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[music]
Today we're doing the shoulders, traps, and calves
workout from my Shortcut to Size program.
We're in phase 1, microcycle 1, which means our rep range will
be 12 to 15 reps on each set.
Now as you progress through microcycles you increase weight,
you decrease your rep range.
As you go through the phases, you'll also change up
some of the exercises.
So be sure to check out all the workouts on the page below.
Since this is the first exercise, I'm sure to get in
a proper warm-up.
Since it's microcycle one and the reps are high, the weight's
fairly low, one warm-up should suffice but as you go through
the microcycles and the weight gets heavier, you're probably
gonna want to do a couple of warm-ups to get up
to your working weight.
Now you can have a spotter if you do need one just to be there
to make sure you complete all your reps.
However, the nice thing about using dumbbells and shoulder
presses is it's not really critical that you
have a spotter.
Once you hit failure, it's easy to put the weights down
without getting injured.
I've also got my music.
Remember, strength is important during this program.
Having your favorite songs can make a big difference
in your strength levels throughout the workout.
Remember, since this is the first exercise for shoulders,
this is gonna be the exercise that you're gonna
track your strength on.
So be sure to mark down the weight you're using and all the
reps you complete on each set.
All right, so fourth and final set for dumbbell presses.
That means, we're gonna finish it off with a rest-pause set.
To do your rest-pause set, you're simply gonna go to
failure, put down the weights, give yourself about a
15- to 20-second rest.
That's it.
And then you're gonna pick up the weights again and get right
back to it, doing as many reps as you can 'til reaching
muscle failure again.
Now this is the intensity technique we're gonna use on all
the last sets for all the exercises during microcycles
one and two.
During microcycles three and four, however, you're gonna end
with a drop set.
Now we're on to the second exercise for shoulders, the
dumbbell lateral raise.
Our sets will drop down to just three for each exercise for the
rest of the shoulder workout.
With dumbbell lateral raises, a lot of people like to do them
starting with the dumbbells in the front of the body.
What ends up happening though is it allows you to use the traps
to start the movement, you build momentum and cheat it up.
Now I like to start with them at the side so that focuses
directly on the middle part of the deltoid, which is gonna give
the delts that round bolder look.
Third set of dumbbell lateral raises.
That means it's time to bring on the burn with a rest-pause set.
These rest-pause and drop set intensity techniques are painful
but very effective for increasing muscle growth
on this program.
[music]
We just finished dumbbell lateral raises which focus on
the middle head of the deltoids, that outer head.
Now we're moving on to one-arm cable front raises, which are
gonna focus on the front head of the deltoid.
It's important, because the deltoid muscle has three heads,
front, middle and rear deltoid, that you place focus on all
three heads in every workout.
During this workout, while the dumbbell press hits mainly the
middle and front head, dumbbell lateral raise can hit the middle
head, this front raise will hit the front head and then we'll
move on to an exercise to hit the rear delts.
Here we're using the cable because the advantage is with
the cable that you get continuous tension throughout
the entire range of motion.
That helps increase the muscle activity in the front delt and
I'll return to target here and that can help to increase
the muscle growth.
[music]
We're doing the third and final set of one-arm
cable front raises.
That means we're gonna finish it off with a rest-pause set.
Now remember, when doing single-leg or arm exercises
during this program, when you do the rest-pause you're gonna
reach muscle failure for that limb that you're training then
go right into the rest-pause.
Then do the exercise for the other arm or leg, reach muscle
failure and follow it up with your rest-pause set.
[music]
Moving out to the fourth exercise, this is gonna focus on
the rear delts with the high cable rear deltoid flye.
Third and final set of the high cable rear delt flye and, just
like every other exercise during microcycles one and two, we're
gonna finish it off with a rest-pause set.
[music]
All right, we finished our deltoid focus.
Now moving on to traps with the dumbbell shrug.
We'll be focusing on traps now and with the dumbbell shrug if
you intend to go fairly heavy I suggest you do at least one
warm-up set before you move up to your working weight.
All right, I've moved up to my working weight
for the dumbbell shrugs.
Now I recommend you use straps on these.
You don't want your grip strength to be the weak link
when you're doing shrugs.
If you're worried about straps decreasing your grip strength,
then add some grip training to your workouts.
Now that we're focusing directly on the traps, we'll be doing
four sets for dumbbell shrugs.
[music]
This is the fourth and final set of the dumbbell shrugs.
So we're gonna finish off traps with a rest-pause set.
It's also our last exercise for shoulder and trap work which
means after this we're gonna move right into
some calf training.
[music]
We're moving on to the calf portion of the workout.
This workout, we're gonna start with seated calf raises, which
work the soleus muscle.
You can start with a warm-up if you want on calves but since the
reps are so high and the weight is so low, I'm just gonna go
right into it.
When the leg is bent, such as doing seated calf raises, it
takes the emphasis away from the gastrocnemius, which is that
major upside-down heart-shaped muscle of the calves, and places
it on the deeper soleus muscle.
When we did chest triceps and calves earlier in the week, we
did the standing calf raise first, which does focus on that
gastrocnemius and then followed with the seated calf raise.
We're gonna switch it around so that we emphasize the soleus and
allow it to be trained when you're strongest.
That's why we're doing it first in the workout.
Now remember, during this microcycle one, your reps and
calves, just like with abs, are gonna be a bit higher than your
other major muscle groups.
That's because calves tend to respond better to higher reps
but, again, as the microcycles progress, we're still gonna
increase the weight and decrease the reps as we go.
Finally, at the fourth set seated calf raises.
That means it's the last set we're gonna do so we'll burn
them out with a rest-pause set at the end.
[music]
We're gonna finish calves with the leg press calf raise.
Like the standing calf raise, this exercise focuses more on
the gastrocnemius, that heart-shaped muscle that makes
up the bulk of the calves.
That's because when you do this, the knees are gonna be straight.
[music]
Fourth set of the leg press calf raise.
That means we finish it off with a rest-pause set.
This is also the last set of the workout so make it count.
[music]
Well, that's the shoulders, traps, and calves workout.
I'm definitely gonna be limping out of here after that one.
Be sure to check out all the other information for the
Shortcut to Size program.
That includes the workouts, nutrition, supplementation,
right here at Bodybuilding.com.