2022 Mr. Olympia runner-up Derek Lunsford has his sights set on becoming the 18th man to win the title on the 2023 Olympia Weekend in Orlando, FL on Nov. 2-5, 2023. The previous NPC USA winner (2017) and 212 Olympia champion (2021) may have to be his all-time best if he desires to win the world championship of his sport. 

Lunsford has been keeping his fans up thus far on his progress leading as much as that contest on social media, including training videos just like the one he released documenting a shoulder workout at MI40 Gym in Tampa, FL just 11 weeks before the massive show. The video below was shared on his YouTube channel on Aug. 21, 2023.

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Machine Lateral Raise

Lunsford began the session with machine lateral raises to deal with his side delts. He’s already lean enough you could see the muscles working as he lifted the handles of the machine. The load he was working with wasn’t shown, but he gave the impression to be in full control throughout his sets.

He would occasionally perform poses between sets to research his physique and prepare for the multiple rounds of posing he’ll need to do on stage at the competition. He gave the fans extra details about his training at this stage of his prep.

“I wish to train six days in a row, take the seventh time off,” he said. “Occasionally within the offseason, I’ll take two days rest but, just about between here and the Olympia, six days every week. Today’s day five. Shoulders today. Yesterday I did legs.”

The camera briefly showed the pin set on the burden stack at 190 kilos (86.2 kilograms), which Lunsford performs for 12 reps on his third set. He ultimately pinned your entire stack of 250 kilos (113.4 kilograms) and worked a final set to failure plus several partial reps, which he counted as 15 total reps. After five total sets, he moved on to the following exercise.

Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise

The second movement was one other lateral raise, this time using a free weight version with classic standing dumbbell laterals. Five total sets were shown on camera, with the third set shown in its entirety for 12 reps. His fourth set was for 12 full range reps plus partials, and he showed the camera that the gym’s 33-kilogram dumbbells he used are reminiscent of 72.7 kilos, indicating that he’s feeling strong at this phase of his prep.

“Not my best ever, nevertheless it’s still over 70 kilos.”

Lunsford then finished with a back-off set using 28 kilograms (61.7 kilos), so he could higher control the burden, before moving on.

Seated Smith Machine Press

With two lateral delt-focused movements accomplished, Lunsford focused on the front delts with seated overhead presses on a Smith machine. Lunsford used a moderately wide grip and lowered the bar to about chin-height before pressing it up. He would also stop wanting lockout to maintain tension on the working muscles. He had elbows sleeves on, as well.

Lunsford began with one 45-pound plate per side, then went as much as two. He would eventually add a 25-pound plate per side for a 3rd set with a spotter providing assistance at the top. He would remove those 25s for 2 additional sets, keeping along with his training philosophy of using back-down sets.

“I wish to do back-off sets periodically in my training … you do a few warm-up sets, do a top set or two, after which that last set. Do yet another set but back it down and take a look at to improve control and get as many reps as you possibly can … So as an alternative of, ‘Well, I got 15 reps. Won’t have been controlled, but I still got 15 reps, let me go heavier,’ Actually, let’s improve time under tension. Let’s improve control of the burden. Let’s get a couple of more reps which can be clean. What’s that gonna do? That’s going to stimulate the muscle more and stop injury. Smarter.”

Front Raises

Lunsford’s next exercise was an isolation movement with a twist. He would perform three sets of front raises along with his palms facing one another, followed by three more sets along with his palms facing down. He told the camera that every set can be done for 10 to 12 reps. Nevertheless, he would keep the remainder to not more than 40 seconds between each set. He saved much more time by working each shoulders concurrently.

Reverse Pec-Deck

The bodybuilder then shifted focus to his rear delts, starting with a reverse pec-deck. The previous Olympia 212 champion would use the horizontal handles for a palms-down grip, and the camera panned over to Lunsford’s side, where you may see the rear delts working. Not all sets were shown, but he later said he did three sets in total.

Rear Lateral Raise

Following that exercise, Lunsford opted for a free weight movement. He sat on the top of a bench with dumbbells in his hands and performed bent-over lateral raises to focus on the rear delts again. He progressed to doing sets standing, along with his torso bent at a 45-degree angle. Just like the front raises, he deliberately modified his hand position with the 2 rear delt movements — having his palms facing down in the course of the reverse pec-deck and facing his palms along with the bent-over lateral raises. He explained why these details matter.

“Switching up the hand positioning goes to enable you to goal just a little bit different portion of the delts.”

Cable Lateral Raise and Cable Upright Row

Lunsford felt the necessity to goal the side delts one last time. So, he went to a seated cable row station with two cables and performed a singular cable lateral raise variation. He lied back on the pad and pulled the cable handles out to his sides, as if he was doing a standing lateral raise. He performed one set in this fashion, followed by the ultimate exercise of the day — three sets of a cable upright row in the identical reclined position on the seated row bench.

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3D Shoulder Workout

If you desire to give Lunsford’s type of training a try for yourself, you possibly can follow the sample workout below.

• Machine Lateral Raise — 5 x 12-15
• Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise — 5 x 12-15 (Final set with reduced weight)
• Seated Smith Machine Press — 5 x 10-12 (Final set with reduced weight)
• Front Raise — 6 x 10-12 (30-40 seconds rest, 3 sets palms-in/3 sets palms-down)
• Reverse Pec-Deck — 3 x 10-12 (Palms-down)
• Rear Lateral Raise — 3 x 10-12 (Palms-in)
• Cable Lateral Raise — 1 x 12
• Cable Upright Row — 3 x 10-12

Lunsford finished one spot behind champion Hadi Choopan on the 2022 Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas, NV. He’ll look to take that final step toward the celebrated Sandow trophy and Olympia title in November.

If he’s in a position to defeat Choopan, in addition to fellow top contenders including Nick Walker, Samson Dauda, and former champions Brandon Curry (2019 Mr. Olympia) and Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay (2020-2021 Mr. Olympia), then Lunsford can be the primary man in history to have won the Olympia in two different divisions — the 212 and Men’s Open. That is an exciting time for Lunsford, on and off the stage, because he recently revealed that he and his wife expect their first child together.

Featured Image: Derek Lunsford / YouTube