Martin Fitzwater’s Olympia-level shoulder workout for boulder-sized delts – Muscle & Fitness

Martin Fitzwater used his highly developed shoulders to carry back-to-back first-place trophies at the 2024 and last weekend’s 2025 EVLS Prague Pro events, but the work to build those rocky shoulders started many moons ago and required an epic workout that “The Martian” recently shared on Instagram.

The past twelve months have been a storybook year in the career of Martin Fitzwater, who defeated a stacked line-up at the November 2024 Prague Pro, including Chris Bumstead in his Open debut. The Martian then reached fifth place at the October 2025 Olympia event, before returning to Prague for a back-to-back victory. With industry insiders and fans seeing Fitwater’s combination of muscle fullness and peak fitness as a key factor in his progression, the man himself recently provided an epic shoulder workout that he completed in the lead-up to crushing his matches.

“It’s a must for my shoulder day to do lateral raises,” said the man at the time. Of course, lateral raises are a great exercise for isolating the lateral deltoid, the muscle on the side of your shoulder, but the bodybuilder destroys a variety of muscles on shoulder day. Here’s how to try this serious session for yourself.

Martin Fitzwater’s competition-crushing shoulder workout

• Cable lateral elevation (2 warm-up + 2 work sets)
• Dumbbell lateral raise (1 warm-up + 1 work set)
• Aft hang glide (2 warm-up + 2 work sets)
• Seated machine shoulder press (2 warm-up + 2 work + 1 amp set)
• Lateral elevation of the machine (3 sets to failure)

Training distribution

Martin Fitzwater adds one or two warm-up sets to the majority of the exercises in this workout. Not only are warm-ups a great way to limber up and prepare the body for the punishment ahead, but they also give heavy workers like Fitzwater the opportunity to feel the weight he’ll be using during the work sets. Start with cable lateral increasesthe big man immediately starts working on the medial head of the deltoid muscle, also known as the round muscle, which runs from the top to the side of the shoulder. He then doubles up with another round of lateral raises, but this time the winner from Wyoming uses a pair of dumbbells. Not only does this detailed work on the deltoid have the effect of exhausting the desired muscle group, but raising the dumbbells will require more adjustment and stabilization than cables, as cables have a largely predetermined path.

In third place is the rear hang glidedesigned to severely strain the posterior deltoids at the back of your shoulders. Fitzwater squeezes his rear delts at the top of the movement to get as much activation as possible here. For the seated machine shoulder press, The Martian not only hammers his shoulders, but also recruits the pecs, triceps and core to complete those reps. At this stage of training, opting for a machine is a sensible way to maintain heavy loads while reducing the risk of injury from fatigue on the free weights.

This approach also allows Fitzwater to add an enhancer to his final set, such as an extra break for extra time under tension, or even going all out with as many reps as possible.

For the final exercise, Fitzwater performs his third lateral raise variation of the day, this time rounded out with the constant tension machine and targeted isolation while potentially eliminating muscle tension. Adding a variety of shoulder exercises is the key to building stacked shoulders, because you need to think not only of the front, side and back, but also the surrounding muscles like the trapezius, pecs and triceps. They all play a role in framing the overall appearance of the shoulders.

To replicate these reps for yourself, use the warm-up sets to choose a weight that allows you to do 8-12 solid reps, getting close to failure or reaching failure for maximum muscle-building potential.

To follow Martin Fitzwater on Instagram, click here.