Shoulder padding (part 2 of 2)

How do we accomplish a brutal V-shape? Sure - well-developed Lats is a given, but you simply don't reach all the way without full shoulders. And that means ALL-ROUND shoulder development, not just anterior (front) delts! The anterior delts usually take a lot of beating during chest training, so there's a major risk for overtraining. Personally, I've chosen to train anterior delts on the same day as my chest/triceps, and then save medial- and posterior delts for another day, for example, back. This way I get all the pressing muscles in one sweep (chest/triceps/ant. delts), and the pulling muscles (back/post.delts) can be trained with 100% intensity the next day.

A few good tried-and-true exercises for delts are:

Anterior delts:
Military presses. The ultimate ant. delt-killer. I recommend doing this exercise with dumbbells instead of a barbell, as you get a more natural range of motion and won't be distracted by having a bar in your face on the bottom-part of the exercise. Then I would also recommend doing this exercise standing, as you get a lot less pressure on the spine. Remember that heaving a heavy weight above your head requires 100% concentration and control! To protect your spine, you must maintain constant tension in your abs, and the use of a weightlifting-belt is not at all a bad idea. Checkpoints, from feet up:
Shoulder-wide stance. Toes forward. Knees slightly bent. Hips neutral, abs tense. Shoulders down and back. Forearms straight - elbows straight down all the time. Wrists straight.

Medial delts:
Cable lateral raises. The advantage of doing this in a cable machine compared to dumbbells, is that you get a continous resistance as well as better control. Stand in the middle and grab the lower pulley handles with your arms crossed in front of you. The objective here is to squeeze as much as you can out of your medial delts, and your medial delts only. That is why angles and strict form are crucial at this point, as you'll be naturally tempted to shift the weight onto other, stronger muscles. Never go higher than 90 degrees.
Checkpoints, from feet up:
Shoulder-wide stance. Toes forward. Knees slightly bent. Hips neutral, abs tense. Shoulders down and back. Elbows slightly bent, at about 20 degrees. To get the right image for this exercise, imagine two invisible sticks going from the center of your shoulders and stretching out to your hands. Your job is to keep your elbows exactly in line with that stick, only that it points out an inch or two backwards (because it's slightly bent). Another aid is to visualize that instead of LIFTING the weight, you're PULLING the weight to the side, that the whole purpose is to reach as far to the sides as possible.

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