Lunar mission: how Mustafa Mohammad built his space-age delts

Flex, Sept, 2004 by Shawn Perine

It was said that 1965-66 Mr. Olympia Larry Scott had "cannonball" delts--shoulders so full and round that they drew comparison to the ammo of choice for pre-20th century militaries. So potent was the metaphor that it would be invoked time and again over the next four decades as a means of describing the shoulder caps of laterally gifted bodybuilders.

This being 2004, the time is right for a new metaphor, one that more accurately describes the new breed of deltoid development--shoulders that are not only full and round, but striated, etched with lines and contours befitting a topographical relief map of the lunar surface. In other words: How to describe the shoulders of Mustafa Mohammad?

Even in a sport where outstanding shoulders are de rigueur, Mohammad's are standouts. They, like the rest of his supersized physique, have a three-dimensional quality. When you see them in person for the first time, you feel as if someone slipped a pair of 3-D glasses in front of your eyes. The front heads jut a good three inches from the clavicle toward you, while the rear heads project an equal distance away. The side heads, striped by the burgeoning masses of muscle fiber of which they are composed, divide and spread apart the other heads, creating clusters of sinewy masses that resemble cannonballs only in the way that grassy knolls resemble mountain ranges.

Mohammad's deltoids weren't always so formidable. "Early in my career, people would tell me that my shoulders weren't big enough for my arms and chest, which grow very quickly," admits the Vienna-by-way-of-Jordan resident. The 38-year-old, who qualified for the 2004 Olympia, his first, by finishing third at the 2003 Dutch Grand Prix continues, "So I concentrated very hard on bringing them up to match the rest of my physique." Indeed, through years of diligent well-planned training, he has managed to bring them to a point where they not only match the rest of his gargantuan physique, but they also eclipse those of most of his pro peers, as when the moon passes in front of the sun. In fact, his delts are so round and rock hard that they might even be compared to lunar bodies orbiting a planet-sized torso.

The routine that Mohammad devised to transform his shoulders from a self-professed weak point into what can best be described as full-moon delts is set out in the accompanying sidebar.

WE'RE BREAKING UP ... | "I always train my rear delts and traps apart from my shoulders," Mohammad says. Although it's not entirely unusual for a bodybuilder to cleave either his traps or his rear delts from his shoulder training, he separates both.

"My neck [referring to his traps] was always a weak point. I would often get headaches after training it with my shoulders or back. It seems to be a sensitive area for me. I separated it from my back and shoulder workouts so I can focus on it more," he explains. He decided to pair his traps with his triceps training, as the latter would not infringe upon, or impinge, his sensitive neck. His entire traps workout consists of five sets of barbell or dumbbell shrugs.

As for his rear delts, Mohammad says, "I train my rear shoulders with back. It is just something that I decided to try one day, and it has been very successful for me. I've been training for over 20 years, and I'm always learning something new." Four or five sets of bent laterals added to his back program fill out the rear heads of his delts nicely.

GALACTIC GASTRONOMY | To build moon-sized delts and a body to match, you need a lot of fuel. For Mohammad, that means consuming more than 5,000 calories per day in the offseason, divided among six to eight meals per day. "I've been blessed with a very fast metabolism," he says.

Being able to burn calories the way a Saturn V burns rocket fuel doesn't mean that Mohammad feels free to flood his system with junk. "I always eat good clean food--lots of chicken and turkey, and sometimes beef. It is very fresh, never frozen. In all of Europe, the best quality of food is in Vienna."

He also makes sure to consume plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and, in stark contrast with today's Atkins-inspired low-carb mania, a good deal of basmati white rice. "I love to eat rice. It's never been a problem for me to burn it off. But sometimes I'll eat black bread [similar to pumpernickel] instead during precontest."

Although Mohammad isn't likely to be found waiting in line at a Viennese Krispy Kreme, he will allow himself a dessert every now and then during his offseason. "I like to eat pie," he confesses. Fresh baked, of course.

HOME BASE | Mohammad's passion may be bodybuilding, but his family is his lifeblood. It is their love that keeps him strong for his professional quest of garnering the top honor in his chosen sport.

"My children always come first," he states, referring to sons Hamza, 9, and Omar, 3, and daughter Maysun, 6. He also credits Susie, his wife of 16 years, with helping him maintain a successful career and happy home life concurrently. Together, they have run American Fitness gym in Vienna for the past 12 years, where Mohammad spends 12 hours every day managing the floor and operating a successful personal-training business.