Shoulder and butt training | 4 weeks out of EVLS Prague | New team

Hi, I'm Kačka and in this video we'll take a look at my training in preparation for the race. I am preparing for the new category of wellness fitness in the NPC federation. Last year was my first time competing in the NPC, but in the bikini category, which is less muscular than wellness. My goal for this newly chosen category is to have a more dominant lower body compared to the upper half. In this video I have my shoulders, glutes and hamstrings together as I don't think I need to work out my top so many times a week given my proportions. Don't take me literally though, I still train shoulders and back, but within the split workout I no longer have, for example, a separate shoulder workout or push workout.

I'm looking forward to seeing the changes in my final form as a result of this workout distribution as well. The video was filmed 4 weeks before the race, for which I plan my first start at the amateur EVLS in Prague. This is the only competition under the NPC federation in the Czech Republic and that's why I don't want to miss it. I raced here last year and really enjoyed the overall atmosphere and the opportunity to meet great people. That time I finished second in the bikini category.

So let's get to the training itself

If we want to have round shoulders, we need to train all three parts of them. Front, middle and back delts, otherwise they won't work comprehensively. Often people have overloaded front shoulders and flabby back shoulders. The rear delt is a small muscle that is also involved in pulling exercises, but it is often so flabby that I think we should train it with more isolated exercises like delt dec, forearm tucks, chin-ups, pulling the top pulley diagonally to the ground. You won't find an exercise in this video that targets the back shoulders, as I practice it the day before in deadlift training.

Middle Shoulders

The push-ups and lunges that work best for me are the various push-ups and lunges. For shoulder presses, I prefer to go with one-armed push-ups because of the free range of motion and sufficient depth. I am most comfortable with the lunges when sitting in a slight forward bend. My elbows are not too bent, my arms are rather extended and the movement is directed slightly in front of my body. I prefer the seated version as I don't help myself by bending my torso too much and swinging the dumbbells upwards.

The front of the shoulders

I choose to do the forearm on the bottom pulley not with a short bar, but with an adapter where you don't focus on the grip, but just have your hands cupped in those ears concentrating on a smooth pull towards the front of the body. I don't think we necessarily need to train the front of the shoulders, as the vast majority of us have them shortened, but as far as bodybuilding competitors go, I would still incorporate some exercise for those just for the complexity and more 3D look of the shoulders. In the end it all depends on your goal.

Back of the thighs (hamstrings)

Two exercises are important for their full development, namely the deadlift variation and the stumbling variation. In the context of muscle hypertrophy, it doesn't matter what specific style of these two exercises you choose, but they should appear in your training. For example, I personally don't like the classic deadlift, I prefer the stiff legged deadlift, or deadlift, where we extend the back thighs full length and walk the barbell in the down position all the way to the ground. Compared to the Romanian deadlift, the knees are a little more bent and the depth is not as much, here we engage more of the lower glute muscle.

As far as tripping goes, most gyms don't offer a seated tripping machine, which I find is better than lying down because of better stability. In the prone position, people tend to lift their glutes up to the ceiling, by pushing their pelvis off the bench, so they can perform the movement with an upward swing and feel their lower back more. With the seated variation, we are able to lock out and exercise the hamstrings better.

The large gluteal muscle

I worked this one by loading it on the bottom pulley since it is again a more isolated exercise for the butt and that was my goal in this workout. However, more often I choose to work the glutes in a shortened hipthrust position as I can progress better here. But remember that the butt should not be trained only with these exercises, but also focus on different types of squats, lunges or lunges, where we engage the front side of the thighs, but as a woman you do not have to worry about growing massive thighs, these exercises can also be modified to target the glutes more.

The small and medium gluteal muscles

Here, I chose to unweight on the bottom pulley (not in the video unfortunately) for the reason that I feel the best stretch and contraction of these muscles here. Other exercises that engage these two smaller glute muscles are things like side lunges with an expander or lunges while seated on a machine. We certainly shouldn't neglect these muscles in our training, both for aesthetics and the functionality of the gluteal muscles. These are not exercises for women only, because if you have these muscles flabby it can limit you in squats or deadlifts.

If these words make sense to you and you liked the workout, then definitely give it a try. I'd be very grateful for any feedback!