Best Shoulder and Tricep Workout for Muscle Growth | BOXROX (2024)

Check out the best shoulder and tricep workout for muscle growth below.

Hello, everyone! Today, we’re diving into a comprehensive guide for a shoulder and tricep workout, with a keen eye on rectifying the common blunders associated with the bro split. It’s time to enhance our understanding and execution of these exercises to ensure we’re maximising our efforts for optimal results.

Training shoulders and triceps together in one workout is strategic due to the synergistic relationship between these muscle groups. When you engage in shoulder exercises, the triceps are naturally recruited as secondary stabilisers, especially in movements like overhead presses. By targeting both within the same session, you can maximise muscle fatigue and stimulate growth efficiently. This approach not only ensures that the triceps are adequately warmed up and activated through the shoulder workout but also allows for a more focused and intense training session that can lead to better strength and hypertrophy outcomes.

Furthermore, grouping these muscles together in a single workout aligns with the principles of push movement patterns, where both shoulder and tricep exercises typically fall. This alignment ensures that you can allocate dedicated recovery time for these muscles while training other unrelated muscle groups, like the back and biceps, on different days. It enhances the overall balance in your training schedule, promoting muscle recovery and growth while reducing the risk of overtraining and injury.

Having strong and sizable shoulders and triceps not only enhances physical appearance, contributing to a more balanced and powerful upper body silhouette, but also significantly improves functional strength. These muscles play a crucial role in various daily activities and sports, aiding in lifting, pushing, and stabilising movements. Strong shoulders and triceps improve posture, reduce the risk of injuries, and increase overall upper body strength, enabling one to perform tasks with greater efficiency and ease. Additionally, well-developed shoulders and triceps contribute to better performance in exercises and activities that require upper body strength and endurance.

The best shoulder and tricep workout for muscle growth was created byGavin Davila,a fitness coach. He shared his insights on a video uploaded atBodybuilding.com YouTube channel. Let’s check it out so that you can do it too and see the change on the mirror in front of you.

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In the realm of weight training, the sequence in which we engage our muscle groups can significantly impact our workout’s effectiveness. While many commence their shoulder routines with overhead presses, there’s a strategic advantage in altering this sequence. Overhead presses predominantly activate the anterior deltoids, often at the expense of the lateral and rear deltoids. For those aiming to address these typically underdeveloped areas, reordering the workout to focus on the rear and lateral deltoids first can yield substantial benefits.

Starting with rear delt cable flies followed by lateral raises can revolutionize your approach to shoulder workouts. A common mistake in executing rear delt flies is the unnecessary squeezing of the scapula, which detracts from isolating the rear deltoids. The key is to maintain relaxed shoulder blades, focusing on shoulder extension and abduction for targeted engagement. Post the rear delt workout, a transition to lateral raises, executed with precision and control, further ensures that we’re honing in on these crucial but often neglected muscle areas.

Now, let’s delve into the intricacies of this workout, and make you understand how a strategic approach can enhance muscle engagement and growth. By initiating with targeted exercises for the rear and lateral deltoids, we prime these muscles for an intense, focused workout, setting the stage for a more balanced and comprehensive shoulder development.

After exhausting these muscle groups, we then proceed to the overhead press. This sequence allows for a more focused engagement of the shoulder muscles, ensuring a robust stimulus without overburdening them from the outset. By adopting this method, we not only enhance our workout’s efficiency but also foster a more harmonious muscular development, addressing potential imbalances and ensuring a well-rounded shoulder physique.

Transitioning to triceps, incorporating exercises like overhead extensions or skull crushers provides a balanced attack on this muscle group. Finishing with dips, especially when executed with a slow, controlled eccentric phase, maximizes muscle tension and fosters significant growth. This comprehensive approach to training ensures that every rep and set is optimized for maximum muscle engagement and development.

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Here’s a succinct overview of the exercises, along with the recommended sets and reps, for this targeted shoulder and tricep workout:

1. Rear Delt Cable Flies

1. Sets: 4
2. Reps: Until technical failure
3. Note: After the fourth set, perform a drop set by reducing the weight by 10 to 30% and continue to technical failure.

2. Lateral Raises

2. Sets: 4
3. Reps: Until technical failure
4. Note: Immediately follow the rear delt cable flies with no rest in between. Implement a drop set on the fourth set as well.

3. Overhead Press

3. Sets: Not specified, but typically 3-4 sets are recommended for compound exercises.
4. Reps: Until technical failure, ensuring a full range of motion and a focus on the bottom portion of the lift.

4. Overhead Extension or Skull Crusher (Triceps)

4. Sets: 4
5. Reps: 8-10 with heavier weight, followed by 15-20 after dropping the weight.
6. Note: Perform two drop sets at the end, reducing the weight for higher reps.

5. Dips (Triceps)

5. Sets: Not specified, but 3-4 sets can be effective.
6. Reps: To failure, focusing on a slow and controlled eccentric phase and a deep stretch at the bottom.

This workout is structured to first target the often-neglected rear and lateral deltoids before moving on to the more commonly emphasized anterior deltoids and triceps. Remember, the key to this workout’s effectiveness lies in the sequence of exercises, attention to form, and the strategic use of technical failure and drop sets to maximise muscle engagement and growth.

In this way, switching the paradigm from the regular “bro split” into a rather detailed and strategic approach would seriously amplify your gains by several folds. Start in the underdeveloped area and really focus on this technique: you’re not just going through the motions but rather sculpting a stronger, more balanced physique. Try this advanced technique in your next shoulder and tricep workout to feel the difference purposeful exercise can make.

To fully understand how to perform the exercises and reap the benefits of it, you can watch the video below. In it, Gavin Davila shows step by step how to do his best shoulder and tricep workout for muscle growth.

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Training shoulders and triceps offers several benefits that enhance both physical appearance and functional fitness. Strengthening the shoulders improves overall upper body strength, which is crucial for a variety of daily activities and athletic movements. Strong shoulders contribute to better posture, reduce the risk of shoulder injuries, and enhance the performance in sports and exercises that involve pushing, pulling, or lifting overhead.

Focusing on the triceps, which constitute a significant portion of the upper arm, enhances arm strength and stability. Well-developed triceps contribute to improved performance in pushing movements and exercises like bench presses and push-ups. Additionally, training triceps helps in achieving a more toned and balanced arm appearance. Together, strong shoulders and triceps not only boost functional fitness, aiding in everyday tasks and athletic performance, but also contribute to a more aesthetically balanced and defined upper body.

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