6 Biggest Shoulder Workout Lessons Learned (HOW HE DID IT!!)

If you want to have the biggest shoulders you can possibly have then you should start by avoiding the big shoulder workout mistakes most commonly made that hold back your results. In this video, I’m going to show you the 6 biggest shoulders workout mistakes that Jesse was making that were preventin

JEFF: What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX. com. Today I’m standing here, obviously, with Jesse, and what we’re doing is, we’re talking about his shoulders because I think there’s a lot to learn from what Jesse’s been able to do here. Now, he’s been training all along, and you guys have watched his progress, but notably, we covered this with his arms.

Let’s see those arms one more time. The arms have definitely gotten bigger, but so have his shoulders and I wanted to dip into his brain – as scary as that is – to go in there and say “Jesse, what things have you really incorporated from the things we’ve been working on, that have helped you to get your shoulders bigger? I know the people out there watching are going to be able to benefit them as well. Let’s cover the top six things that you feel have helped you the most. Right off the bat, what’s the first thing?

JESSE: First thing that comes to mind is – like you always say “It’s hard to get a stretch on your delts when you’re working out, when you’re working your shoulders”. Incorporating different exercises that allow me to get that stretch, I think, have been extremely helpful and very beneficial. JEFF: It is difficult to get a stretch on the delts because when you think about arms lined up in a side lateral raise they usually stop at the side of your body. They don’t come across midline. They don’t get that extra stretch on the delt, but doing it the way Jesse is doing here allows for that.

Likewise, when you do a dumbbell side raise you don’t have to use cables, you can use dumbbells, too. Just propping them up on an incline bench in this position allows for that arm to come across the body, and to get that additional stretch, and it doesn’t have to just apply to the side delts. It can work on the front delts as well. We do that, again, with cables. You can use bands here.

The key is allowing the arm to go back, behind the body to free stretch that front delt, which allows for more powerful contraction. But really, it allows for that eccentric overload on a muscle that doesn’t usually get it. So that was right off the bat, but what else did you learn? JESSE: Using light weights. Ever since the first hard gainer video that we did with my shoulders, you told me to- JEFF: Long time ago.

JESSE: Yeah, that was a long time ago. You told me to start using lighter weights and as humbling as that was for me, I was down to 5lbs on all my lateral raises, and one and a half rep technique, and also you telling me to slide my arms underneath the fence. JEFF: Right. JESSE: Those two techniques themselves have been extremely helpful, using the light weights. JEFF: So the concept, again, is that it’s not necessarily about the weights that you’re lifting, it’s what the muscles you’re trying to train are lifting.

In the case of the deltoids I can promise you, they’re a hell of a lot weaker than you think they are. So when you drop those weights down, however humbling it may be, the results are better and you can even see – Jesse has told me how he feels. Those shoulders have rounded out a lot more, and it’s definitely noticeable. Sometimes the light weights are the way to go, especially if you’ve got to rebuild from the ground, back up. All right, Jesse.

We’re onto number three to digging into that brain of yours. What have we got? JESSE: You actually just covered it in a video the other day. JEFF: Right? JESSE: The unconventional dumbbell stuff.

JEFF: The different exercises for your delts. JESSE: Yeah, exactly. JEFF: Because it’s not just about presses and raises. JESSE: It’s – yeah. No, I always thought it was.

JEFF: Right. JESSE: But when you come up with some really weird shit it always seems to work. Specifically the hip huggers. JEFF: Right. JESSE: And the crush grip press outs.

Those, to me, have been game changers. JEFF: So both the hip huggers, guys, if you haven’t seen the video make sure you watch it. There really are – they’re not just unconventional exercises. They have a purpose and when you put the science back in what we do – as we always try to here – you see the reasoning of why I chose those as exercises. But when it comes to the hip huggers especially, it’s basically going to give you an opportunity to train a little heavier, to still train the side delt, in a different way, and get a great contraction, and also tie it in with the rear delt.

But beyond that as well, when we look at the crush grip press out this, again, allows us to attack the front delt, preferentially turn the chest, and take the chest out of it a little bit – as you can see here with Jesse. We’re really getting these front delts to be overloaded and it’s not just to be different. It’s to mix it up, and get away from that mentality of thinking that you only have the presses and raises for options, when you open up the options more, and you start to do more things. As crazy as they may be, it actually starts to work, and work well. All right, moving on.

Number four. JESSE: As boring as it is, all the extra rotator cuff work I’ve been doing. In other programs I’ve done, and other trainers I’ve talked to no one’s ever had me doing a lot of rotator cuff stuff. Maybe once a week, or once a month. JEFF: We talk about that a lot, guys.

There’s not enough being done. It is boring, by the way. JESSE: Yeah. JEFF: But it’s necessary. JESSE: It’s been extremely helpful because not only do I feel like my posture has improved a ton, but I feel like I’m getting stronger when I go back to my other lifts.

JEFF: So what happens, guys, when you actually do start to pay attention to your rotator cuff you start to reestablish the balance that’s missing in a lot of our physiques from having too much of a dominant, flexion dominant, side dominant training program. With Jesse just doing even a couple of the exercises here, this is pretty standard external rotation. This is banded external rotation, whether he’s doing it here in a dynamic way, or whether he’s doing it in more of an isometric way, where he does this step out variation and he has to hold out his elbow in that position, tight up against his side. You can even see the shoulders working here to maintain this proper posture. As a matter of fact, when you go down to the anatomy of it the deltoids have a heavy, upward pull on the humerus trying to pull it up, and it sometimes creates, over time, an impingement.

The rotator cuff can act to pull down and keep it in a better position to add more space in there, to avoid impingement, allow you to press better, allow you press heavier, and over time, build bigger shoulders because you’re not having the issues that a lot of us wind up having in our shoulders. So for all those reasons, however boring it may be, it’s a critical component to a complete training program. All right, Jesse. Number five. JESSE: Number five?

Ever since the minute you did it on Instagram for your chest – you know what I’m talking about? JEFF: Uh… JESSE: Overcoming isometric on the cable machine? JEFF: Right. Yeah, I got you.

JESSE: That’s been awesome. JEFF: Yep. JESSE: Honestly, I love that feeling of trying as hard as I can to move an immoveable object. I don’t care if I’m not moving. It feels unbelievable.

JEFF: Right. Well, there’s a purpose beyond that. Instead of just pretending what you’re trying to do. The overcoming isometric that we’ve talked about here, on this channel doesn’t just apply to the chest, as I’ve demonstrated in that video that Jesse’s referring to. You could do it for pretty much any muscle group, but the concept is, you can build up more motor unit recruitment.

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