You’ll begin today with your morning cardio performed upon waking, and then you’ll weight-train after consuming at least one meal. You can weight train at any time of day you like. Danielle and Kai trained at 11 a.m. most days depending on their schedules. But you can train before your morning cardio, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, after work, or before bed (as long as your p.m. cardio follows). The key is to choose the time that suits your lifestyle best, and make sure you get in every workout. For instance, if you’re training in the morning but you’re forced to miss a morning workout, you can easily get it in before bedtime. When you miss the time of day when you typically train you can always make it up later—never allow yourself the excuse that you’re “too busy” to work out.
Our first move is rear-delts dumbbell raises. I often like to start with rear-delts in my shoulder workouts. That’s because many people have underdeveloped posterior delts. They’re a small muscle, but having well developed rear delts really helps you complete your physique. Notice how I demonstrate this in the video. Of particular importance: You should keep your shoulder blades flat throughout the move—that’s how you engage your rear delts. One reason many people are weak with this muscle is because they have a poor mind-muscle connection with it. I want you to really think about how this muscle is working during this exercise.
The next move is Arnold presses, the classic dumbbell presses with your palms facing toward your face at the bottom. For this move, you’ll twist your palms away from your face as you press. Take the weight up only to about three-quarters of full extension to keep constant tension in your shoulder muscles. This move works your full shoulders, but it especially hits your front and lateral delts.
After this move you’ll go with seated dumbbell lateral raises with drop sets. This really takes up the intensity, increasing the overload as you fail with an even lighter weight. This is just one technique that I’ve included in this 12-Week Lean Muscle Program that helps spur additional growth.
Your next move is machine shoulder presses, and I have Danielle and Kai performing these on a unilateral shoulder press machine. Take a look at the video to see how one side struggles just a bit more than the other. That’s the benefit of working on a unilateral machine compared to one where the arms are connected.
Next up are bilateral dumbbell front raises performed with one dumbbell. This move uses a different grip than many front raises, and the twist in your hands to hold the dumbbell works the inside portion of the front delts just a bit more. Again, we’re going for muscle confusion by changing up exercises from one workout to the next.
The last move for shoulders today, barbell upright rows, really targets your traps. You should work through the range of motion that’s comfortable for you on this move. Notice how I don’t allow Kai and Danielle to fully extend their arms at the bottom or rest between reps. I also have them use a very high grip, which limits how high they can raise the bar.
The final move for today is seated calves raises to target the soleus. Remember that we performed standing calves raises at the beginning of the week, targeting the gastrocnemius. This combination fully works your calves muscles over the course of the week.
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Cardio
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20 minutes
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Steady-state upon waking
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