Formal Fitness Training and Steph Grace Fitness Showdown Part 2: Shoulders and Arms
When two trainers find the time to workout together, the result is magical.
Professional trainer Stephanie Grace and Michael Hartman recently met up for a sleeve-tearing shoulder and arm routine. It was full of laughs, pain, and nuggets of wisdom. We hope you enjoy it! Finding a professional trainer, workout partner, or good friend to train with will always pay dividends. Personally, we recommend a combination of all of those. Workout alone when you have to, but workout with a buddy when you can!
There is no perfect muscle group training split. Many people will find rhythm in doing one muscle group per workout, while others will find success combining muscle groups. We decided to tackle the elbow-to-neck muscles, shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Some muscle groups are better combined with each other than others. Agonist and antagonist muscles work best together synergistically. Those combinations include:
- Chest and back
- Biceps and triceps
- Front Deltoid and Rear Deltoid
- Front trapezius and back trapezius
- Abdominals and lower back
- Hip Flexors and Butt
- Quadriceps and hamstrings
- Tibialis Anterior and Rear Calves
- Forearm Flexors vs. Forearm Extensors
By combining opposite muscle tissues, you have the ability to move from one exercise to the next with minimal rest. Minimal rest will provide a shock to the body, requiring less time spent in the gym (or at home) while still retaining and building muscle tissue.
The workout:
DB Arnold Press superset Skull Crusher superset Tricep Dip off Bench 3×12
Rope Face Pull, Superset Tricep Press Down, Superset Tricep Overhead Extension, 3×15
DB Super Rest Pause 10:1
DB Overhead Extension Rest Pause 1–10
Underhand Pulldown Hold (3 seconds) Superset Band Curls: 3 sets of 20.
This is a fun workout that can be utilized for four to six weeks to improve your arm and shoulder strength and endurance. With proper nutrition, this routine can also improve the way your arms look! Obviously, nothing works if you don’t work, so you must put in the effort, control your diet, and also do a fair amount of cardiovascular activity in conjunction with this routine. A well-rounded and well-programmed routine will pay dividends in your efforts to build a body like a Greek god or goddess. It starts with the willingness to learn and try new things. As always, it is best to find a high-quality trainer to guide you through this routine if you are new to exercise while also teaching you what “performance eating is”.
Performance eating fuels your body and mind while allowing you to operate and perform at a high level. General nutrition doesn’t tackle performance eating. Eating for performance, eating to lose weight (often muscle tissue, water, and glycogen are all you will lose), and eating to lose fat are totally different subjects. The reason Formal Fitness Training recommends performance-based eating is because you can feel your best while achieving the slow and sustainable results that you desire.
Fast results will only end up hurting you in the long run.
A big thanks to Steph for hosting workout part two, and I promise we will do legs next time. She might kill me!
As always:
Onward and Upward Always
Watch this episode on Youtube: Formal Fitness Training and Steph Grace Fitness Showdown Part 2: Shoulders and Arms