead, you are stabilizing your arm. Which means it prevents injury, so even though this is not a shoulder dominant move and works the lower traps, you are still improving shoulder stability.
So instead of going till failure (do this move for 12 to 15 reps). And then I want you to slow down the eccentric component of this exercise.
That means it’s on the way down. Raise overhead fast but slow it down when you lower down the plate.
Your lower traps are going to fire up as well as your shoulders since it’s an assisted mover to this exercise.
With this move, you are guaranteed to build your traps on top of working the shoulders.
You are looking better and better when you take action 😉
The Cross Lateral Raise
So let’s talk about why training with a light weight is important for this exercise:
- Firstly, I’ve seen so many damn guys perform this move out of form with higher weight
- Secondly, when adding too much weight, you are actually restricting movement
- Thirdly, with movement restriction, this can cause injury
Listen my dude, stop going for 15 pounds (unless you can ACTUALLY do this move without faking shoulder strength and restricting range of motion).
Please stop trying to hurt yourself. Honestly, especially on a move like this when you can hurt yourself.
I don’t care if you have to do three pounds, it’s better than trying to show off and then you get hurt.
Let’s talk about the sets and reps. I want you to perform 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.
Pick a weight that you can fail on between the last few reps, but like I said, don’t do this out of form.
More weight in this case is not necessary. It’s okay to go for the lighter weights here.
Dumbbell Scaption Raise (HOLD)
Let me describe this move further. I want you to grab another VERY light weight because if you don’t, you will hurt yourself.
Firstly, you want to have a tight core, then you raise diagonally. It’s not a front raise, but more like a lateral raise, just slightly angled towards the front.
Look at my classmate above, she clearly does not have the dumbbells straight in front of her, but it’s more angled towards the side.
I want you to think of it like a Y. The action of the exercise is your arms should look like a Y. Perform this move for 3 sets of 8 reps.
You are guaranteed to build your shoulders when you perform this exercise consistently.
Introducing Pause Reps for Extra Burn
Now, you are absolutely going to hate me for doing this (but that’s what I’m here for).
Believe me when I say my classmate you see above did not like this.
I want you to do all three sets of the Dumbbell Scaption Raise but when you reach the very last rep, pause and hold the dumbbells at the peak of the exercise.
This is why I said PICK A LIGHT WEIGHT.
Don’t have an ego during this move.
When you reach rep eight, hold the dumbbells.
This is insanely brutal but it’s the reason why I saved this for the last move.
Isometrics is insanely hard, but when you hold weight, you improve muscle endurance.
So for each set that you complete, I want you to do the isometric hold at the eight rep.
Recovery for Maximum Gains
I just gave you six excellent exercises to that you can do, however each move you have sets and reps. That means in between sets, you MUST recover.
Without adequate recovery time you can actually hurt yourself. So here’s what I want you to do. Grab a timer and time each recovery for 60 seconds.
So say for example, you do your first set of a barbell clean and press to build your shoulders, it’s time for you to recover before the next set.
Don’t ignore recovery. I will tell you through experience, I learned this the hard way and got hurt. If you don’t recover between each set, you are increasing chance of injury.
Let’s say do you power push presses till failure (if you feel that you’ve reached failure, then put the weights down). It’s time to recover before your next round of power push presses.
Read this article here, and you’ll understand why recovery is so goddamn important. As an experienced personal trainer, I had to tell clients “no” to starting another set till recovery is done and over with.
I’m not going to risk hurting someone because they want to lift before the recovery time is over.
Summary
My friend, you now have six excellent exercises to increase shoulder strength and stability (with some traps exercises).
I don’t want you to just read this and be like “that’s awesome, thanks for the advice” without acting on it.
Because too many times, I’ve dealt with people like this that don’t take action.
You are acting like a little bitch (no offense) but in all seriousness, an epiphany without action is just an epiphany and you can’t expect to build your shoulders simply just reading this article.
So do every exercise. Don’t be one of those people that can’t take action because “oh I’m busy.”
Fuck that, you’re being soft. If you want to gain the confidence of an Alpha Male and go from average looking to good looking by getting an attractive physique, then you have to do this, you have no choice.
So get in this workout and stop trying to come up with excuses to throw in a towel. One of the most unattractive habits is a man that can’t take care of himself.
Being healthy doesn’t have to be so hard the way you put it out to be. You just have to stay disciplined.
As always, I’m here to answer any questions you may have. Consult with me one-on-one here if you’re ready to take your fitness to the next level.
Follow me on Instagram at MasculineMindsetCoach. See you next time action-takers.
You look like a handsome stud when you better yourself 😉
