00:00hello YouTube you might have noticed
00:02that it has become trendy for
00:04influencers nowadays to tell Their
00:06audience that if they want big shoulders
00:08the only thing they need to do is to
00:10just Spam lateral raises an advice that
00:13is extremely fashionable because it's
00:16straightforward the issue is that I
00:18personally believe that this is horrible
00:20advice and that often times the opposite
00:23is going to happen by following this
00:25training trap you are going to sabotage
00:27your growth because you're going to
00:29start learning the wrong lessons so
00:32today I want to explain to you why
00:34spamming lateral raises won't work and
00:37why the idea of spamming a lift to
00:40correct a weak point is often times
00:43counterproductive so let's start with
00:45the notion of a spammable lift what
00:49exactly makes a lift spammable well in
00:52my opinion it means that you are able to
00:54do the lift two to four times a week so
00:57with super high frequency to get a ton
00:59of volume and therefore a ton of growth
01:02and naturally based on these criteria
01:04this means that compound movements are
01:06out of the picture because if you train
01:09them intensely and close to failure you
01:11will never be able to hit that frequency
01:13if I tell you hey just Spam deadlifts
01:15bro yeah that's not going to work so we
01:18are left with one candidate and that is
01:21isolation movements isolation movements
01:24tend to generate less fatigue they tend
01:26to be easier on the tendons no actual
01:29loading don't fatigue the spine or the
01:31lower back so overall this is the type
01:34of movement that is going to be selected
01:36to Target and to correct quote unquote a
01:39weak point and so if someone comes to
01:42you and asks hey how do I get bigger
01:44shoulders the answer will be just Spam
01:47lateral raises and obviously that's a
01:50super attractive idea to promote just do
01:53that one movement every single time you
01:55step into the gym and you'll get huge no
01:57need to actually pay attention to what
01:58you're doing SP and you turn into anoran
02:02the problem is that this simplistic
02:05approach to training completely ignores
02:07the number one factor that would
02:10actually lead to growth namely
02:12progression because what makes your
02:14shoulders grow when you do these lateral
02:17raises isn't the fact that you're doing
02:18the movement but that your numbers go up
02:22so it's the progression on the movement
02:24that matters and not the movements in
02:26itself and I know that this might sound
02:28like it's me just splitting hair
02:30but it's super important that you make
02:32this distinction in your head because if
02:35you don't you're going to start
02:36believing that more frequency is always
02:39better when in reality more frequency is
02:41only better if it leads to progression
02:43so you could be the guy that does latal
02:46raises four times a week for a year but
02:49if your strength numbers don't go up and
02:51if you don't actually progress via
02:53metrics on the movement your shoulders
02:55are going to remain the exact same and
02:58the issue is that for anyone who who has
03:00attempted to progress on isolation
03:01movements you know that they're super
03:03hard to progress on because the amount
03:06of muscle you recruit overall on these
03:08specific patterns is very very small
03:11which is not a bad thing because it
03:13allows you to pinpoint these part of of
03:15your body but you know for a fact that
03:18you're never going to put 50 pounds on
03:20an isolation lift in a year it simply
03:22won't happen which also means that
03:25retroactively these movements tend to
03:27Plateau extremely quickly you tend to
03:30have to retake the same weights times
03:32and times again get those extra reps
03:34until you can finally graduate to a new
03:37weight and then progress forward and you
03:40also know if you have tried that simply
03:43upping the frequency of that specific
03:46isolation movement in order to force
03:48progression is very unlikely to work if
03:52anything it's going to be
03:53counterproductive because now you're
03:55going to start cutting down on recovery
03:57time recovery time that is actually what
04:00allows growth to occur which in return
04:03produces progression so you're going to
04:06end up being the type of person that has
04:08a lagging muscle group you'll then try
04:11to hit that muscle group as often as you
04:13can and because of that paradoxically
04:15that muscle group will remain lagging
04:18because you never give it the space and
04:20the time it needs to grow and this is
04:23something that escapes many people's
04:25heads because when we think lagging
04:27muscle group often times we think small
04:30and weak but we never think not endurant
04:33enough a characteristic of a muscle
04:35group that is behind is the fact that it
04:38has no work capacity so it tends to Tire
04:41extremely quickly when you attempt to
04:44build up that muscle group what needs to
04:46be built up first is that work capacity
04:50but if you don't allow the muscle to
04:53actually recover in between sessions the
04:55only thing you do is you keep it in a
04:57state of constant fatigue while progress
04:59has no space to occur frequency is not
05:02something you can decide on arbitrarily
05:04you can't just say Okay I want to hit
05:06that muscle four times a weak it's the
05:08muscle that dictates how many times you
05:10can hit it and that is super important
05:12because often times you'll find that
05:14you'll have to earn your frequency to be
