Old School Exercise For Meaty Shoulders

By Jeff Anderson
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Despite the terrycloth headband and striped tube socks the old school bodybuilders of the 70′s used to sport around the gym, these guys obviously knew how to train for mass.

With nothing better to do than guzzle raw eggs and pound metal plates into oblivion, they were responsible for some of the weirdest (and yet most powerful) mass-building exercises ever invented.

Unfortunately, many of these exercises have long been forgotten.

Thankfully you have “muscle nerds” like me to help unearth these muscle-building treasures so you can stick them in your own mass building workout routine.

Here’s a great one for adding more meat to your deltoids and traps for a thick and powerful upper body…

Old School Exercise For Meaty Shoulders

This exercise was seen a lot in Gold’s Gym with Ahhhnold, Columbo, and the other meatheads stacking it into their shoulder routines.

It’s a cross between a shrug and an upright row and it works like this…

  • Grab a pair of dumbbells that together equal the amount you would use for a set of upright barbell rows and hold them at your sides, just a little bit in front of the sides of your thighs (about 45 degrees from your sides)
  • Drag the dumbbells straight up, keeping them close to your body all the way through the movement, keeping your elbows pointing out and back.
  • Lift the dumbbells as high as you can, bending your elbows until your hands are at about waist height (you’ll feel it in your side delts).
  • At the top of the movement, hold this position for a second or two to flex your traps hard in this “shrugging” point of the movement.
  • Shoot for 8-12 reps until you hit failure. However, if you’re using this in the Advanced Mass Building Workout, you would add this exercise to “Table 12” from your workout log included with the program for Weeks 2-4)
  • Be sure to keep the motion of the weights natural so you don’t place any unnecessary stress on your shoulders.

This is a great power move that you’ll feel in both your deltoids as well as your traps.

To target more of your rear delts and lower traps, try leaving a little forward during the movement.