Even when short of time, Eddie Hall doesn’t do “light days.”
The 2017 World’s Strongest Man may have swapped record-breaking deadlifts for jabs in the MMA world, but The Beast still trains like a man on a mission — and his quick-fire shoulder workout proves it.
In a video shared to his YouTube channel, Hall takes viewers through what he calls a “quick” 15–20 minute shoulder session. For most people, that’d mean a few light presses and some token side raises. For Hall, it means blasting through dumbbells up to 80 kilograms per arm — and still calling it an “activation day.”
“Today I’m going to show you how to get in a shoulder session in about 15-20 minutes. Now for me, it’s my full-time job, but today just on this one instance, I actually have only got just under 20 minutes to get a shoulder session in,” Hall begins. “So I’m going to fire through my shoulder session really, really quick in order to keep up my strength.”
Hall’s approach to staying “fight ready” clearly involves keeping that iconic strongman frame — and the shoulders that helped him become one of the heaviest lifters in history.
Before launching into the heavy sets, Hall insists on one thing: warm up, even when you’re short on time.
“It’s super, super important when you’re doing these quick shoulder sessions — I don’t care how much time you’ve got — spend two minutes just getting some light weights, just doing little circles, 10 in, 10 out,” he explains. “You might not see them a lot, but this is just enough to get a bit of blood in the shoulder.”
Once he’s loose, it’s straight into the working sets — with a reminder to train with intention: “Don’t drop your weights — put your weights back properly, okay?”
Then comes the real work: seated dumbbell presses climbing through 30kg, 40kg, 50kg, 62.5kg, 72.5kg and 80kg, hitting eight reps per arm.
“Right. Must admit it’s quite hard doing it at a fast pace, but we’re within six minutes—we’re on the 80 kilos,” Hall says mid-session. “Pumped up well, that’s good. Let’s get lots of blood moving for the shoulder.”
After the heavy presses, Hall moves on to side laterals — three sets, one warmup and two heavy rounds of 10–12 reps.
“Once it’s on the 80s, we’ll flash the sides and rears again,” he says. “This is just like an activation day—stimulate the muscles, get a little bit of growth in there. Timer’s of the essence today, so just doing enough to stimulate a bit of growth.”
Then come rear delt raises, done Hall-style — a blend of heavy weights, wide and narrow stances, and explosive-fast reps with controlled negatives.
“The secret to this is you want to train the fast twitch and the slow twitch fibers,” he explains. “So we’re going to do 10 wide, we’re going to go throw out, and then we’re going to go as fast as you can out and try and stop it on the returns—to slow it down on the return. The same with this one.”
By the time he wraps up, he’s drenched in sweat and still laughing about the chaos: “19 minutes. So we did front presses from 30 all the way up to 80. Three sets on the side, three sets on rears. And honestly, I feel pumped, no doubt.”
Hall finishes with a message for anyone who says they’re too busy to train:
“Most people will be like, ‘Oh, I haven’t got time to train.’ 19 minutes and I’ve done enough to sort of stimulate the muscles, get what I needed out today. And at least it’s not a session missed.”
For the Beast, even a quick shoulder pump becomes an assault on gravity — and a reminder that intensity, not duration, separates the pros from the pretenders.
So if you’ve got 20 minutes and a pair of dumbbells, Eddie Hall’s challenge is simple: warm up properly, lift with purpose, and move some serious weight.
Eddie Hall’s 20-Minute Shoulder Routine:
- Seated Dumbbell Press: 30kg / 40kg / 50kg / 62.5kg / 72.5kg / 80kg – 8 reps per arm
- Side Lateral Raises: 30kg / 40kg – 10–12 reps, 3 sets
- Bent-Over Rear Delt Raises: 30kg – 3 sets of 9 reps
- Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows: 30kg – 3 sets of 9 reps
Of course, adjust the weights to reflect your own capabilities. There’s no need to jump in the deep end.
“Anyone struggling out there — it can be done,” Hall signs off. “It’s very important.”
Even when he’s on the clock, the Beast still finds a way to train like one.
Featured image credit: YouTube/EddieHallTheBeast/Instagram/EddieHallWSM (screenshots)
