In the Footsteps of Legends - Part 2: Shoulder Training

Arnold doing behind-the-neck presses, a Golden Era favorite

Golden Era Training Secrets for Old-School Shoulder Size, Strength, and Symmetry

     This is the 2nd part of what will be an on-going series dedicated to the training of old-school bodybuilders, particularly those of the “golden age” of bodybuilding, the ‘70s and ‘80s, though it will also pull upon the “silver era,” as well, if I think some of the training methods used by those bodybuilders is needed for our discussion.  You don’t have to, but I would recommend reading Part One first, just so you will have an “overview” of the training methods that the golden era bodybuilders used.

     Initially, I didn’t think about turning this into a series.  After I was about halfway through my previous essay, however, I realized that I had enough ideas rattling around in the ol’ bodybuilding brain that I could easily turn it into a series.  I also realized that a multi-part discussion was needed so that I could go into details on the different exercises that our old-school forefathers utilized for each muscle group.  In addition, I also wasn’t sure which bodypart I should begin this second part with, so I decided to simply start with the top of the body, the shoulders, and then work my way down, body-wise, from there for the remainder of the series.  This means that the 3rd part will cover chest, the 4th part back, the 5th part arms, and so on and so forth until, in the final article, I will talk calves.

     As I was beginning to assemble this essay in my mind, I realized that the first thing I should discuss is some methods that I didn’t touch about in the first article.  So, let’s go over a few of those that I left out of part one.

Training Tempo

     In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion in hypertrophy programs about rep speed.  Some lifters, coaches, personal trainers, and other writers will suggest using a specific “count” for both the negative and positive portion of the rep.  Some even recommend a count for the pause at the bottom of a rep.  I think a lot of this can be traced to Charles Poliquin who, starting with his articles in the mid 1990s for Muscle Media 2000, would recommend different tempos for various sets and exercises.  It might be something like a 4 second negative, a 2 second pause, followed by a 3 second positive, or whatever.

     Golden era bodybuilders didn’t do that.  They often trained relatively fast.  Some of them would use a slower tempo on occasion for the negative portion of the rep, but, by and large, they didn’t count the negative or the positive parts of their repetitions.  If you get on YouTube and watch videos of their training, or watch the pseudo-documentary Pumping Iron, you will get a good understanding of how they trained.  In my mind, it’s still the best way to do a set, any set, for all of your muscle groups and all of the exercises that you use.

Continuous Tension

     Most old-school bodybuilders liked to keep continuous tension on their muscles during a set.  For this reason, they used a lot of partial reps.  Usually this was done by not completely locking out a movement.  As their muscles fatigued, the reps would get shorter and shorter.  Watch Serge Nubret train his chest, for instance.  You’ll see that, when doing any kind of press, he would start by doing almost a complete repetition but just avoid the lockout.  As the set got harder, the reps would get more (and more) partial, until he would only move it a few inches off his chest by the end of the set.  Once again, this was largely the way that all of the golden era bodybuilders trained, with a few exceptions (those exceptions primarily came from the Mentzer brothers and their influence from Arthur Jones).

     Having written the above, understand that they did like to use a full range-of-motion.  They would often get a very deep stretch on any of their movements and just not lock out the rep at the top.  Don’t misunderstand “partial reps” for an excuse to not touch your chest on a benching movement.  When doing isolation movements, such as dumbbell flyes, they would get a really deep stretch, and, as we will see with lateral raises shortly, they often did a much fuller range-of-motion than what you see with many modern bodybuilders.

Supersets

     Golden era bodybuilders loved supersets.  Since they were “chasing the pump” (see Part One), they found this was one of the best ways to achieve that goal.  They would superset compound movements together, a compound movement followed by an isolation movement, or two isolation movements after they had finished with a compound exercise (or two).  They were also fond of supersetting antagonistic muscle groups.  That was a favorite of Arnold, who loved the full and complete upper body pump he achieved by supersetting chest and back.

