Written by Ron Harris
14 January 2018

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Anatomy of Delt Training

Victor Martinez & Juan Morel Blast Shoulders

 

 

They are good friends, they are both native New Yorkers and they are both full-blooded Dominicans. In fact, Victor Martinez and Juan Morel are the two best Dominican-American bodybuilders ever. At 42, Victor is the veteran “big brother” of the two. A pro since he won the NPC Nationals in 2000, Martinez has battled his way to five pro titles so far including the prestigious Arnold Classic. He’s also been in a slew of posedowns, and nearly won the 2007 Mr. Olympia. Juan, 33, earned his pro card in 2011 and in just four seasons in the IFBB has racked up three pro wins so far. Both men have spectacular physiques, with some strong points in common. Two muscle groups that Victor and Juan both share elite-level development in are their melon delts and wide, rugged backs. It’s a lot of area to cover, both literally and figuratively. We let each man expound on one muscle group while the other went over the best exercises for it. Here’s what “Dominican Double Dynamite” has to tell you about training your shoulders!  

 

 

Juan Talks Delts

They Weren’t Always Impressive

“People look at my shoulders now and assume they were always big and wide and round, but they were actually a very average body part when I started out. They sloped and had no caps to them at all. My workouts then were pretty similar to what I do now. I’ve always done presses, but laterals were what I found brought my side delts up the most and got them rounder and fuller. I do six to eight sets of them. I also like supersets. Pumping the shoulders up with blood works really well for me.”

 Stop the (Barbell) Presses!

 “My main pressing movement for years was standing barbell presses to the front and rear. They worked very well for me and helped me build my shoulders up a lot, but over the last year or so I started getting really bad tendinitis in my left elbow from doing them. So since my shoulders are pretty big now, I decided to do all my pressing on the Smith machine to save my joints.”

 Juan Breaks the Rules

 “I train everything twice a week. I really don’t believe in overtraining. I think if you eat enough and your strength is still good and not falling off, you’re not overtraining. So many guys are so worried about doing too much, when a lot of them would be bigger if they did more. I train shoulders the day after chest, which is also supposed to be a bad idea. But my chest and my shoulders keep growing. Rules are made to be broken, not that there are really any rules to this stuff anyway.”

 Use Free Weights and Machines

 “Free weights are the best, but I also think some machines are very effective too. They do a perfect job of isolating the target muscle. But free weights force you to balance them, so you recruit more muscle groups. They also allow you to adjust the motion to your own structure, while machines lock you into one position all the time. Overall, I use mostly free weights; but I do like to use machines as parts of supersets and tri-sets near the end of the workout when you’re going for that crazy pump. That’s when I find them to be the most beneficial.”

 Where Do Guys Go Wrong?

“Not just with shoulders, but in general, I see a real lack of intensity. Very few guys in the gym actually train heavy and hard. Most of them are afraid to. I understand injuries and the fear of them, because I’ve been hurt more than once myself. But you can’t let that stop you from putting out serious effort and intensity. If you don’t have that in your training, you’re not going to grow.”

 Juan’s Top 3 Exercise Picks

“Military press, dumbbell laterals and rear laterals. About as basic and effective as it gets for shoulders.”

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Picking Your Best Type of Press

“I loved the standing press for years because it’s the hardest type to do. When it comes to training, easier is never better. Dumbbell presses are also tough to do, but they give you great results. They do become tough to get into position and balance as you get heavier. As far as when to press, that depends on the person and what they need more of. If you are seriously lacking side delts, do your laterals first when you’re fresh.”

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Front Raises and Upright Rows

“I don’t do either one of those exercises for shoulders. I do think upright rows are a good exercise for traps, though. Not for me. I don’t train traps anymore because they just grow too easily. I could have no neck if I wanted to look that way! But that’s me. If you like upright rows for shoulders, go ahead and do them. I don’t see the point in doing front raises, honestly. If you’re doing presses for your shoulders, there’s no need to work front delts directly.”

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Why Great Rear Delts Are Scarce

“Guys usually don’t train them much, or if they do, they do them wrong and wind up hitting their lower traps. You need to learn to squeeze them and get a pump. If you’re not feeling them work and you’re not getting a pump, you’re not doing them right. Pick a really light weight and learn how! I feel the rear delts are so important that I do two or three different exercises for them. I want to have all three heads of my delts popping.”

