Age of Cage Shoulder Workout

Brian Cage is back with one of the toughest shoulder workouts yet - it's the Age of Cage!

Brian Cage and Gabe Tuft are hitting shoulders hard, Age of Cage style.

Brian landed in Austin, TX just one hour before hitting the gym with Gabe and Priscilla Tuft. He had flown in to film the Big Shoulder Bible instructional videos but wanted to get a shoulder workout in BEFORE filming the instructional videos.

In true F-ing Machine style, Cage knocked not only this workout out, but also filmed instructional shoulder workout videos after for almost 5 hours.

Let's see if you have what it takes!

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Military Press

With the military press, Brian prefers to go behind the neck. HOWEVER, if you are uncomfortable with this form, or you feel as though there may be a risk of injury, we highly recommend using a standard military press that goes in front of the head. Either way, we're big proponents of not going all the way down with the range of motion. There is a lot of force exerted on the rotator cuffs and connecting tendons if you do use a full range of motion. 

Our suggestion is to go to a 90-degree bend in the elbow or just slightly below.

Also, if your gym doesn't have a military press setup, you can always do this standing.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Seated military press	1	—	Yes	20	2
	2	—	Yes	16	2
	3	—	Yes	12	2
	4	—	Yes	8	2

Standing dumbbell side lateral raises - heavy

With the sanding side lateral raises, our goal was to go heavier than usual and really tax the muscles in a different way. We're still focusing on form but we're also going max effort on these.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Standing side raises	1	--	--	20	2
	2	--	--	14-16	2
	3	--	--	12-14	2
	4	--	--	8-12	2

Bent over rear delt flies

Rear delt flies require you to keep a fixed bend in your elbow. A lot of people will use more of a row-style form and you will see them pulling the weight upwards using their lats. This is not the goal with flies. The bend in your elbow should stay the same throughout the entire range of motion.

Again, Brian and Gabe went heavy on this exercise and really pushed the envelope. One thing they did that wasn't shown in the video were partial reps towards the end of the set. As they fatigued, the ROM got smaller and smaller but still focusing completely on the rear delts. This small ROM with strict form forces you to use only your rear delts and exhaust more muscle fibers than if you were to really swing the weight around.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Dumbbell rear delt flies	1	--	--	20	2
	2	--	--	14-16	2
	3	--	--	12-14	2
	4	--	--	8-12	2

Machine Shoulder Press

Cage opted for a machine shoulder press with a hammer grip to target the front delts in a slightly different manner. They knocked out three higher rep sets. Still, the goal was to go as heavy as possible and get all the reps. If you have a spotter, pick a weight where you can get some forced reps towards the end of the second and third sets.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Machine shoulder press	1	—	—	20	2
	2	—	—	18	2
	3	—	—	16	2

Standing machine side raises

Not every gym has one of these machines. If yours doesn't you can always do single arm cable raises OR if your gym has a Free Motion cable system, you can do double arm side raises with the cables.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Standing machine side raises	1	--	--	20	1
	2	--	--	14-16	1
	3	--	--	12-14	1
	4	--	--	8-12	1

Seated side raises super set

House of Gainz in Georgetown, TX has about every machine known to man. This includes a seated side raise machine facing inwards AND outwards. If you don't have both machines, you can just flip around in the chair.

With these two exercises, there's no rest in between the two. Knock out the reps on one machine and immediately switch to the next machine (or position) and then take your rest.

You can see Gabe and Brian in the picture above doing these at the same time. When one person finished, they switched machines immediately and without any rest.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Seated machine raises facing in super set with seated machine raises facing outwards.	1	--	Yes	20/20	1
	2	--	Yes	16/16	1
	3	--	Yes	15/15	1
	4	--	Yes	12/12	1

Rear delt cable flies super set with rope face pulls

In this final super set, Gabe and Brian opted to use the lat pulldown cable for the rope face pulls. They also chose to do the rear delt cable flies without handles and grip just the ball attachment. This allows for less of an issue with the handle attachments clanking into each other during the motion.

Exercise	Set	DS	SS	Reps	Rest time (min)
Rear delt cable flies super set with rope face pulls	1	--	Yes	20/20	1
	2	--	Yes	16/16	1
	3	--	Yes	15/15	1
	4	--	Yes	12/12	--

Bonus Tips

Make sure you have eaten sufficiently starting the day before and the day of this workout. It's a long and exhausting workout and without proper nutrition, you'll run out of gas quick. 

Using our Kratos GOW pre-workout and our Oracle Whey Protein will give you a champion's edge on this workout for sure.

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