Building Mile-Wide Shoulders

     Old-school bodybuilders, unlike many current ones, didn’t train just one muscle group at each workout.  When they trained their shoulders, it was often along with several others.  Some liked to train shoulders along with biceps and triceps.  Some trained them along with multiple other muscle groups.  It largely depended upon what kind of training split they utilized.  At the most, they used a 3-way split, such as chest, shoulders, and triceps on one day, legs on another, and back along with biceps on a 3rd.  Instead of a push/pull split, most of the bodybuilders in the ‘70s preferred to train antagonistic muscle groups together.  They liked chest and back at one workout, shoulders and arms at a 2nd, and legs (once again) at the 3rd.  Also, many trained with a simple 2-way split, training half of their muscle groups on one day and the other half on the 2nd.

     Don Howorth, for example, a golden era legend known for his wide frame, liked to train shoulders along with lats.  He believed that training them together led to more overall width.  He would do his shoulder workout then follow it up immediately with wide-grip chins, along with pulldowns and other “widening” back exercises.

Don Howorth and his "mile wide" shoulders on full display

     Before we get into specific routines, let’s take a look at some of the favorite exercises that old school ‘builders preferred over all others.

Military Presses

     To start with adding shoulder mass, old-school bodybuilders preferred one press above everything else.  And that’s the good, ol’ fashioned barbell overhead press, AKA the military press.  The great thing about this movement is that you can use a lot of weight on a compound barbell exercise.  If you’re new to training, this is the best one to start with.  Once you’ve added some size to your delts, you should still utilize it to continue to add mass while also using additional movements to round out your size and shape.  That’s the exact philosophy of the golden era bodybuilders.

     Golden era lifters would do this movement both standing and seated.  They liked the standing press because, as fatigue set in, they could turn it into a push press.  Also, they would sometimes start with the push press in order to use even more weight.  After doing a set or two of push presses, they would then lighten the load and do the more strict military press.  Seated or standing, this is a good exercise to use in your shoulder-building repertoire.

Behind-the-Neck Presses

     This might just be the favorite shoulder mass-builder for the old school lifter.  When I started really focusing on bodybuilding in the early ‘90s, it had become an almost derided movement.  Often blamed for rotator cuff and other shoulder injuries, many writers started to proclaim that it simply shouldn’t be used.  In recent years, I think it has made something of a comeback, as some trainers have pushed back on its injury-prone status.

     As long as you don’t have any pre-existing injuries, I think the behind-the-neck press is perfectly fine.  Watch videos of any top bodybuilder of the ‘70s, and you’ll find that they all used the behind-the-neck press.

Bradford Presses

     The Bradford press gets its name from the ‘60s Olympic weightlifter Jim Bradford.  Although it started as a weightlifting movement, by the golden era, it had become a standard of bodybuilders.  The Bradford press is a combination military press/behind-the-neck press.  You start with a military press, press it overhead, then lower the bar behind your neck, and press it back up and over your head until it rests on your neck for the 3rd rep—going back and forth in this manner from rep to rep.

One-Arm Dumbbell Overhead Presses

     The one-arm dumbbell overhead press, as I have often argued, might just be the best all-around overhead movement for building strength and mass.  Its roots go back to the bronze era, when strongmen used it to test their overhead strength.  You still see that influence today when you watch a World’s Strongest Man competition and it’s routinely part of strongman meets.

     Silver era bodybuilder John Grimek was a huge fan of it.  He once wrote that a bodybuilder only needs the military press, the lateral raise, and the one-arm press to build stupendous shoulders.

     Along with it, old-school bodybuilders also liked two-arm dumbbell presses, both standing and seated.  Even if it's not performed at each shoulder workout, this one should be a regular component of your delt training.

High Dumbbell Lateral Raises

     Watch any golden era bodybuilder do dumbbell lateral raises—to the side, front, or rear—and you’ll notice something unique.  They raised the dumbbells really high, almost to the same point as if they were doing an overhead press with them.  This is part of that full range of movement that they were after, and which I mentioned earlier.

