Do This Every Shoulder Workout For Lagging Rear Delts!

Today I’m going to show you how to start to build up your shoulders, especially if your rear deltoids are a lagging body part. For a lot of us they are, they just don’t get enough attention with all the exercises that we’re doing. So, if you’ve missed any of the other videos in this series (these videos can be used if you have a lagging body part, if you have muscle imbalances, or if you just need to spark some growth), you can check out the full playlist HERE! As I continue this series (I plan on hitting every single body part), all those videos will go there, so make sure to bookmark the playlist!

This workout is going to work the same way as the others. Most of us go to the gym, and we only focus on two out of the three muscle building mechanisms – Mechanical Tension and Muscle Damage. Mechanical Tension being how much weight you can lift, and Muscle Damage being the micro tears that happen in your muscles from lifting in general. What we tend to not really pay attention to is Metabolic Stress, which is a lot of volume in a short amount of time. Once again, you’re going to take two exercises, and utilize those two exercises to smash all three muscle building mechanisms as hard as you possibly can!

Exercise #1: Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press (6 – 8 Reps, 6 Sets)

The reason why you’re doing this standing and with dumbbells, as opposed to seated or with a barbell, is because if you go back and you check out my VS series video where I actually did Dumbbell Shoulder Press VS Barbell Shoulder Press, I compared every variation from seated to standing. It turns out that the standing dumbbell shoulder press is going to activate the most rear deltoids out of any of the other variations (more than 25% more rear deltoid activation when STANDING versus SITTING).

With the focus here on getting those rear deltoids to pop, you’re therefore going to do the standing dumbbell shoulder press. What you’re going to do is very simple. You’re going to do 6 sets of 6 – 8 repetitions, while only taking 90 seconds – 2 minutes rest in-between your sets. Remember, you’re lifting as heavy as you possibly can here to take advantage of Mechanical Tension and Muscle Damage. As soon as you’ve finished those 6 sets, you’re going to move onto the next exercise.

Exercise #2: Incline Dumbbell Rear Fly (200 Reps: 20 – 30 Reps Per Set)

This is going to allow you to take advantage of metabolic stress. Not only will you get the pump of a lifetime, but you’re going to be targeting and smashing those shoulders as hard as you possibly can, taking advantage of all three muscle building mechanisms to spark some muscle growth that you might not have seen for a while!

If you’ve never done this exercise before, you’re probably going to need anywhere between 5lbs – 15lbs, or maybe as high as 20lbs (just remember you’re doing 200 repetitions). You want to lay on the bench (face down) in such a way that you’re probably at about a 30 degree angle with your chest. Don’t put the bench so high that you’re not really engaging your rear deltoids. If you’re not feeling it in your rear deltoids, then the angle of the bench is too high, and you just need to lower it a little bit.

Make sure you go through a full range of motion. Touch your hands / dumbbells at the bottom of the movement, then you’re going to bring them up and back as high as you can, really trying to engage those rear deltoids. But don’t just flail your arms around. On every single repetition, as you bring your arms back, flex and squeeze your arms and shoulders as hard as you can, before returning back to the starting position, and repeat.

Don’t Stop There!

But that doesn’t have to be it for your workout. If you still want to go ahead and do some exercises to target your middle or front deltoid, that’s totally OK, just make sure that you’re not applying this concept of 200 repetitions to every single body part that you’re training. This is meant to bring up a lagging body part, correct a muscle imbalance, or force some growth if a body part is being stubborn. The only time I would really recommend doing this for two body parts in one day, or at a time, would be if you’re picking one for the upper body and one for the lower body.

All you’re going to do is you’re going to train like this for 4 – 6 weeks, and then you can switch to one of the other videos in the playlist I mentioned at the beginning of this article, to start working on those other body parts.

Conclusion

As a natural athlete, you have got to take advantage of multiple growth windows. This means you want to do this routine on your shoulder day, but then there should be another day (or another two days), where you might want to do it again to take advantage of those windows. The anabolic window is going to close every 36 – 48 hours, so it makes sense to make sure you’re training your shoulders 2 – 3 times a week if you want to see growth!