When training shoulders, there are a few strategies you can use to have a pain free workout. Lighter weights with cleaner form, tempo modifications, neutral grip, and even adding accommodating resistance. In this workout, I used all of these to piece together a solid training session.

The workout starts with seated military press variations which are a compound movement that can be trained heavy. We pushed both to a heavy 3 reps and to a heavy 10 reps on the Rhinobar and with the dumbbells. For the Rhinobar presses, we used accommodating resistance. This felt amazing for getting the shoulders ready to press heavier weights. The accommodating resistance varies the resistance through the movement. When the lifter is weakest, there are more chains on the ground and the total weight is the lightest. When the lifter is the strongest, there are more chains OFF the ground and the total weight of the system is heaviest. This was a great ‘slow transition’ after a thorough warm-up to help ease into the higher intensity pressing as the main set progressed.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I love pairing back with bench press and military press. To me, it feels the best hitting that push / pull back-to-back. Lats are really important for pressing heavier and stabilizing the shoulder, so it makes sense to incorporate some type of rowing (ex. seated rows or lat pull downs), shoulder external rotation (ex. face pulls), shoulder extension (ex. straight arm lat pull downs), and shoulder horizontal abduction (ex. prone posterior flies) during your pressing workouts. Also, to complement the heavy pressing, we also threw in some higher volume as a giant set to really blow out the shoulders.

Finally, to challenge the anterior aspect of the deltoid, we did a giant set with different front raises variations that incorporated tempo modifications with each variation.

1) Seated Rhinobar Military Press with Chains, 7 sets x 10 reps, 1 set x 5 reps, 1 set x 3 reps

2A) Seated Dumbbell Military Press (HEAVY), 4 sets x 10 reps
2B) Lat Pull Downs (HEAVY), 4 sets x 10 reps
2C) Seated Dumbbell Military Press (LIGHT), 4 sets x 20 reps
2D) Lat Pull Downs (LIGHT), 3 sets x 20 reps

Front Aspect of Deltoid
3A) Band-Resisted Neutral Grip Front Raises (SPEED REPS), 3 sets x 10 reps
3B) Full Range Neutral Grip Front Raises (SLOW ECCENTRICS), 3 sets x 10 reps
3C) Front Raises with Chains (ISOMETRIC PAUSE), 3 sets x 10 reps

For more pain free, joint-friendly workouts, check out the new Ageless Ageless 3.0 program! It will give you a system of training to keep you pushing hard in the weight room and train for a lifetime.