Smash Your Back and Shoulders in Just 30 Minutes

Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.

September 15, 2019 2:03 PM

Its not always easy to sculpt truly impressive boulder shoulders.

Smash Your Back and Shoulders in Just 30 Minutes

Why? Because your shoulders, unlike other bodyparts, cant always take a beating. You want them to look massive, but other large muscle groups, like chest, back, and legs, your shoulders arent actually a massive single muscle.

No, the shoulder is a delicate joint. Its a joint with a vast range of motion, and its a meeting place for a host of tendons and ligaments, any of which can be injured or inflamed easy if your shoulders delicate balance is upset, if you overtrain, or if you dont train smartly. And boy, is it easy to

Theyre a delicate joint and a meeting place for a host of tendons and ligaments, all of which can be injured or inflamed easily if you overtrain or dont train smartly and correctly. Your shoulders also wind up getting plenty of stealth work in your other training. Your large shoulder muscles play a key role in many chest exercises, your rear delts come into play on back exercises, and your shoulders are key stabilizers on many leg exercises. Want more? Your biceps tendon attaches into the labrum, a key piece of cartilage that lends your shoulder major stability.

Why Pairing Shoulders with Back Works

So how do you get your boulder shoulder work on? First off, instead of planning out a major shoulder day, pair it with a different bodypart and treat it like an accessory muscle, a muscle youre going to hit lightly after youve attacked a bigger bodypart. This can help prevent you from overtraining your shoulders.

And one of the best pairings for this purpose: Back and shoulders. Heres why: When you hammer your back with rowing motions, you build key strength in your lats, rhomboids, and other muscles that help retract your shoulder blades. You also insure that those muscles are awake and doing their jobs, something that does not always happen after, say, a long day at the office.

One more benefit: You're already training your shoulders when you work back anyway. All rowing motions train shoulder extension, which basically involves shifting your upper arm behind your torso. One of the main functions of the hard-to-reach rear delts? Yup, shoulder flexion.

The Workout

Directions

Do the exercises in this workout in order. Rest 60-90 seconds between each set. Rest 2 minutes between exercises. Do this workout once or twice a week, resting at least two days in between each session. For best results, train legs the day after this workout, then hit chest and triceps the following day.

Half-Kneeling Archer Row

Finish off your shoulders with 3 sets of mixed-style incline shoulder raises. Aim for 3-4 clusters of reps per set. You'll hammer the lateral and anterior heads of your delts and get a deep burn, and the bench will help keep your form tight.

Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S.