The THT 2.0 Training Cycle. Shoulders & Traps Day (part 12)

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This is DEFINITELY one of the most important workouts of the week, at least in my opinion.

Why?

Think about it. Your shoulders and traps are what give width and size to your body from a head-on viewpoint. If you had nicely developed arms and legs, but not much going on in the shoulder department, you’ll still look narrow and perhaps even quite thin.

I’ve always thought of shoulder development as one of my priority body parts, especially since my skinny genetics gifted me with virtually NO shoulder muscle worth talking about!

If you are frustrated in this area, the following Thursday workout in THT will soon take care of it for you!

Let’s check it out…

SHOULDERS

  1. Standing Overhead Barbell Press
  2. Standing Overhead Barbell Press
  3. Standing Overhead Barbell Press
  4. Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
  5. Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
  6. Dumbbell Lateral Raises
  7. Dumbbell Lateral Raises

TRAPS

  1. Trap Bar Shrugs (or use a barbell or smith machine)
  2. Trap Bar Shrugs (or use a barbell or smith machine)
  3. Trap Bar Shrugs (or use a barbell or smith machine)

If I had to pick one exercise to work my shoulders for the rest of my life, it would be Overhead Dumbbell or Barbell Presses. They hit all heads of the shoulder and allow some pretty heavy weights to be used.

Note: lower the bar in front of you, not behind your head. I’m not a fan of ‘Behind-the-head’ barbell presses as they severely limit the amount of overload you can place on the shoulders.

If you ever reach a plateau on this movement, lower the bar to around ear-height for a smaller range of motion. This will allow you to use a heavier weight and BLAST past that sticking point. It’s actually not “against the rules” to always use this range of motion if you feel more comfortable with it.

Nor is it cheating or wrong to use machines or a smith machine. Fact is you’ll recruit the same number of deltoid fibers but place greater overload on them by taking stabilization out of the equation. Remember, it’s a fact of physics that the more stable you are, the greater the FORCE you can generate. Just don’t expect to be too popular down at the gym with all the “hardcore bros” who wouldn’t touch a machine if their life depended on it.

But we don’t omit free weights from this workout.

I like fixed path resistance for overhead barbell presses, but perform the next 2 movements with free weights – seated overhead dumbbell presses and dumbbell lateral raises.

So we start our workouts with the exercise that produces MOST overload and work our way down. 3 sets of overhead presses, followed by 2 sets of dumbbell presses, and 2 sets dumbbell lateral raises (flies). All 7 sets to positive failure.

Our  traps get quite a bit of work during the week, 3 sets to failure today is all you need to do.

You have a few options on equipment here:

All work well. Choose whichever you feel most comfortable with.

TIP! Here’s a tip I give to clients who have trouble with shrugging. Visualize trying to get your shoulders to touch your ears at the top of the movement. You won’t be able to, but that’s not the point. It’ll cause you to really contract your traps to the level needed to stimulate growth. Also, let your traps feel a stretch at the bottom of the movement; treat your arms as dead-weight and let all tension transfer to the traps from the bottom to the top of the rep.

You’ll be well on your way to larger traps and boulders-for-shoulders with this workout! The feedback I’ve received from readers since re-publishing this THT cycle has been phenomenal!

Well done for following through and committing to new gains this year guys!

Train With Intensity!

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7 | PART 8 | PART 9 | PART 10 | PART 11 | PART 13

Mark

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9 Comments

  1. mike
    mike on January 24, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Mark do you ever do Arnold presses. Would you recomend them. Mike in Wisconsin

  2. Adam Weichel
    Adam Weichel on January 24, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    Gah, my first newb question in a while. Can you post up a link here or on the FB page about trap bars? I’ve settled into a smith machine because I’ve maxed out my cabled stack at the gym for trap shrugs. I’d be interested to see if they have a bar like that.

  3. RNQ
    RNQ on January 25, 2011 at 2:19 am

    Hi Mark!

    Thanks for your recent daily workouts! I’m about to start week 2 tomorrow and I’m increasing my weights this week to reflect progress. As a busy mum, your daily schedules have helped me be organised,practical and very concise with my workouts. Is it a good idea to do HIIT on my 2 days off as I’m still stick with my dreade mummy-pouch? My current body fat is 18%,but my lower abs are still concealed!

  4. mark maina
    mark maina on January 25, 2011 at 6:49 am

    just did the barbell presses and dumbbell lateral raises yesterday and I feel my traps so fried…..how much creatine should I consume per day during the 5 day split-10 week workout programme you created?

  5. AK
    AK on January 25, 2011 at 7:32 am

    Is seated barbell press (with barbell or smith machine) a good alternate to the standing press? I feel I’m able to lift more weight with the seated press as I can have my back leaning on the seat and put more emphasis on the shoulders. Is it okay to lean my back on the seat or should I sit upright without letting my back touch the seat?

  6. Mark McManus
    Mark McManus on January 25, 2011 at 10:53 am

    @mike. No. I actually think it’s a dumb exercise. There’s no advantage to the rotating movement. In fact, it just makes it more awkward. The most comfortable position at the bottom of the rep is with palms facing out, not in.
    @Adam. It’s a great piece of equipment. I linked the text in the article. Some people deadlift with it too.
    @RNQ. Thanks. No, not really. If you want to cut fat, you need a full dedicated program that takes care of it. Adding in extra cardio will do very little. Most of fat-loss success is down to diet.Total Six Pack Abs is a full diet, weight-training, and cardio program to torch off unwanted blubber.
    @mark. 5g per day, taken after your workout. Take 5g on non-workout days too.
    @AK. Yes, it’s fine. Having your back touch the bench is ok, but only if it is straight or very slightly declined. Too much of an angle takes some load off the shoulders and transfers it to the upper chest.

  7. Adam Weichel
    Adam Weichel on January 25, 2011 at 11:45 am

    Mark – just watched a few videos after checking the link – thanks! I think I might be in luck at my gym.

  8. m arshad
    m arshad on January 25, 2011 at 10:30 pm

    HI,
    I am 5’09” and 160 Lbs; i have been burning 500 cals on ellipticals 6 days a week (3000 total) Can i still do the same plus your 5 day THT2.0 routine. As you said, we should not spend more than 45-50 mins in the gym !
    all my body fat is on my stomach; for this reason i have been doing ellipticals for 40 minutes!

  9. Mark McManus
    Mark McManus on January 26, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    @m arshad. Cardio won’t burn off excess body fat. In terms of exercise, the majority of your calorie-burning should from weight-training, cardio playing a small, supplementary role.
    But even that is not enough. Most of your fat loss success will come from implementing a fat-stripping diet. So in order of importance, it’s
    1 Diet
    2 Weight Training
    3 Cardio
    And if you do it all correctly, you can continue building muscle as you blast away fat.
    My book “Total Six Pack Abs” contains the FULL system that incorporates all of the above and tailor-fits it to your individual make-up.
    https://www.totalsixpackabs.com/

You'll love your fast gains on THT!

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You'll love your fast gains on THT!

Cool! Click here to take you to the download page. (or check your email for the download link)