Are you curious about how Hany Rambod’s shoulder workouts? Are you looking for a simple, step-by-step guide that explains everything you need to know about Hany Rambod trains his delts for size and strength? Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this comprehensive guide, I will teach you exactly how Hany Rambod organizes his FST-7 shoulder workouts.
Hany Rambod is a man that needs no introduction. He is one of the world’s top bodybuilding coaches, having worked with many of the world’s greatest bodybuilders including Phil Heath and Jay Cutler.
For a long time Hany Rambod was known as a nutritionist. However, that all changed when he invented his new FST-7 Training Program.
“FST-7 stands for fascia stretch training. The 7 is the amount of sets that you do at the end. The expansion of the fascia is what is going to trigger the growth.
So when we go in there and trigger the ultimate pump, you’re going to get really good round muscle bellies with maximum separation.”
Hany Rambod trains his shoulders using a combination of high-volume and high-intensity training principles.
He believes for complete shoulder development you have to lift heavy weights in the 8-12 rep range, as well as use high-volume training techniques to pump the muscle full of blood and stretch out the fascia tissue surrounding the muscle.
Hany Rambod trains his shoulders once per week using anywhere from 5-7 different exercises. He likes to use a combination heavy compound exercises for overall shoulder size and different isolation exercises to target the front, side and rear delts.
Here is one of Hany Rambod’s high-volume shoulder workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Hany Rambod’s Shoulder Workout #1
- Exercise #1: Seated DB overhead press, 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Exercise #2: Standing DB lateral raise, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Exercise #3: Behind the back cable lateral raise, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Exercise #4: 30 degree prone DB “Y” raise, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Exercise #5: Bent over DB lateral raise, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Exercise #6: Reverse pec dec, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Exercise #7: Hammer strength military press, 7 sets of 10-12 reps, 30-45 seconds rest
Here is the training video:
Talk about a high-volume shoulder workout!
Hany Rambod performs 7 different exercises for his shoulders. He says the shoulders may be a small muscle group. However, the respond incredibly well to high-volume workouts using many different exercises.
“Some people think that high volume comes with only back or legs. When you do shoulders, high volume is high volume. We’re pushing a lot of blood and we’re doing a lot of different angles.
Not only are we doing 1 type of lateral movement, sometimes we’re doing 2 or even 3 different lateral raises.”
Hany Rambod says this shoulder workout is as simple as it gets. He starts the workout with some heavy dumbbell overhead presses. This is his all-time favorite exercise for overall shoulder development.
Next he performs 5 different isolation exercises for his front, side and rear delts. His goal on these exercises is just to get a huge pump in his shoulders.
Then at the end of the workout Hany performed his favorite FST-7 technique on the hammer strength overhead press machine.
Hany normally uses an isolation exercise for his FST-7 sets. However, with an advanced bodybuilder like Jay Cutler, he says that you can actually use a compound exercise and get even better results.
“FST-7 for beginners and intermediates, we use lateral raises to isolate the lateral head of the delt. With Jay we’re trying to build more thickness and base strength so we’re using more compound movements.
Compound movements are not good for beginners because your ancillary muscles will kick in. But with advanced bodybuilders you can use a compound movement for 7 sets of 8-12 reps to really blow up your delts.”
Here is another one of Hany Rambod’s advanced shoulder workouts that you can try. Check it out:
Hany Rambod’s Shoulder Workout #2
- Exercise #1: Standing DB lateral raise, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Seated DB overhead press, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #3: 30 degree prone DB front raise, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #4: Standing DB overhead press (neutral grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Seated DB lateral raise, 4 sets of 8-15 reps**
- Exercise #6: Bent over reverse DB fly, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #7: Reverse pec dec, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
**Train to failure, then drop the dumbbells and perform 3-5 reps with extra manual resistance from your training partner on the lowering phase of each rep.
Here is the training video:
This is another brutal shoulder workout by Hany Rambod. He performs 7 different exercises for his shoulders, including 2 compound pressing exercises and 5 isolation exercises.