     Modern bodybuilders often just bring the dumbbells up to a point where they are at shoulder level or just above it.  I don’t know if this is because that’s just “how it’s done” or if it’s because they can use heavier weights by not using a complete range-of-motion.  To do a high lateral raise, you may need to reduce the weight utilized, true, but golden era lifters would say that the trade-off in overall development is well worth it.

Leaning and Lying One-Arm Lateral Raises

     Another unique way that old-school bodybuilders liked to do lateral raises was by doing one arm side laterals while holding on to a rack (or something similar) with the arm opposite doing the raise.  This allows the bodybuilder to lean slightly, use a heavier weight on the laterals, and still get a full range of motion.

     A 2nd option—this was a favorite of Arnold’s—is to lie down on a bench on your side, with your head resting on the bench, while doing a lateral raise with the arm not lying on the bench.  You can get a deep stretch—often touching the floor with the dumbbell—and then raise the dumbbell until it’s above the shoulder that you are working.  Arnold liked this one so much that these days on the internet I’ve even seen it called the “Arnold lateral raise.”

Upright Rows

     The upright row is another maligned exercise (along with the behind-the-neck press).  But it was a favorite of almost all old-school bodybuilders.  Serge Nubret, who was fond of training with only 1 or 2 exercises per muscle group, would do workouts consisting entirely of behind-the-neck presses and upright rows.  Not all the time, mind you—Nubret, like most of his day, used a wide range of movements.

     Vince Gironda loved this movement.  He advised doing them with a wide grip, which he felt really emphasized the medial head of the deltoids.  Conversely, many golden era bodybuilders liked doing them with a close grip.  I think it’s beneficial to use many different grips while training with them.  In fact, if you like training with one exercise per bodypart, consider doing a workout of only upright rows, but vary your grip from set-to-set—wide, medium, and narrow.

Sample Workout Routines.

     As mentioned, one of the favorite methods that old-school bodybuilders used was one-exercise-per-bodypart routines.  These are best done with one of the compound movements, such as military presses, one-arm dumbbell presses, two-arm dumbbell presses (seated or standing), or behind-the-neck presses.  Use somewhere between 8 and 20 sets with between 5 to 20 reps on each exercise.  Here are some suggestions to start with:

8x5

8x8

10x10

     If you want a combination of both strength and size, I like 8 sets of 5 reps.  As I’ve often written, if you get a pump with heavy weights, you’ll get both stronger and bigger.  Select a weight on the movement, whatever movement that is, where you can get 10 reps if you were doing it for one all-out set.  If you manage 5 reps on all 8 sets, then add weight at the next session and repeat.

     If you haven’t yet adapted to high-volume training, start with either 8x5 or 8x8.  10 sets of 10 reps is a great workout, but for many it can lead to both overtraining and undertraining.  It’s too much volume for lifters if they haven’t built up the work capacity to handle it, so they get too sore from the workout (the overtraining part) and then have to take off too long between workouts before they can train again (the undertraining part).

     For 8x8 training, start with a weight where you can get 16 reps for one all-out set.  For the 10x10, use a weight where you could get 20 reps for one all-out set.  Using this “double the reps” technique is a good starting weight to select on any one-exercise-per-muscle group routine where you are doing at least 8 sets on the muscle.  So, yes, if you decide to try a 10 sets of 20 reps workout, use a weight where you would get 40 reps for one hard-as-hell set.

     You don’t have to do the same number of reps on all of your sets.  Tom Platz would often do as many as 30 sets (or more) on a lift, but his reps would oscillate between 6 and 100!  He would start with a heavy weight and sets of 6.  As the workout progressed, he would start to reduce weight and do more and more reps.

