Lagging arms/shoulders

jwstoick

New member
I did push/leg/pull for about 8 months and my chest and back grew tremendously but arms and shoulders started to fall behind. For the past month I switched to chest/back, legs, arms/shoulders which has been working good except for I started cutting and now the chest/back day is just too much for me. I put together a routine that still is push leg pull oriented but also focuses a little more on arms and shoulders. Also I have a quad dominant and hamstring dominant leg day. Let me know what you think.


Push
Bench 4x4-6
Incline dumbbell 4x8-12
Cables flies 3x12-15/Side lateral raise 4x8-12
DB Tricep extension 3x8-12
Tricep push down 3x8-12

Pull
Wide grip pull-ups 30reps
Pendlay row 4x4-8
Lat pull downs 3x8-12
Hammer row 3x 12-15
DB Curl 3x8-12
Hammer Curl 3x8-12/rear delts 3x12-15

Legs
Squat 4x4-8
Hack squat 5x10-15
Walking lunges 4x10-15/leg curl 4x10-15
Calves/abs

Shoulders/chest
OHP 4x4-8
Decline DB Press 4x8-12/Side lat raise 4x8-12
Arnold press 3x8-12/rear delt 4x15-20
Flat cable press 2x12-15/cable side lat 2x12-15

Back/arms
Tbar row 3x8-12
Barbell curl 3x6-10/DB ext 3x6-10
Close grip late pulldown 3x12-15
Single preacher curl 3x8-12/push downs 3x8-12
Cable hammer 3x12-15/reverse Tricep 3x12-15

Legs
Romanian deadlifts 3x5-8
Leg press 4x12-15/leg curl 4x8-12
Goblet squat 4x12-15/glute game raise 2x12-15
Calves/abs
 
I've been doing Christian Thibaudeau's growth factor shoulder training and I like it a lot: Invalid Link Removed

I'm in the same boat as you with having poorly developed delts. I can overhead press a fair amount of weight, but my delts have always lacked that full, rounded look.

What I like about the growth factor training is it uses mostly isolation work and you get a nasty pump in your delts from it. Since you're using lighter weight and it's not too taxing on the body as a whole like presses are, you can do it a few times per week.

I'm on a cut as well, so I only choose 1 of the supersets instead of going through every single one like what's recommended in the post. I'll do it twice per week on my non-overhead pressing days, so that way I'm hitting delts 3 times per week total.

Despite being in a deficit, I've noticed some improvement. I'm really looking forward to trying it out when I get back to bulking.
 
That looks amazing and tremendously painful all at once!! I'm definitely going to have to give that a shot thank you man!!!

How are you working the rest of your body?
 
jwstoick said:
That looks amazing and tremendously painful all at once!! I'm definitely going to have to give that a shot thank you man!!!

How are you working the rest of your body?
Click to expand...

Yeah it is painful, but in a good way of course. I've never really felt a pump in my delts until doing this.

As for the rest of my training, since I'm on a cut, I'm just trying to retain as much strength as I can.

So for the big lifts like bench, squat, and cleans (I can't deadlift due to my back at the moment), I focus on sets of 5 or less.

For everything else I train in the 6-15 rep range depending on if it's an isolation movement or compound.

Here's what a standard week will look like:

Monday:

Heavy BB bench - 5 reps or less
Incline DB press - sets of 8-12
DB rows - I go heavier on these too, so I do sets of 5-8
1 Growth factor shoulder workout from the link above (3 sets total)

Tuesday - Fasted conditioning work first thing in the morning

Wednesday:

Heavy squats - 5 reps or less (recently been leg pressing though because of my back)
Leg extensions/leg curls - 12-15 reps
Calves - 12-15 reps
Overhead DB press - 6-10 reps
Another back exercise like seated rows or pull ups

Thursday - Fasted conditioning work in the morning

Friday:

Arms and another growth factor shoulder workout

Saturday:

Cleans - 5 reps or less
Shrugs - 10-12 reps
Face pulls - 12-15 reps
Forearms

I was doing heavy farmers walks on Saturdays too before I screwed my back up.

