I had to get that off of my chest.  Don't ask me why, but just know that it had a purpose.

Let's move on to much more upbeat things, like causing utter turmoil and devastation to shoulders, one of my weakest muscle groups on the figure stage.

My front delts are sore.  Now, that doesn't seem too unusual, except that I don't remember the last time that I actually felt the front delt--by itself--and realized that a slight achiness could still linger even days after performing an excruciating shoulder routine.  I suppose by now you want to me shut up and get on with the workout?  No!  I want to talk.  Okay, okay, you twisted my arm.  Besides, I desperately want to tell you about all the exercises because this was so invigorating to come up with a routine all by myself and really tear my shoulders to pieces.  (These images are a little gruesome, but it really feels like I destroyed my delts!)

I started off with a two warm up sets of side laterals, which I always do at the beginning of my workout.  The difference this day was that I actually concentrated.  I picked up the puny five-pound dumbbells and did a set of 25, very controlled, very slow, very steady.  That pushed some blood into the side delts.  Then, after maybe a 90-second break, I picked up the ten-pound dumbbells and repeated the exercise for 20 reps this time.  Still very controlled, very slow, very steady.  At this point, my delts burned just a bit, and I was ready for action.

With 15-pound dumbbells in hands, I continued doing side lateral raises.  The weight was lighter than what I had done the previous week (by about ten pounds), but the key was that I did this weight for sets of 20, and when I finished, I picked up the ten-pound dumbbells and really tore into those delts.  Every single rep was done properly:  elbow almost exactly parallel to the shoulder joint, held there for a brief millisecond, lowered down slowly, and brought right back up with a very controlled pace.  No throwing the weights around, no allowing the weights to drop.  If I couldn't get the arms up to the proper level, then I did partials and didn't allow the arms to drop in front of me and instead kept them to my sides, which meant that I did not let up on the tension for the delts.  Talk about pain!  You should have seen the faces I was making (there's nothing pretty about me in the gym; no...awww, ain't she cute remarks either!).

Four sets of this, guys!  Four sets.  So, the volume was increased as well.  I then moved on to the lying side laterals.  There's a description of how to do this exercise properly on the public site's message board, so feel free to check it out.  These are awesome!  But they're a little tough on the ego because you can't use enormous amounts of weight.  I had to rely on the little ten-pounders and just really fight through the reps and watch my form.  It was worth it.  My side delts looked like little hills on the side of my arms.  Nice!!

I was nowhere near done.  Nowhere near it!

I need to stop for a moment and move onto a tangent.  I just read an e-mail from Jody May that really made me smile.  We did that shoot together with Jon Howard, and she was just expressing a bunch of appreciation for some tips I had given her in terms of nutrition (notably protein intake and veggie intake) and how much better she felt as a result and also her thanks for helping her throughout the shoot (I did her make up for the last couple of sets).  She told me she supported me in my decisions and thought I would make a wonderful bodybuilder, and that really was nice!  I guess I bring this up because the true reason for being in the industry is to have friends like this.  To know that I can turn to her, to Nicole, to Amanda, to Jen, to Michelle, to Marcy, to Cindy, to Stephanie, to soooo many girls and they return the favor by turning to me when they need help, advice, and motivation is the most wonderful part of competing.  We may compete against each in front of the judges, but we support each other in life.

Now back to our regularly scheduled shoulder program.

I decided to do Arnold presses.  I hadn't done these in several months.  In fact, I don't think I've done these this year.  Maybe in off season?  I can't even remember (they say the hearing goes first, but I think it's the mind; those darn thirties!).  Anyway, I did three sets of Arnold presses, but I supersetted them with a lighter weight and did regular, seated overhead presses with the dumbbells.  The key to the overhead presses this time around was not locking out my elbows.  I moved my arms in more of an arc motion, so that when I reached the top of the exercise, my elbows had about a ten-degree bend in them, rather than a straight, locked joint.  This activated the fibers in the delts much more readily and aided in keeping my traps out of the exercise (there was no lifting through the scapula).  I really think this exercise is what completely killed my delts.  I remember getting off of the seat and wanting to sit right back down again.  I could only hold my arms at my sides and grit my teeth against the pain.  Whatever it was, it was worth it!  My delts looked huuuuge!!

Okay, so I exaggerate.  They looked big for a munchkinite like me.

I then did two different rear delt exercises:  bent over rear laterals with dumbbells (palms facing the body throughout the entirety of the exercise) and then rear pec deck with a drop set on the final set.  This was actually Jody May's idea...doing two different rear delt exercises, and I really liked it.  A lot!  See, that's another reason to have good girlfriends.  We all share ideas on how to get bigger, better muscles (or in Amanda's case and my own, smaller legs, which I still question the possibility of attaining).

I did do one set of front lateral raises.  One set.  I couldn't feel my delts anymore, and when you can't feel the muscle, you have actually brought it to failure.  Well, assuming you can feel the muscle in the first place.  We've talked about the mind-muscle connection, so if you aren't even experiencing a muscle contraction when you begin the workout, then there's a whole other matter to examine.  I'll have to get into that one day.  Not today though.  I have a second session of cardio to do before the night is over.

Anyway, three days later, and the pain still resides in my shoulders.  I don't mind its company.  It means that I might actually have some growth out of this workout, and I think I'll try the grouping of exercises again and see what happens next week.  Stay tuned for the results!

Jodi