05:17able to hit a muscle group more than two
05:19or three times a week takes a lot of
05:21work on your part but the spam the
05:24lateral raise beam completely ignores
05:26that it tells you hey hit it every time
05:28you get into the gym which is the wrong
05:31way to think about training because now
05:34you start to obsess over a weak point
05:36your progression slows down because of
05:38your own doing your own attempt at doing
05:41too much and you start to create
05:43unneeded frustrations for yourself which
05:46in return kill any Joy or fun you have
05:48when it comes to actually train that
05:50muscle Group which will pretty much sign
05:53the fact that this muscle group will
05:55remain a weak point forever now that
05:58doesn't mean that isolation movement
05:59don't work to correct weak points it's
06:01simply that if you really want to be
06:04able to spam a lift you're going to have
06:06to get to that space first you can't
06:08start there so what you need to do is
06:11you need to hit the target muscle
06:14whenever it is recovered and whenever it
06:16is able to perform properly that is how
06:20you put progression and Recovery first
06:23and over time you get to a point where
06:25you can do more and more and more with
06:27more and more and more weight which
06:28always leads to muscle gains but even
06:31with that perspective shift it doesn't
06:33change the fact that progression on
06:35isolation is going to remain slow
06:38whether you do it two times or four
06:39times a week so to make up for it we
06:43have to start applying a different type
06:45of pattern that is going to correct the
06:48flows that isolations tend to have and
06:51what are these things that compound
06:53movements the very same compound
06:55movement that your attempt at spamming a
06:58lift rejected because they did not have
07:01the proper characteristics to allow that
07:04but paradoxically these also are the
07:06very same movements that would make the
07:08biggest difference in your physique for
07:10the simple reason that they contrary to
07:13isolation lifts help to recruit more
07:15overall muscle groups at the same time
07:18and also therefore allow for stereo
07:20progression if you compare your body to
07:22put on weight on isolation or compounds
07:25you know that one you get much stronger
07:27on compounds of course but also that it
07:29it's easier to add weight every single
07:31session or every other session as
07:34opposed to a bicep curl that might stay
07:36the same weight for maybe 3 weeks maybe
07:38a month so now instead of being stuck
07:41constantly in isolation plateaus you
07:44have your compound movement on the side
07:46that is going to constantly progress but
07:48that is only possible if you give enough
07:51space for the compounds to exist and
07:53that's another Paradox of this spam
07:56leral Rises meme often times you'll find
07:58that to be a able to do that to follow
08:00that method you're going to have to
08:02slash every other muscle that targets
08:04the shoulder because if not it's going
08:06to be absolutely impossible to hit your
08:08three times to four times a week week
08:09frequency and so you have a tendency to
08:13push away these horizontal presses that
08:16would fatigue the shoulder thinking oh
08:18the isolation will take care of that
08:20well no it won't the only thing you're
08:21doing is you're removing the power of
08:23the program that would one allow the
08:26elateral raises to keep progressing two
08:28allow the the lateral raise frequency to
08:30make sense and three that would have
08:32given you the biggest shoulder gains in
08:35your program and this mistake is often
08:37brought forth by a misunderstanding of
08:40fatigue because if you compare an
08:42isolation in a compound yes the compound
08:44gives you more overall fatigue but this
08:47is actually a good thing it saves you
08:48time you hit a ton of muscle groups at
08:50once and you'll find that this won't
08:53actually impair your ability to hit
08:55isolation if you do it properly usually
08:58what happen is that that will have a 2:1
09:00ratio so you'll do twice as many
09:02isolation lifts for one muscle group as
09:04opposed to compounds which will be made
09:06up by the fact that you lift more
09:08weights on compound but that's that
09:10ratio I just described is always better
09:13than a 3 to zero ratio where you only do
09:15isolation and the opposite is also True
09:17by the way if you're the type who does
09:19only compound you're also missing out
09:22because every single flow of isolation
09:23lifts is made up by the great points of
09:26compounds and vice versa so it's
09:29entirely stupid to ignore one or the
09:31other especially for a method that is
09:33supposedly going to make you blow up and
09:36as I said previously you'll also find
09:37that by doing that your progression on
09:39lateral raises is going to be much
09:41steadier and even faster because the
09:44massal build on presses will also be
09:47utilized when you elevate the arm so now
09:50the two lifts are going to feed one
09:52another instead of competing with one
09:55another which is what I call a virtuous
09:58circle meanwhile someone who just spams
10:01lateral raises enters the exact opposite
10:04which is a vicious circle because since
10:07you do the same lift times and times
10:09again for the same muscle group
10:11eventually you hit diminishing returns
10:13your progression stops entirely and
10:15you're essentially working for nothing
10:18which should not be surprising you only
10:20have one movement pattern you can
10:22progress on so when it stops the