     Platz’s method is a bit too intense for most (if not all) lifters.  Here’s an example shoulder workout that would be better for most lifters:

Behind-the-neck presses: 10x5,5,5,8,8,8,12,12,12,25

     Two exercises per muscle group routines were also popular.  Many old-school ‘builders would start with a compound movement for low reps and heavy weights and then move on to higher rep, lighter sets for the 2nd exercise.  Here are few example routines that would be good:

Workout #1:

Military presses: 8x5

Dumbbell high lateral raises: 6x10-12

Workout #2:

Behind-the-neck presses: 6x6,6,8,8,10,10

Seated two-arm dumbbell presses: 6x10-12

Workout #3:

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 8x8 (each arm)

Upright rows: 6x16-20

     Keep in mind that those are just examples.  Replace any of the movements with a same but different exercise and reduce (or raise) the number of sets for each exercise depending upon what you know works for you.

     Of course, many golden era bodybuilders used more than just 1 or 2 exercises per muscle group.  In the silver era, such minimal movement training was more popular, but by the golden era, most lifters had moved on to utilizing 3 or more exercises at each session.  The exceptions were (primarily) Serge Nubret, Sergio Oliva, and Tom Platz.  Arnold and the other golden era legends that appeared in Pumping Iron used, on average, 5 or 6 exercises for each muscle group, shoulders included.

     Here are a few example programs from several different golden era favorites:

Franco Columbu’s Shoulder Developer:

Behind-the-neck presses: 4x10

Dumbbell high lateral raises: 4x10

Bent-over lateral raises: 6x10 (he thought he needed more sets here to thoroughly work the rear delts)

Alternate dumbbell front raises: 3x8

Cable side lateral raises: 3x10

Don Howorth’s “Wide-as-a-Mile” Shoulder Builder:

Behind-the-neck presses: 8x6

Superset: one-arm dumbbell presses w/ lying incline lateral raises: 4x8 on each movement

Two-arm dumbbell presses: 4x8

3-way lateral raises: 5x15 (5 front raises, 5 side raises, 5 rear raises)

     He followed this immediately with 5 sets of wide-grip chins and 5 sets of wide-grip barbell rows for the back.

Frank Zane’s Workout for Shapely Shoulders:

Superset: 

   Behind-the-neck presses: 6x8-10

   Barbell front raises: 6x8-10

Dumbbell side lateral raises: 6x8

Bent-over dumbbell lateral raises: 6x8

     Keep in mind, and I can’t emphasize this enough, that those are just example workouts.  If you decide to follow one (or all) of them, you might want to begin by decreasing the number of sets to begin with.  As you adapt to the training, you can slowly add in more sets.  So, for example, if you were to follow Zane’s workout, you might start by doing just 3 sets on each exercise for a couple weeks, then 4 for a couple more, and then go to 6 sets after a month of adaptation.  At that point, stick with 6 sets as written for another 4 weeks before moving on to another program after 8 weeks of training.

Training Splits

     Let’s look at a few options as far as training splits and programming schedules.  If you’re new to high-volume, golden era-style training, it might be best to start with a 2-way split.  The most common form of this kind of training is probably an upper/lower split.  If you want to really specialize on your shoulders, start your upper body day with shoulders first, then move on to whatever needs work next (probably back/lats for most lifters) and then finish the session with your strongest bodypart(s).  So, if your shoulders need work, followed by your back, chest, triceps, and then your best bodypart is you biceps, you might do a program as-written above for your delts, then do 8 sets for your back, 6 sets for your chest and triceps, and then only 4 sets for your biceps.

     You don’t have to follow an upper/lower split.  You can train push/pull, but working your chest, shoulders, triceps, quads, and calves at one workout and your back, biceps, hamstrings, and calves at the 2nd.  My son Garrett—who has one heck of a natural physique; click on the link to see—uses a “torso/limbs” split where he trains shoulders, back, and chest at one workout and arms and legs (along with abdominals) at the 2nd.  You can also do a split where you just work your “weak” bodyparts at the first session (whatever those are) and your better muscle groups at the next one.  For the session that needs the most work, do a higher-volume workout and then for your “good” bodypart session, do half of that volume.

