Week 2 Day 3 - Boulder Shoulders

8/04/15 Day 10 – Shoulders & Abs

Well I think its fair to say, MY CHEST HURTS! Serious DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I could feel it setting in several hours after the session had been completed, but it is only going to get worse from here.

Today was a tough day for me, after going out to see lots of old friends last night, I was left with very little sleep. To be quite honest I am amazed at the knock on effect it has had on me and my session. I feel as though my concentration was slightly off, my contractions didn't feel as effective and I was pretty angry. But, there is no such thing as a bad workout, apart from the one you don't do. So I plugged my headphones in, said goodbye to the world, got my dumbbells and prepared to break through the wall and smash some deltoid work.

Here is my plan from today's session:

Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 Sets x 18-20 Reps

Seated Lateral Raises – 4 Sets x 18-20 Reps

Laying Dumbbell Rear Delt Raise – 4 Sets x 18-20 Reps

Incline Bench Front Dumbbell Raise – 3 Sets x 18-20 Reps

Seated Db Shrugs – 4 Sets x 18-20 Reps

Bottoms Up – 6 Sets x 18-20 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

So after a brief warm up, bit of shoulder mobility work and realising “damn my chest is killing me today...yay!”, I jumped into some light reps to hopefully loosen off the tightness across the top portion of my Pectorals. Now when doing the Dumbbell Shoulder Press the chest is having to relax in order for the shoulders to contract, but because my chest was so tight after hammering it yesterday it was causing me lots of pain just to put my hands about my head. So doing these really light sets was going to allow so warmth into the muscles and allow the tightness to subdue, which it did, thank Arnold! Otherwise this session was never going to happen! Because the reps were once again higher, it was a case of leaving my ego at the door, going for a lighter weight and trying to get some solid reps out.

Then came my favourite exercise the, Seated Lateral Raise, now normally I always perform this exercise standing up, which, if I'm honest (and I always am on this blog) means that I can get a bit of momentum behind the dumbbells and therefore lift slightly heavier. So now trying the same exercise but seated was a pretty steep learning curve. As that momentum wasn't achievable I was really forcing those lateral deltoid heads to really, really work hard! Not being in the jolliest mood in the world, I refused to drop my weight on this exercise, meaning that after the first set I was having to rep-pause-rep my way through the rest of the sets, but I did not give up, I did not give in and I got those damn dumbbells up for every rep I needed to! So go me!

What I love about this programme is that it is forcing me to try so many new exercises and exercise variations, which is hitting and targeting muscles in so many ways. The Laying Dumbbell Rear Delt Raise was no exception here. Starting at the bottom of the movement with my arms perpendicular to the bench, keeping the anterior (front) deltoid engaged as well as working the posterior (back) deltoid during the contraction, again going light and working to feel that contraction is key. Know the muscles, and what movements they perform and you are over half way there already!

The one exercise I felt that I really struggled with today was in fact the Incline Bench Front Dumbbell Raise. I feel this was perhaps due to the fact I could not work up any form of momentum, and therefore just working my muscles in a way they had never been worked before. It was a shock to the system but by the last set I felt that I was a lot more comfortable with the motion than at the beginning of the sets. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

Finishing the session today with Seated Dumbbell Shrugs, it was a perfect way to finish off my delts. I always loved shrug when I was angry. Whenever life gets you down, just shrug it off. As I felt pretty angry about my lack of control in the session it was a great way to pound my mind and body. Some people run to clear their heads, some people write their feels down, me, I lift heavy things!

With some body weight Ab work behind me, and the session done, on reflection, it wasn't actually that bad. I demand a very high standard of myself in the gym, and some times have to remind myself that I'm only human, and we all have those bad days, but its how you move on from the bad that truly defines who you are.

Hope you have had a good day, and I have to say thank you to my followers for the positive encouragement, have had a lot of fantastic feedback from people about this blog!

Happy Lifting

Matt