Hopefully another couple weeks and it will be healed.

That program is just something I threw together for now.

Once I'm back on a bulk, I plan on getting back on 5/3/1 which is by far my favorite program for getting stronger.

I'm gonna put my own twist on it though and add some high rep hypertrophy work.
 
My arms always fell behind until I trained them heavy at least twice a week. I trained them alone one day and then did about twelve sets of his after back and 12 sets of tris after shoulders. On my arms only days I lifted heavy: straight bar curls for bis and close grip benches for tris.

Shoulders I would do some clean and presses and heavy laterals. Tri sets of raises: 7-front, 7-side, 7-rear=one set to finish. My traps always took over on raises until I figured out how to relax them to put the focus on the delt.
 
I used to do a similar split. I've found that taking one muscle group per day and just spending an hour destroying it and letting it recover for a week has given me impressive gains. It's actually not the work out that gets you stronger or bigger, it's the recovery. So, my split is: Monday-Chest, Tuesday-Biceps/triceps, Wednesday-Legs, Thursday-Shoulders, Friday-Back. Dedicating a day each to arms and shoulders might help you. I've seen huge gains in my shoulders and arms since doing that. Also, on arms day, supersetting a biceps exercise with a triceps will save you time and get you bigger and stronger.

Example:
Monday: Chest
DB Incline Press 4X6-8
Bench Press 3X8, last set double drop
Hammer Strength Decline Press 3X8-12, last set double drop
Superset:
1. DB Flyes 3X8
2. DB Bench 3 sets to failure
Superset:
1. Pec-Dec 3X8-12
2. Dips (Chest version)
Cable Cross Overs: 5X20

Tuesday: Arms
Superset:
1. EZ Bar Curls 3X6-8
2. Close Grip Bench Press 3X6-8
Superset:
1. DB Cross Body Hammer Curls 3X8-12
2. Hammer Strength Triceps Extensions 3X8-12
Superset:
1. Incline Skull crushers--8 straight into presses to failure, 3 sets
2. DB Biceps Curls on incline bench 3X8-12 with 4 forced reps
Superset:
1. Reverse Grip Press-Downs 3X8-12
2. Lying Cable Curls 3X8-12
Superset:
1. Overhead Cable Curls 5X20
2. Overhead Cable Triceps extensions 5X20
Reverse Grip Curls 3X8-12

Wednesday: Legs
Squats 4X8-12
Romanian Deadlifts 3X8-12
Trap Bar Deadlifts 3X8-12
Lying Leg Curls 3X8-12
Superset:
1. Seated Calf Raises 3X8-12
2. Standing Calf Raises 3X8-12
Leg Press 5X20

Thursday: Shoulders
Shoulder Press: 3X6-8
Behind the Neck Press: 3X8-12
Hammer Strength Shoulder Press 3X8-12 last set double drop
Giant Set:
1. Wide Grip Upright Rows 3X8-12
2. Reverse Flyes 3X8-12
3. Underhand DB Front Delt Raises 3X8-12
4. Car Drivers 3X8-12
Face Pulls: 5X20

Friday: Back
Weighted Pull-Ups 3X8-12
Deadlifts 3X8-12
Superset:
1. Barbell Rows: 3X8-12
2. Cable Pull-Overs: 3 sets to failure
Hammer Strength High Rows: 3X8-12 last set double drop
Wide Grip Cable Rows: 3X8-12 last set double drop
Shotgun Rows: 5X20

I actually do abs every day too. I have a bunch of different abs work-outs I do for pure torture (and of course to keep the 6 pack...) I spend about 5-10 minutes on abs. For example, today I did tri-set: Reverse Decline Crunches 3X12, Barbell roll-outs 3X12, and Landmine 180's 3X12. My personal favorite is 3 sets of 12 of Hanging Leg Raises--Feet to the bar, followed by 3 sets of 10 of Hanging Oblique Knee Raises, followed by 3 sets of 20 cable crunches.
 
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