Hany says it’s OK to perform some of the same exercises twice in your shoulder workouts. For example, Hany performs a variation of the dumbbell overhead press twice, and a variation of the dumbbell lateral raise twice.
“Not only are we doing volume on legs and back, but we’re doing volume on shoulders as well. That would include doing different variations the same movement. For example lateral raises can be done standing, seated, behind the back.
Front raises can be done stranding but also on a bench like with spider curls so you can really isolate the muscle and create more muscle soreness because you’re eliminating momentum and getting continuous muscle tension through the whole range of motion.”
Sometimes Hany Rambod likes to perform more moderate volume shoulder workouts. This is especially true if one of his clients is getting closer to their bodybuilding competition and is having a harder time recovering. Check it out:
Hany Rambod’s Shoulder Workout #3
- Exercise #1: Seated DB overhead press, 4 sets of 10-20 reps
- Exercise #2: Standing DB front raises, 4 sets of 10-20 reps
- Exercise #3: Reverse pec dec, 4 sets of 10-20 reps
- Exercise #4: Standing cable rope face pull, 4 sets of 10-20 reps
Here is the training video:
This medium-volume shoulder workout is probably more appropriate for beginner and intermediate level bodybuilders.
Hany performs one overhead pressing exercise, followed by three isolation exercises for his side, front and rear delts.
“We’re doing rope pulls, a slightly different variation from regular rope pulls. Regular rope pulls are with an overhand grip, we’re doing a slightly different direction to target the rear delts.”
Hany Rambod may be known as a “high-volume” trainer. However, he also likes to perform different high-intensity techniques in his shoulder workouts.
This is especially true when he is working with an advanced bodybuilder like Phil Heath. Check it out:
Hany Rambod’s Shoulder Workout #4
- Exercise #1: Standing DB lateral raise, 4 sets of 8-15 reps**
- Exercise #2: Standing DB front raise, 4 sets of 8-15 reps***
- Exercise #3: Seated machine overhead press, 4 sets of 8-15 reps****
- Exercise #4: One-arm reverse cable fly (mid-pulley), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Plate front raises, 4 sets of 8-15 reps*****
**Perform 5 reps with your left arm, then 5 reps with your right arm, then train to failure with both arms at the same time
***Perform 1 rep with ⅓ of the range of motion, then 1 rep with ⅔ of the range of motion, then 1 rep to parallel. Repeat for 8-15 total reps per set.
****On the last set perform several partial reps after reaching failure
*****Raise the plate to parallel, then rotate the plate clockwise and counterclockwise before lowering the weight back down. Repeat for each rep.
Here is the training video:
Talk about an intense workout! Phil Heath is using different high-intensity techniques on almost every exercise, such as partial reps and cluster sets.
“We’re not going to focus on going super heavy. We’re going to focus on form. Blood is getting to the shoulders.
The lateral and anterior delts are already pumped up so we’re not going to do too many sets. We’re going to do 3 working sets and that’s it.”
Hany’s goal during the workout is to use perfect form on every single exercise and to keep constant time under tension on the target muscle.
Even on smaller isolation exercises like the rear delt fly, Hany is obsessed with making sure that the target muscle is doing 100% of the work.
“What makes the hoist machine so different is you get a little bit bigger range of motion and you get your body to move with the machine. So we’re working on making sure we get a full range of motion.
We’re not going super heavy. We want to make sure we have the good mind-muscle connection so everything is firing. That way when he gets stronger, he can handle heavier weight with proper form.”
This is great advice for any body part. However, Hany believes it is especially important if your goal is to build big delts.
Verdict | The Hany Rambod Shoulder Workout!
The bottom line is Hany Rambod likes to train his shoulders once per week with 5-7 different exercises per workout. This may sound like a lot of volume, but Hany Rambod says it is essential for to train this way for complete shoulder development.
If you respond well to high-volume shoulder workouts then you have to give the Hany Rambod shoulder workout a shot. It may be just what you need to take your training to the next level.
“You’re taking a high-intensity approach and a high-volume approach and combining them. And that is the genesis of the FST-7 Training Program.”
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of luck on your strength training journey!