How much shoulder work should you do...

[TBtaylor52]

DB Presses 4 heavy sets
Upright rows(OR)side lateral raises 3 sets
DB Reverse Flies 3 sets

[IronManlet]

Anything in regards to frequency, volume, rest, etc is all very individual, if you ask me.

[BendtheBar]

Lee Haney did 15 to 19 sets per shoulders on his workouts. He was pretty much a standard volume trainer. I don't think he went crazy in some of the ways Arnold did, but it appears he did more than most of us.

He did 9 pressing sets per week, thought the first was a heavier warmup.

LEE HANEY'S SHOULDER TRAINING

Barbell shoulder presses 1 * 12-15
2 8-10
2 6-8
Barbell behind-the-neck presses 4 6-8
Dumbell side laterals 3-4 10-12
Reverse upright rows 2 8-10
Bent laterals 3-4 10-12

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

Of course you know where I stand on this one Carl - you helped me design a routine specifically to avoid over using the shoulders!

A dedicated shoulder routine, performed weekly and comprising 15 working sets caused me to feel pain, so I dropped it.

The indirect way I train my shoulders now is resulting in PRs across the board, and I'm very happy with it.

Did you adjust your chest presses at all, or just direct shoulder work?

[BendtheBar]

Off topic slightly, but I believe that 90% of lifters have poor bench form, and I think most shoulder related issues stem from bench rather than shoulder work.

I also think the heavy imbalance between hammering the front delts hard and not stimulating the side delts might contribute, but that's speculation.

[gaspers04]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Off topic slightly, but I believe that 90% of lifters have poor bench form, and I think most shoulder related issues stem from bench rather than shoulder work.

I also think the heavy imbalance between hammering the front delts hard and not stimulating the side delts might contribute, but that's speculation.

For what it is worth, I'm in total agreement Big Fella.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by gaspers04

For what it is worth, I'm in total agreement Big Fella.

Glad to know I'm not completely bonkers.

I rambled a lot earlier, but my major belief is that lifters are doing 52 sets of presses on bench day, and a dainty amount of work on shoulder day. On top of this they have poor bench form, and care little about shoulders.

I prefer to see more balance between shoulder and chest work. Chest is most often over-worked, and shoulders under-worked.

Overall, because of the split mindset, the front delt beat down from bench pressing that the average gym rat undergoes is "detached" mentally from shoulders, and not seen as important because "it was chest day".

I see it day in and day out...chest workouts with 12+ press sets, and if declines are left out young trainees want 16. (Many don't consider a chest workout complete unless a flat, incline and decline movement is involved). They then also add pec dec and/or flyes. But God forbid you perform more than 3-4 overhead press sets...the same people scream overtraining.

I wish I were making this up but I'm not.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Did you adjust your chest presses at all, or just direct shoulder work?

Under advisement, I actually dropped a set or 2 from my chest routine (my old chest routine) as well as the shoulder work. But this was a while back.
I have sense added that chest volume back in my current routine, as I am better able to handle it now.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Off topic slightly, but I believe that 90% of lifters have poor bench form, and I think most shoulder related issues stem from bench rather than shoulder work.

I also think the heavy imbalance between hammering the front delts hard and not stimulating the side delts might contribute, but that's speculation.

I have a video I made a while back of my bench form (and I reckon you've seen it already). I can dredge it up if you're offering to critique? It may not be the best angle tho...

[Trevor Ross]

It's funny because I found compounds hit my delts better then single joint exercises. Presses thicken up the fronts, DB upright rows do the sides, and wide grip (pinkies on the rings & elbows flared) BB rows to the upper chest, hammer my lower traps/rear delts.