When J.Nyx and I first started talking one of our conversations were about shoulders. The long and short of the conversation is that well defined shoulders, delts and traps signify strength in a huge way — in ways that other parts of the body do not. This is why a woman will notice your arms or your chest, but men will notice your traps. We both decided that this is more or less the animal instinct of self preservation.

Yes genetics plays a role. My shoulders and traps grow quickly and my chest grows slowly. This isn’t an excuse. It just means I need to customize how I work out to fit my body’s natural inclinations

I have a confession to make to you guys, unlike my chest which I have to work twice as hard as everyone in the room to grow, my shoulders, traps and delts just come naturally. Yes, I put my work in, they don’t show up if I am just a couch potato, but I actually have to deemphasize working my shoulders in order to keep symmetry because they grow so fast (just as I have to put in twice the work on my chest to keep symmetry because it grows so slowly).

While I grow shoulders naturally well, it is only this year that I began to de-emphasize them in lieu of chest for my workouts. Until this year I made the mistake that Arnold specifically tells us to avoid… put less emphasis on my weaker areas and more on my stronger areas. Why? Because working my stronger areas is more fun! I can lift heavier weights, I get more of a rush and it draws more attention in the gym. When I do a massive shoulder blast in the gym people notice. Then 6 hours later my chest and arms look small because the pump on my shoulders makes them absurdly large. Once again, just listen to Arnold. If you work hard enough and think smart enough  you will eventually get there anyway. They say there is no shortcuts, but that isn’t entirely true. Listening to Arnold is a shortcut.

Now, with all that said let’s move forward in true to form hypocrisy. Despite being a fast grower in the shoulders, let’s do a monster shoulder blast this weekend for our challenge. Why? Because it is August.

Sometimes it is just plain fun not to practice what you preach and take the heavy weights out for a spin.

Because we have been busting our asses all year for our physiques and because sometimes it is nice to have a little fun. For you guys who are like me and fast grow shoulers, traps and delts this will be a ton of fun in the gym. It is time to show off a little bit. Why the fuck not. If you guys are slow gainers in this area then this is a great challenge for you to blow up those shoulders and make them grow. Get the blood flowing to them and work lots of reps in.

Franco Columbu is my shoulder ideal.

For the past two weeks the weekend challenges have stuck to the 1000 rep pattern and I see no reason to change it. Everyone who has been doing the challenges has reported back how much fun they had doing them and how great the pump was. For today’s thousand rep challenge I put a lot of thought into the order and design of these lifts. They are specifically designed not just to totally blow up your shoulders, but to do so in a methodical way that will weaken your stabilizers and force you to really focus on the target muscles. Because of this I highly recommend you stick to the order of the workouts. Also, when picking weights, and of course doing this perfectly is always going to be impossible, try as best you can to have a weight that will result in failure after the last rep. If you fail before the last rep, do a

Franco was the real trap king.

rest pause. Hold the weights where they are, don’t put them down, take a deep breath and then squeeze out those last few. Remember what Arnold says, the only reps that matter are the last 3.

So, without further ado allow me to give you this weekends torture challenge so we can get you ready to bust through your shirts. And fellas, no fucking excuses. I promised you months ago that I was going to make gods or corpses of you. Well, here you go. Shoulders of a god. As Plutarch said, come back with your shield or on it. If you are still alive after this workout you better have fucking finished it.

Savage Shoulder Slam

SUPERSET 1 4×30

Rear Delt Dumbbell Flyes

x

Front Plate Raises

SUPERSET 2 4×30

Face Pulls (standing)

x

Underhand Grip Front Cable Raises

SUPERSET 3 4×30

Dumbbell Front Raise

x

Standing Dumbbell Lat Raise

SUPERSET 4 4×30

Wide Grip Barbell Upright Row

Shrugs

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press 4×10