 Victor Talks About the Exercises

Dumbbell Lateral Raises

Victor always includes dumbbell side raises, alternating them with cables from workout to workout. He does one warm-up set for 15-20 reps, and then pyramids up in 10-pound jumps over three or four work sets. A lot of guys do drop sets on their laterals, but I have never heard of anyone who finishes off the exercise the way Martinez does— and you may just want to try this yourself on your next shoulder day. “After I max-out with the 60s or 70s to failure, I grab a pair of 80s or 90s and do a few partial reps from the bottom to about one-third of the way up,” he says. “I keep my arms straight. Though I might have to cheat a little to get the dumbbells up there, I always control the negative and do those slowly. Try it … your side delts won’t know what hit ‘em.”

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Overhead Presses

Victor likes to alternate between a few different types of shoulder presses in his workouts. One staple has been the military press, which he has done both standing and seated many times. “This is the best overall shoulder builder you can do. It allows you to use the absolute heaviest resistance to overload the delts. Just make sure you take your time and warm up, and don’t go so heavy that you can only get a few reps. You need to respect your shoulder and elbow joints if you plan on doing this a while.”

Speaking of which, there are times when Martinez’s shoulders or elbows aren’t feeling 100 percent, and then he won’t hesitate to press using a Smith or a Hammer Strength machine instead. “I think beginners and intermediates should stick to barbell or dumbbell presses, but for the old-timers like me who might be a little banged up but still want to hit it hard, you can press with a machine instead.”

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Rear Laterals

Dumbbells used to be Victor’s tool of choice for this targeted isolation, and he still uses them on occasion, but at this stage in his career he feels that cables or a rear delt machine do a better job. “I actually feel the rear delts working best when I use the cable and do just one arm at a time,” he says. “You can really squeeze the muscle and get a killer pump. I had always thought dumbbells were the best way to hit the rear delts, but it was only because I wasn’t giving cables or machines a chance,” he says. “Whatever type of rear lateral you do, make sure you are feeling the rear delts working and not the upper back.”

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Dumbbell Front Raises

Not everyone does specific work for his anterior or front delts, but Victor does about every other workout. His favorite movement is the front dumbbell raise, which he refers to as “hammer front raises” due to the thumbs-up grip he takes on the ‘bells. Vic raises them in alternate fashion up to shoulder level, going as heavy as 75s for 10-12 reps. He is just as likely to do these on chest day as he is for shoulders, as the front delts work very hard in any pressing movement for the pecs.

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Shrugs

Victor has trained traps with both shoulders and back in the past, but in recent years he hasn’t done much for them. “It’s a body part that grows pretty easily for me, and it’s getting a lot of indirect work from so many other exercises I do for back and shoulders anyway.” But if your traps aren’t quite scraping your earlobes yet, Vic recommends either barbell or dumbbell shrugs plus close-grip upright rows. “Just make sure you go all the way up with any type of shrug,” he notes. “Those little bouncy reps don’t do shit.”

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Next week Victor and Juan talk back.

  

Victor’s Shoulder Routine

 Rotator Cuff Exercises With Dumbbell                      5 x 15-20

 Barbell Clean and Press                                           3 x 8

Dumbbell Lateral Raises*                                          40/60 x 12, 50/75 x 12, 60/80 x 12

 Standing Single Dumbbell Press                              3 x 10-12

 Rear Delt Machine                                                   4 sets of 12-15

 Barbell Upright Rows (shoulder-width grip)              3 x 12

 *Victor does full reps to failure, then immediately grabs a heavier pair of dumbbells and does partial reps from the bottom to about a third of the way up.

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Juan’s Shoulder Routine

Seated Dumbbell or Barbell Press      4 x 10-12

 Dumbbell Lateral Raises                    3 x 10-12

 superset with

 Bent Dumbbell Lateral Raises           3 x 10-12

 Dumbbell Lateral Raises                    3 x 10-12

 superset with

 Rear Delt Machine                             3 x 10-12

Standing Behind-neck Press                     3 x 10-12

 

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