     However you “organize” it, you have several options as far as scheduling goes.  You can train on a 2-on, 1-off, 2-on, 2-off split, where you always train on, say, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  You can follow a 2-on, 1-off split for the entirety of the training cycle, and then just take an extra day off whenever you want.  Or you could just do a simple 1-on, 1-off schedule throughout the workout cycle.  If you know that you respond well to high-volume and high-frequency, you can also just train however many days in a row you want before taking a day off.

     If you, conversely, know that you need more rest while using higher volume programs, you can train on a 3-way split, by training either chest, shoulders, triceps/ legs/ and back and biceps or you can follow an “antagonistic” split by training chest and back at the first workout, shoulders and arms at the next, and legs at the 3rd.  As far as the schedule goes, you can train on a 3-on, 1-off split, a 2-on, 1-off schedule, or (and this might be better for older athletes who need more recovery) a 2-on, 1-off, 1-on, 1-off schedule, working each muscle group every 5 days.

     Feel free to personalize your split and your workouts to what fits you.  If you’re an advanced bodybuilder, you should know what your body needs.  Take myself as an example.  I usually train with either full-body workouts or simple 2-way splits.  Sometimes, however, when I think I could use a change, I will use a 3-way training split and higher volume workouts.  Right now, I’m training on a push/legs/pull split, but I use a 2-on, 1-off schedule.  But I also alternate between higher volume and lower volume workouts.  So, if on Monday, I train chest, shoulders, and triceps hard, on Tuesday I do a relatively light leg workout.  I then will take off on Wednesday and on Thursday I do a “heavy” back and biceps workout.  On Friday, that means I do a “light” chest, shoulders, and triceps workout, take off on Saturday, and then train legs “heavy” on Sunday followed by doing a “light” back and biceps workout on Monday before I take off again on Tuesday.  My “cycle” starts again on Wednesday with a high-volume, “heavy” push session.  In addition to that, I’m using a double-split system.  On “push” days, I do chest in the morning and then shoulders and triceps in the afternoon/evening.  Leg days involve a morning quad workout followed by an afternoon hamstrings/calves session.  And “pull” day means back in the AM and biceps in the PM.  I train abs whenever I feel like it, usually every other workout.  For me, double-splits work well.  Instead of doing one 45-minute to hour-long session, I do 2 workouts between 20 and 30 minutes each.  This actually helps me to recover “better” because I’m doing the same amount of total volume in two workouts as what I would usually do in just one.  I also train at home, where I work, as well, which means I don’t have to go to a commercial gym twice-per-day.  That works well for me but whether or not it would work for you is something that you have to decide.

Final Thoughts

     If you are after more size and strength and you have built up the work capacity to handle it, then consider trying some of the workout ideas in this article.  Golden era methods still work just as well as they ever did.  I think more bodybuilders are rediscovering their workouts and training techniques, and are getting good results from that renewal.

     Make sure that you are eating plenty of food and consuming enough growth-producing protein.  With high-volume training, you need more calories and protein.  If you were training primarily for strength, the training would be more important than the nutrition, but with old-school bodybuilding routines, you need both in order to excel at your muscle-building goals.

     In our next part, we will discuss golden era methods and programs for building a massive yet full and sculpted chest.  In the meantime, use these shoulder-building strategies for bigger, wider, and more shapely delts.  It’s time to bring the golden era back to the gym.

     As always, if you have any comments or questions, leave them in the “comments” section below.  You can also send me an email if you prefer a private discussion.  I typically get around to answering my emails every couple days.

     If you enjoyed this article, and just reading my blog in general, please consider supporting my work by purchasing one of my books.  Click on the link to find more information for all of my books that are currently available.  And if you really liked this article, I have a soon-to-be-published book on the training methods of the old-school bodybuilders going back to the silver era.  Be on the lookout for it in the next month or so.