10:24entirety of the progress for the muscle
10:26group stops and you understand that
10:28since ression is going to grind to a
10:30hold any amount of muscle growth you
10:32could have expected from that method is
10:35going to stop as well so once we accept
10:37that we see that the training logic
10:39behind progression is actually very
10:41simple you're going to use these two
10:43lifts so your press and your isolation
10:46for the shoulder for as long as you can
10:48progress and when you can no longer
10:50progress with that amount of volume or
10:51frequency you're going to up it and you
10:54can up it with variations or rotations
10:56which will all serve the same purpose
10:58which is to feed more work to the muscle
11:02if you're looking for a more in-depth
11:03explanation I actually have made one
11:06it's in the description it's called the
11:07unlimited hypertrophy method and if you
11:10don't really want to worry so much about
11:13all of this Theory and you just want
11:14someone to tell you hey just do this
11:17you're also in luck I made a shoulders
11:19master plan that tells you exactly which
11:21lift to pick when to progress in volume
11:24etc etc once again in the description so
11:27now that I told you exactly why the
11:30spamming the leral raise meme doesn't
11:33actually work you could coun to that by
11:35saying that you've seen videos where it
11:37does you've seen crazy transformation
11:39where the guy grew massive shoulders off
11:41of spamming lateral raises so you might
11:45be inclined to reject my arguments and
11:47say well in reality there are examples
11:49where it does work you might even have
11:51heard some PD users tell you that super
11:54high frequency training is the way to go
11:56if you want to have a mle blow up you
11:58just have to to train it more frequently
12:00let me explain to you why these examples
12:03actually don't mean anything the first
12:06reason is because the person in the
12:08video is always a nervous so what you
12:11see is someone who's never trained a
12:13muscle group before who then starts to
12:16isolate it and gains lean mass that
12:18should not be surprising regardless of
12:20the method when you are untrained
12:22everything works meaning that what
12:25you're witnessing is newbie GS that is
12:28perfectly normal even if the method is
12:30not actually sound the question is is
12:33this guy going to be able to keep up
12:35progressing with the same method when he
12:38becomes intermediate or even Advanced
12:40the answer is no why because frequency
12:43as a practice is limited because there's
12:47only so many days in the week so if you
12:50got big via spamming lateral raises four
12:52times a week what is the next step five
12:55times six times this is not sustainable
12:58in the long term and the people who made
13:00these videos are going to realize it
13:02once they start to actually hit some
13:04territories of muscle growth that
13:06required to actually pay attention which
13:09leads to my second argument usually the
13:11guys in these videos are not big this is
13:14why these videos tend to be super
13:15popular amongst teenagers is because
13:17you're seeing someone who's a few steps
13:19ahead of you but understand that this
13:21guy didn't do anything impressive or
13:23crazy and there's absolutely nothing
13:25magical with the method you believe
13:27there is because you're looking for a
13:29simple blueprint to mass and so you
13:32might actually get some gains from that
13:34but your ability to keep progressing
13:36past that early stage where again
13:38anything would have worked is going to
13:41be drastically limited because you
13:44taught the wrong Lesson by someone who
13:46should not have been teaching anything
13:48to start with and that's for the PD
13:50users who swear that they corrected
13:52their weak points by just hammering
13:55isolation as often as possible you have
13:57to keep in mind that the same logic also
13:59applies these are people who would grow
14:02from pretty much anything and on top of
14:04that you have to understand that
14:05something that PS do in general is that
14:08they heighten your recovery so the
14:10aspect I spoke about earlier which would
14:12prevent you from spamming doesn't exist
14:15for them they can feed as much fatigue
14:17as they want to the musle especially VI
14:19isolation and it will blow up because
14:21they will never be limited by that time
14:23span where they need to rest you on the
14:25other hand will not be able to do that
14:28so as a rule of thumb it's always a good
14:31idea as a natural lifter to ignore the
14:33advice of PD users because for the
14:36majority they have forgotten what it
14:37means to be human so in conclusion yes
14:41targeting a muscle via isolation is
14:44going to make it grow no one ever denied
14:46it but spamming these isolation lifts
14:50thinking it's going to be the secret to
14:53becoming a mass monster is actually
14:55going to be the reason why you're most
14:57likely going to Plateau very early get
14:59frustrated and quit so it's entirely
15:02counterproductive now we've turned a
15:04good thing into a bad thing the good
15:07thing being that the fix is actually
15:09quite simple as I outlined in this video
15:13so this is going to be it for today I
15:15hope this was informative if you learned
15:18something from me and you would like to
15:20support the channel you can do so it's
15:23the first link in the description my
15:24coffee page you can pledge or you can
15:26donate anything allows me to keep making
15:29these videos for you guys thank you for
15:31watching have a good night
