Shouldering expectations: with his sights set on his first Mr. O appearance this September, Phil Heath transformed his once-narrow delts into a strength. Here's how

Flex, Sept, 2008 by Greg Merritt

It's an understatement to say much is expected of you. After all, you're the guy who is supposed to do nothing less than revolutionize bodybuilding, melding, in your own terms, the "pretty" with the "freaky"--ushering in a more aesthetic meme at the same time as you blow minds with new levels of selective size and striations (example: your triceps). After bursting on the scene at the 2005 NPC Junior Nationals, you were supposed to win the NPC USA two months later. You did. Then, you were supposed to take the pros by storm. You did, winning your first two IFBB shows. Only last year, when you were outsized at the Arnold Classic, did anyone doubt the inevitability of your ascendance. Then, with this year's victory at the Ironman and runner-up spot at the Arnold, you set yourself up, at age 28, as a top contender for the Olympia, not when and if and maybe, not some year or even next year. This year. Two years ago, we proclaimed you the future of bodybuilding; the future is now.

"SOMETHING MORE AGGRESSIVE" Three days after you win the Ironman Pro and 11 days before your second place at the Arnold Classic, you're eating a fistful of almonds inside a mixed-martial-arts training center in El Segundo, California--a blue-collar community wedged up against LAX, famous only for the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest leaving a wallet there. The gym seems like the sort of place where you'd find a tooth on the floor, but the rough edges are tempered via somnolent classical music drifting down from the sound system. That's different.

Back home in Colorado Pro Gym, they crank up the rock 'n' roll just for you, for you changed from hip-hop when you wanted "something more aggressive" to fuel your heaviest workouts. CPG is more hardcore than where you trained before, and you especially like the fact that the dumbbells go to 170 instead of the 130s you were used to maxing out with. The serious atmosphere and serious iron have already made a difference in your physique, and you vow that the results of pressing and rowing those heavier dumbbells will really be evident, come Olympia time. In fact, CPG may need to buy some 180s.

"A LOT MORE WIDTH" Standing overhead presses are so old school that Socrates could've been on the faculty. They were a staple of Eugen Sandow's routine when he was 28--as you are now--and that was 113 years ago. They fell out of favor in recent decades, eventually replaced mostly by Smith machine and Hammer Strength presses, but everything old is new again. Just as Ronnie Coleman's Olympia reign rescued walking lunges from aerobics classes, Jay Cutler's O reign is sparking a renaissance of standing presses. You do three sets of 10 reps, lowering the bar nearly all the way down to your clavicles and then pressing it all the way up for brief lockouts.

"I've been doing these for the past eight months," you tell the prying FLEX writer. "I saw Jay doing them when we were training in Hawaii. I asked him about them, and he said, 'They work the shoulders, but also the stabilizers in the back, because you have to balance more.' For me, just getting a pump in the shoulders is difficult, so I try to utilize this exercise along with the Smith machine [overhead presses]. Sometimes I'll do the Smith machine first and then do standing barbell presses at the very end [of my routine]. I think it's brought out a lot more width for me. Also, it works my core more, because everything has to stay nice and tight, or I'm going to tip over or turn it into a push press, which it isn't".

"SLOW DOWN" You do another shoulder exercise most trainers avoid: Smith machine presses behind the neck. Modern bodybuilders shy away from behind-the-neck anything for fear it leaves the shoulder joints vulnerable to injury, but as long as you maintain strict control and avoid the lowest position (where your hands are as low as your delts), behind-the-neck presses and pulldowns are safe for pain-free trainers and target your muscles differently than their front versions. Because your elbows come out to your sides more, behind-the-neck presses work your medial delts more than front presses.

"Damn, this thing needs to be oiled," you tell the writer after your first of three sets of behind-the-neck Smith presses. "Could you hear it? I swear it puts, like, another 50 or 60 pounds on it just from the friction."

"I ain't buying it," the writer jokes, and you laugh.

You take a wide, thumbless grip, lower each rep to your ears and, at the top, get full but brief lockouts. "I started doing these behind the neck last summer. I'm able to get some good contractions. I just can't go as heavy as I'd like to with this exercise, but I think it's been one of the main exercises, along with the standing presses, that have broadened my shoulders. Usually, I go to the front, but I'll alternate if I do standing presses to the front in the same workout, like today."

The prying writer asks what's the most important factor in shoulder training. "Slow down," you answer. "People watch Ronnie Coleman and Branch Warren on DVDs and they see them doing ballistic movements, just exploding the weights up, but that doesn't work for most of us. The best thing most people can do is get a full range of movement and slow down so they can feel the muscles working throughout that range. I've really gotten into working the full range over the past year, and it's helped me grow a lot more."