Martin Fitzwater used his highly developed shoulders to carry back-to-back first place trophies at the 2024 and this past weekend’s 2025 EVLS Prague Pro events, but the work to build those boulder-like shoulders began many moons ago, requiring an epic workout that “The Martian” recently shared on Instagram.
The last 12 months have been a storybook year in the career of Martin Fitzwater, who beat a stacked lineup during November’s 2024 Prague Pro, including Chris Bumstead in his Open debut. The Martian then made it to fifth place during October’s 2025 Olympia event, before heading back to Prague for a back-to-back win. With industry insiders and fans sighting Fitwater’s combination of muscle fullness and peak conditioning as a major factor in his progression, the man himself recently provided an epic shoulder workout that he’s been completing in the run up to crushing his competitions.
“Blasting lateral raises is a must for my shoulder day,” shared the man of the moment. Of course, lateral raises are a great exercise for isolating the lateral deltoid, the muscle on the side of your shoulder, but the bodybuilder obliterates 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 Raise (2 warmup + 2 working sets)
- Dumbbell Lateral Raise (1 warmup + 1 working set)
- Rear Delt Fly (2 warmup + 2 working sets)
- Seated Machine Shoulder Press (2 warmup + 2 working + 1 intensifier set)
- Machine Lateral Raise (3 sets to failure)
Workout Breakdown
Martin Fitzwater adds a warmup set, or two, to the majority of the exercises in this workout. Not only are warmup lets a great way to limber up and prime the body for the punishment ahead, but they also allow heavy workers like Fitzwater to feel out the weight he’ll use in the working sets. Starting out with cable lateral raises, the big man gets straight to work on the medial head of the deltoid muscle, otherwise known as the rounded muscle, that travels from the top and down 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 deltoid work have the effect of exhausting the desired muscle group, but raising the dumbbells will require more adaptation and stabilization than cables, since cables have a mostly pre-determined path.
Third-up is the rear delt fly, designed to seriously tax those rear deltoid muscles 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 the pecs, triceps, and core are also recruited to complete those reps. At this stage of the workout, opting for a machine is a sensible way to maintain heavy loads while reducing the risk of injury associated with fatigue on the free weights.
This approach also allows Fitzwater to add an intensifier to his last set, such as an additional pause for extra time under tension, or even going all out with as many reps as he can.
For the last exercise, Fitzwater performs his third lateral raise variation of the day, this time rounding out with the machine for constant tension and focused isolation while potentially eliminating muscle strains. Adding a variety of shoulder exercises is key to building stacked shoulders, because not only do you have the front, side, and rear delts to think about, but also the surrounding muscles such as the trapezius, pecs, and triceps. They all play a part in framing the overall appearance of the shoulders.
To replicate these reps for yourself, utilize the warmup sets to choose a weight that you can get 8-12 solid repetitions with, getting close to, or reaching failure for maximum muscle building potential.
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