Building massive shoulders isn’t easy. If it were, every bro out there would be walking around with cannon ball delts and capped shoulders that leave us in awe.
Sadly, that isn’t the case.
Shoulders are by far and away a body part that, if built properly, can completely alter the look of your physique. They can take you from “meh” to “holy fucking shit” in no time.
But you’ve got to be willing to put in the work. And you’ve got to be willing to try out new exercises every now and then.
Sure, the basics like overhead presses and upright rows work well when it comes to building huge shoulders. Nobody is going to deny that. And those exercises should definitely make up a huge portion of your routine.
But at a certain point when you’re training a muscle group like the shoulders, you’ve got to switch it up and get a different stimulus. The shoulders are a muscle group that have an extremely high endurance threshold. You can’t just attempt to pummel them into submission and hope growth happens. You’ve got to switch up the angles.
Which is why I give you the W Press.
The W Press is one of those weird looking exercises that if you saw someone doing in your gym you might wonder just why the fuck someone let this jabroni in. It looks unsafe, it looks like it isn’t working anything, and it just looks freaking weird.
Except when it comes to building massive delts, it works.
The W Press works so well when it comes to building massive delts because it puts a new spin on the old overhead press classic. With traditional overhead presses, Arnold presses, and most other overhead movements you get solid delt recruitment. That’s what makes these exercises great.
But after a certain point the triceps become the primary mover, and the delts aren’t forced to work near as hard anymore. Which means you’re missing out on growth potential.
The W Press fixes that. By going out at such a drastic angle, you force the triceps to take the day off and place all of the work on the delts. They no longer get a break, and the result is one nasty shoulder pump.
On top of that, thanks to going so far out to the side you do get an additional stabilization element out of training that we don’t typically get with most other shoulder movements.
And while I’m not turning in my bro card to go spend my time on BOSU balls doing balance training, I will fully admit that getting some stabilization work in via certain exercises isn’t a bad thing, and can help keep you healthier in the long run.
How to start working it into your program.
Unique moves like the W Press tend to work better as assistance exercises. So it’s advisable to get your main shoulder moves in. The classics like overhead press and upright rows. Then when it’s time to move on, working in a challenging variation like the W Press can help take your shoulder gains to the next level.