SHOULDER

WORKOUT

JEREMY ETHIER’S

SHOULDER WORKOUT

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SHOULDER WORKOUT

// SHOULDER WORKOUT

EXERCISE SETS REPS REST

Standing Overhead Press* 4 6-8 3 minutes
Lateral Raises (standing or 3 8-12 2 minutes
incline bench)
Reverse Pec Deck 3 8-12 2 minutes
Supine (Lying) Face Pulls 2 12-15 2 minutes
Kneeling/Standing Face Pulls 2 12-15 2 minutes
*APPLY PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD SCHEME (SEE PAGE 6)

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SHOULDER WORKOUT

// PUSH EXERCISE TIPS

Standing Overhead Press

Proper form with the overhead press begins with the set up.

1) Setup: Stand with the bar on your front shoulders. Use a hand grip slightly
wider than shoulder-width. The key is to ensure your wrists are straight and
your forearms are vertical when the bar is in the starting position – so the
grip width will vary based on the individual. Keep your legs slightly flexed.
2) Preparing the Press: Engage your core by contracting your abs slightly
(think about as if someone was about to punch your stomach) and squeeze
your glutes.
3) Press: Take a deep breath, hold it, and then press the bar up in a vertical
line. You’ll have to ensure your head is not in a protracted position in order
to do so. And then once the bar passes the top of your head, you can stick
your head through (“look through the window”) to allow the bar to be
directly over your head in the finishing position. Try not to use momentum
with your legs (since this is a strict overhead press and we’re trying to
mainly target the shoulders).
4) Return: Bring the bar to your shoulders after each rep while exhaling.

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SHOULDER WORKOUT

Lateral Raises
This exercise is going to mainly target the lateral deltoids, with assistance from
the anterior and posterior deltoids as well. As mentioned in my video, you want
to have a slight lean forward while performing the exercise so that you can
externally rotate your shoulder as you perform the exercise. This will put more
emphasis on the lateral deltoid while minimizing stress at the glenohumeral joint.
Keep the arms just slightly bent to lessen the stress placed on the elbow joint
while maximizing tension placed on the shoulder. You can perform these standing
or on an incline bench as shown in my video.

Reverse Pec Deck
The neutral grip (palms facing eachother) has been shown to elicit better
posterior delt and infraspinatus activity than the internally rotated grip (palms
facing down). But I’d suggest trying both grips (if your machine has both) and
seeing which better activates your rear delt. Focus on keeping the upper traps
relaxed as much as possible throughout the movement. The grip used in the
picture below is the internally rotated grip, not the neutral grip.

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SHOULDER WORKOUT

Lying Face Pulls
Set up a cable system so that the notch is placed at the highest position. Use a
rope attachment. Lay on the ground and using an overhand grip on the rope
attachment, pull the rope to your face until your elbows just about touch the
ground. Keep the elbows high (shoulder level) and think about “pulling with your
elbows” to best activate the rear delts. Also, make sure that you keep your upper
traps depressed and relaxed as much as possible throughout the movement.

Standing or Kneeling Face Pulls
For these, the main thing you want to focus on is depressing the upper traps and
keeping them relaxed. The goal here is to get the lower traps firing, which are in
the middle of your back between your shoulder blades. You want to focus on
feeling this area working as you pull the weight. Think about retracting your
shoulder blades back as you pull and think about pulling with your elbows. Keep
the elbows at about shoulder-level when you pull. These can be done on your
knees (which I prefer) or standing. Use a lighter weight and focus more on the
activation of the right muscles.

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SHOULDER WORKOUT

// PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD SCHEME

The exercises I have placed an asterisk (*) beside (in this case just the standing
overhead press), means you want to put a priority on those exercises when it
comes to progressive overload. The scheme we will use is called a “double
progression method”, and is as follows:

“If the rep range provided is let’s say 6-8 reps, once you can comfortably
perform 3 sets of 8 reps with a certain weight, increase the weight (e.g. 5
lbs) next week and try to perform 3 sets of 6 reps with this. If you fail, drop
the weight down again but if you succeed then you keep trying to improve
until you get to 3 sets of 8 reps again with the heavier weight. At this point
you repeat the cycle by adding weight again and going back down to 6
reps.”

Exercises with a * beside them mean you want to focus on doing this with those
exercises the most, and strive to improve every single week. Exercises without a *
you still want to increase reps and weight with overtime, which you can do
naturally as you feel your strength improving with them, but place a priority on
improving the exercises with a * as these exercises will contribute the most to
overall muscle and strength gains.

// INCORPORATING INTO YOUR ROUTINE

Since you guys all run different splits (I’ll make a future video regarding optimal
splits), I thought this section would be useful for you.

1) If you currently run a split routine (one body part each day), then use this
routine how it is.
2) If you currently run a push/pull/legs routine, add overhead press and
lateral raises (or just one of the two if you have “push 1, push 2” days) to
your push day. Add the face pulls to your pull day.
3) If you currently run an upper/lower split, add overhead press to one
upper day and lateral raises to the other. Do the same with the two face
pull variations.

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SHOULDER WORKOUT

// EXERCISE ALTERNATIVES
If for some reason you can’t perform the recommended exercises or you lack
the equipment to do so, here are some viable alternatives.

1) Standing Overhead Press
- Seated dumbbell press
- Seated barbell press
- Standing dumbbell press
- Arnold press (dumbbells)

2) Lateral Raises
- Cable lateral raises (perform them by holding onto a pole with one hand to
allow a slight lean to one side, as this will increase the ROM of the exercise
and shift tension from the supraspinatus to the lateral delt (Debski et al. ,
1995)
- Seated dumbbell lateral raises

3) Reverse Pec Deck
- Bent over reverse dumbbell flies
- Reverse cable crossovers (single or double hand)

4) Face pulls
- It’s difficult to find a decent alternative to the face pull, I’d suggest
performing them with a resistance band if you don’t have access to cables

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