“ONE OF THE MAJOR THINGS
I WAS DOING WRONG WAS
ENGAGING MY TRAPS AND
NOT OPENING MY LATS ON
MY LATERAL RAISES,”
says Buendia, who took the 2017
Olympia stage a full nine pounds
heavier than in 2016. “If you open
your lats up and engage them, you
minimize your trap activation. Like
a lot of people, I used to pull my
shoulders back when doing laterals
and initiate the motion with my traps,
and that takes all the muscular
tension off the delts.”
Now during his standing dumbbell
laterals—which come second in his
delt routine, after seated dumbbell
presses—“I’m pretty much doing a lat
spread pose throughout the range
of motion,” he says.
Beyond that simple yet inspired
change in approach, Buendia
introduced a number of FST-7 tricks
into his plan of attack. “I’ve been
doing FST-7 since 2014,” he says.
“The training system has evolved to
incorporate new philosophies and
new variations that Hany and I have
been using this past year that I hadn’t
done previously. That’s why I feel I’ve
made such big improvements in my
physique. I made the biggest and
most drastic improvements of any
Olympia competitor onstage.”
BUENDIA’S
SHOULDER WORKOUT
EXERCISE
SETS
REPS
Seated Dumbbell Press 2–3,
3–4 10–15
(warm-
up), 10, 8,
6, 10-20
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 5–7 10–20
Alternating Dumbbell
Front Raise 4–5 10-15
Cable Behind-the-back
Lateral Raise 3–4 10–15
Cable Front Raise
With Rope 3–4 10–15
Face-pull 4 10-15
Barbell One-arm
Lateral Raise 4 10–15
PRESS PLAY
Before laterals, Buendia presses—
typically dumbbells. “I like dumb bells
because they allow for a more
natural range of motion as opposed
to locking yourself in on a machine or
with a barbell,” he says. “I feel there’s
a better mind-muscle connection,
and I can more easily manipulate my
tempos and techniques.”
For example, once Buendia gets
through his two to three warmup
sets and to his three to four working
sets, he’ll sometimes incorporate
static holds—keeping one dumbbell
overhead, arm almost straight but
elbow slightly bent to maintain
tension while repping with the other
arm—alternating presses, partial
reps, superslow or more rapid-fire
reps, or often a mix of all the above
in one workout. “They’re all different
FST-7 training principles to increase
the workout intensity,” he says.
“FST is all about maximiz ing the blood
flow to the muscles, expanding the
muscle fascia, and prompting
further growth.”
For the four working sets, he
pyramids up while the weights
drop, starting at 10 reps, then eight,
then six with the 120- or 130-
pounders, before dropping the
weight for the last set to failure.
COUNTDOWN
The aforementioned dumbbell
laterals are next on tap, the first
of three lateral variations that
are peppered in throughout his
workout. “I like to do the dumbbell
version earlier in my workout,
when I’m not so fatigued and
I can maximise the impact on the
middle head of the delts,” Buendia
says. “By focusing so much on
the middle head, it improves
that ‘capped’ look by creating more
width.”
Through five to seven sets, he’ll
pyramid up, while also tossing in an
array of intensity boosters, such as
static holds and partial reps. “On
peak contraction holds, I’ll drop down
from a 50-pound dumbbell to 20 to
25, and then I may do a 5-4-3-2-1
pattern—I’ll hold the dumbbell in the
up position for a five-count, then do
five reps, hold for four seconds and
do four reps, hold for three and do
three reps, on down to one,” he says.
44
FLEX | MARCH 2018