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skullcushers for big triceps

5 Shoulder and Tricep Workouts for Mass

 

So here we are with the mass-building session.  The first exercise is going to help with building shoulder width.

shoulder press for width

1. Shoulder Press for width

One thing you have to think about when you’re trying to build mass is — you have to concentrate on using heavier weight.  In this video, I use the Smith machine for shoulder press.

On these sets, I’m going down to the front, which works the front head.

There’s three heads to the deltoid. This is working the front head, and the barbell is real effective because it demands more out of the muscle, causing it to grow more.

If you want to do different exercises with lighter weight, it will shape the muscle.

When you’re using barbells, you’re obviously putting most demand on everything, so in this set, you can see I’m going to the rear.  This is working more sides of the delts, going to the rear — the back of the head, with a heavier weight.

In my case, I have an injured shoulder, so it’s easier for me to actually go to the rear.

shrugs for big traps

2. Shrugs for Big Traps

Usually I’ll start with no weights.  I did a little warmup before I did this set.  With my warmups of shrugs, I do as many as 15 reps with just the bar, just to get the muscle warmed up.

With this first set, there’s about 10 reps.

After the first set, we start to increase the weight, and with increasing the weight, usually I go eight to 10 reps, and I just go up and down, when I’m trying to do this.

I’m trying to get this, nice shrug on that shoulder, in the traps, in order to stimulate growth.  The heavier you go, obviously, the more it’s gonna demand on the muscle.

And so, as you’ll see, I’m increasing the weight.

It gets a little tougher, and by doing that, it’s putting more pressure on them, and it gives you that nice, round shoulder-trap connection, trapezius connection, so that
you can have a rounder look from shoulders to trap, so that you don’t — what we used to call, look like a kite, straight across.

I have a little heavier weight here after the first few reps.  You can use reverse grips —  if you don’t have straps, if you want to go heavier. I choose to go with the left hand over, right hand under.  This gives you a lot more power.

skullcushers for big triceps

3. Heavy skullcrushers for inner triceps

Moving on — I demonstrate how to build triceps with a mass-building exercise.  You want to try to warm the triceps up before you get going so you don’t have any injuries.

You’re obviously warming those joints up, and usually, tricep presses are pretty good to warm them up. You just keep it going and get a nice burn,  so that when you decide to pick up some heavy weight, it’s not going to really affect you or put any pressure on your already-warmed-up joints.

If you don’t warm up, it can be painful.

I use the barbell to workout the triceps — skullcrushers, or French press, is the old school name.  I get way down on the bench and I’ll use what I call a motorcycle grip, with the heavier weight.  I bend my wrist on the way down in order to take the pressure off of the elbows.

You can go with straight wrist, but it’s going to put more pressure on the elbow. Usually, if I do that, it’s going be lighter weight.  If it’s heavier weight, I’ll go with this motorcycle grip, and you can see it works the inner head of the tricep.  This is real effective for building big, massive, triceps.

The inner head really makes the tricep look big, and you can continuously go heavier with the technique that I use — the motorcycle grip.

tricep overhead extensions

4. Dumbbell extension for tricep shaping

I use overhead dumbbell raises, or tricep extensions to shape the tricep.

I usually try to keep my elbows vertical, almost like a string is through your elbow, going straight to the ceiling, to keep a strict form.

You’re using the tricep only to press it up.  This is a real good isolating workout and it complements that heavy barbell, tricep, French press, skull-crushing exercise.

By isolating the muscle, you can go higher reps and it really puts the blood in there and it expands the tie-ins.

dumbell raises for tricep shaping

5. Three head delt shaping workout

Going back to the shoulders,  I demonstrate in the video some front raises with the dumbbells. These are real good.  The delts are real tricky because they burn out real fast like the calves.  But they recover fast, too.

Like I said, there’s three heads of the shoulder– the front, the side, and the rear delt.  in the video I demonstrate all three for you.

For the side delt laterals, you can do them two arms to the side, but I demonstrate one arm at a time to really isolate it. I try to bring that elbow up, so that I’m hitting the side delt.

It’s all about feeling the muscle when you’re doing this.

You don’t have to put a lot of weight on with these. You just want to make sure that
you know what you’re doing.  You want to feel it and you can go really really light, even 15 pounds or 20 pounds.

The last exercise is for the rear delts, which is the rear head or the third part of that deltoid.  These raises are good because it gives you a nice, round deltoid, using front, side and rear.

With this rear delt raise, you can tend go a lot heavier than the other two — almost like you’re doing some kind of row, but it pinches those muscles.

All right, so there you have it. Five different workouts for building mass on both the shoulders, as well as the triceps.  I sort of broke it up, and was able to get the
most effective workout, resting the muscles sometimes between the heavier shoulders, going to the triceps, and then going back to the shoulders.

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