Run The Rack Shoulder Workout

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Racking The Delts

by Alan Palmieri

It was 10:00 am and I had no other appointments or commitments for the rest of the day. I don't know what happened but I sure was not going to question my good fortune. I can't remember the last time I had such a pleasant circumstance. I was anxious to take advantage of the down time. Get caught up on correspondence, work my delts hot and heavy, and get some much needed rest.

I was looking for a little something different from the way I had been working my delts. I thought I'd try and wear them out before I took a two week layoff. Shoulders have never been one of my favorite body parts. At some point I learned to work them as hard as any muscle group but I never developed a love affair with them. I was preparing for a hectic business schedule and knew this would be my last workout of any kind for the next ten days. I decided I would work my delts into total submission as the layoff would provide plenty of time to recuperate. I do have some shoulder problems but then again, it would be hard to find a joint on my body that does not have some problems and pain.

I began warming up performing stretches, front - side - and bent over lateral raises. I finished off my delt warm up doing 30 reps of seated dumbbell presses with a very light weight, 20 pounders. Warm up completed, I sat down and started looking over an old "Mr. America" magazine I had pulled out. I rested for about six minutes. Getting up I performed arm rotations as I contemplated my assault. I was not going to do anything for my rear delts as I already worked them two days earlier with my back.

No pre-planned workout today, I made up my mind what to do as I was doing it. Talk about instinctive training! I walked over to my dumbbells and picked up a pair of 30's. It would be up and down the rack standing dumbbell presses. 30's for 15, 35's for 15, 40's for 12, 45's for 10, 50's for 8, 55's for 6, 60's for 4 (couldn't get 5 reps), 65's for 3, and 70's for 2. A total of nine sets performed one right after another with no rest between. Delts, tri's and lower back were feeling it... big time! Breath was completely gone and I was happy with the pump and feel my efforts produced.

I wandered over to a bench and sat down to catch my breath. I continued to thumb through the magazine and after about three to five minutes I head back to the dumbbells. I was feeling full of energy as my delts felt huge and I had no pain in the shoulder joints, strange as I usually do experience some discomfort or worse. I was ready to move on.

Picking up where I left off, I decided I would move up in weight a little. As I began to go from heavy to light I began with 85 pounds for 2, 80's for 2, 75's for 2, 70's for 3, 65's for 5, 60's for 6, 55's for 6, 50's for 6, 45's for 6, 40's for 6, 35's for 8. A total of 11 sets from heavy to light with no rest between for a grand total of 20 sets of standing dumbbell presses. Believe me, I was exhausted. It was fast, furious, intense and I loved every second of it. I rested for about five minutes before moving on to the next exercise.

I loaded up my lat machine with 25 pounds and connecting the lower pulley with a handle I began to perform alternate side lateral raises. I try to angle my body when performing this movement to provide more isolation. Keeping the same weight throughout and keeping constant tension on the delts, I performed 5 sets of 8 reps.

Next and last, I performed seated Smith Machine presses to the front for 6 sets of 6 reps with a 45 on each end of the bar. Now I was in pain (a good pain, the kind one gets from feeling the muscle gorged with blood and worked to the max). I was also completely out of gas. Couldn't do one more thing no matter how much I would have liked to.

I'm sitting in my garage with the door open, the temperature outside is 94 degree's, sweat pouring off my body and I remember I have to trim the hedges in front of the house. Well, that's not exactly the truth, I didn't remember all by myself, my wife came down and reminded me. Boy oh boy did I blow it, should have done that before my workout. Luckily I have a small electric trimmer but still, my arms were so wasted I could hardly hold the trimmer up.

I won't go into details how bad I messed the trim job up other than to say my bride had a few choice words for me. She was also kind enough to provide me with instructions on how I was going to fix what I had done as soon as my ten day business schedule was completed! I honestly tried to do it right but I could hardly hold my arms up let alone function.

She was nice enough to help rake the clippings. As hot as it was that meant a great deal more than she realized. As I raked I thought back to my heart attack and operation. Sometimes I feel it and sometimes I don't. It all depends and I can't say on what because I don't know. I just know when it's hot or if I over do a workout, like I just did, I can tell I am not what I once was. I can now blame it on two things, age and my heart attack. Love having an excuse around but this time it didn't help. I still had to do the hedges.

A nice long cool shower followed by a tall glass of club soda with two fresh lemons squeezed in. I sat down in my recliner to relax a minute and as my luck would have it, the air conditioning went out. I hope your day went better!

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