Today I decided to investigate the P90X One on One with Tony Horton: Diamond Delts workout. This workout is specifically designed to target and work your deltoid muscles and turn them into diamonds – so that they are powerful enough to cut through glass…haha (As Tony says in the routine, “Don’t get near you might get cut!”). Anyways, in case you don’t know what delts (deltoids) are, they are the muscles that form the rounded contour in your shoulders. The goal of this routine is to specifically target and engage your deltoid muscles so that they turn into diamonds of pure muscle.
Trynna flex my diamond delts... mostly just for glass cutting purposes...haha
The reason that I chose this particular workout today is because I am still recovering from being sick and I didn’t want something over-the-top intense like the Upper Body Massacre or like the Crossfit Chelsea workout that I did last week. Even though I was debating on whether I should even do a workout today (because I was feeling pretty shitty), I was pretty pissed off that I had to lay around with the chills. So instead of sitting around I decided to skim through my available workouts for one that was less than an hour and that involved zero cardio. It turned out that this workout was perfect for me today because it wasn’t too intense, yet really worked my delts.
By the time this workout was done, I actually was in the mood for a longer workout, but I decided to call it quits just because I am still recovering from some minor virus and was feeling a little chilled. I did get a solid workout from the exercises that Tony included in this routine. My favorite exercise was the elevated pike press because I had a shelf in the basement that worked perfectly for elevating my feet off the ground. If you want to tune up your deltoids, this is the workout that you need. Read below for my breakdown of the exercises so that you know what will turn a set of average delts to diamond delts.
Diamond Delts Review
The Diamond Delts workout starts out with Tony Horton showing the people at home a lineup of Polaroid pictures that he has collected of his back muscles from the year 1992 up until 2007. He shows you how his back and muscle structure hasn’t really changed throughout the years because he always made sure to challenge himself and stay fit. He even points out his diamond delts to Mason before the workout starts to show you that his shoulders are just as strong as they were back in the 1990s. In this routine, he gives you all of the best exercises that really helped him strengthen his delts and shoulder muscles. Oh and he’s reppin his Rhode Island shirt for his home state in this workout…haha.
Tony Horton: Diamon Delts Workout Preview (Video)
He cites the book that helped him sculpt his back muscles as “The Weider System of Bodybuilding” and it looks hilarious. Apparently he bought the book back in 1985… Anyways, Mason Bendewald (the cameraman) zooms in on the cover of the book and points out the fact that they probably are not all natural (implying that some of those guys used steroids). What I do know is that Tony’s muscles look natural and every muscle in his back is super jacked when he flexes – including the diamond delts in his shoulders.
With this particular routine, you can expect a 40 minute workout of moderately intense shoulder exercises. There is no cardio and the workout as a whole isn’t too challenging in terms of survival. In this workout it is really up to you to push yourself because most of the exercises involve using a set of dumbbells. If you don’t have heavy enough dumbbells, you literally cannot do this routine – so make sure you get a full set before starting. As long as you have the dumbbells and are willing to challenge yourself, this is a great routine for targeting your deltoids just like the name implies.
Diamond Delts Workout Exercises
Warm Up
For the warm up, you basically do some shaking out of your shoulders and arms. Then you do some shoulder circles with fingers up. You do shoulder circles forward and backwards until you feel a little heat in your shoulders. He also stirs up some soup with the Karen pot stirrers, but he doesn’t say what kind of soup he is rolling with – probably Tomato Basil or Lobster Bisque. What’s hilarious is that Tony and Mason do some shout-outs to some Beachbody members including: Joe Petri (Dish), Joe La Presto Chango for the Better, and (You can ring my) Richard Bell…LMAO! Tony continues to say “ding ding ding” as he does the shoulder circles and calls himself “your fitness clown.”
During the warm up, Mason asks about whether Tony has noticed major changes in his muscle structure throughout the years. Tony says of course that he changed because he tried new routines and was always mixing things up. He says that some years he was more bulky than others and talks, but says that as long as you are working out consistently, you aren’t really going to lose any muscle even as you age. Why? Because fitness is the fountain of youth according to Tony Horton. The guy is 50 years old and still is in way better shape than me… Anyways, this routine is divided up into three rounds – each round has three exercises and is done twice. So you do a total of 18 exercises in the Diamond Delts routine.
Round #1: Elevated Pike Press, Seated Shoulder Press, 6 Direction Shoulder Flys
First Set
- Pike Press (Feet in the Air)– The pike press is the first move of the workout and it is super badass because Tony decides to elevate his feet and legs up on his dumbbell rack. At first I didn’t know how I was going to elevate my legs, but I found a little shelf near one of the walls in my basement that worked out perfectly.
Elevated Pike press all day
In order to do the elevated pike presses, you kick your feet up onto something so that your head is facing downwards. Your legs should be perfectly straight, and you want to make sure that your head is going straight down to the ground. It also helps to have push up stands so that your hands aren’t touching the ground because it gives you a better range of motion. He starts out with 12 of these which isn’t too difficult in this first round, but you do need to be careful if you have your feet elevated. If you can’t handle the elevation, I would recommend using a chair to kick your feet up on which isn’t as intense. These definitely do a great job of activating the shoulders, arms, and delts.
- Seated Shoulder Press – The seated shoulder presses are awesome because if you choose a heavy enough weight, you will be feeling the burn. What’s hilarious is that by the third rep of these, Tony’s doorbell rings and a woman named Amy arrives with his “log cover” (the cover for his log thing). Mason is absolutely hilarious by ripping on him a little bit and joking around. They had to edit this clip to account for the 20 minutes that they spent chatting with Amy. Anyways to do this move, you sit down, keep your back up (preferably supported) and you twist on your way up so that the dumbbells are parallel at the top. At the bottom of the rep, they should be even with each other. It is up to you to determine how much weight you want to use for these – Tony chooses 50 lbs. but that was too heavy for me so I went with 35 lbs. You are only doing 8 reps during the first round, so make sure that you choose a weight heavy enough to give you a hardcore burn on the last 3 to 4 reps.
- 6 Direction Shoulder Flys – For the six direction shoulder flys, you really don’t need a lot of weight to feel the major burn. To do these, you grab a dumbbell in each hand and do a regular fly to the side, hold your arms straight out to the side with the weights, then move them to the middle while still in the air. From the middle, you drop your arms slowly down to your sides. Then you raise them back up in the middle, and bring them from being extended in the middle out to the sides. If you add up the number of different movements, there are six directions per shoulder fly. I really enjoyed this move because it is more of a burn than a regular shoulder fly and you end up having to do 12 reps each round. I initially started off using 15 lbs. but had to drop my weight to 10 lbs. I believe that for the final few reps in the second round I may have even dropped from 10 lbs. down to 5 lbs. in each hand – but my arms were on fire from the other moves too.
Second Set
- Pike Press (Feet in the Air) – Surprisingly these weren’t as hard as I expected during the second round. Just make sure that you are going straight down and aren’t doing a push up because they work different muscle groups. The toughest part of this move for me is the fact that blood rushes to my head when my feet are elevated.
- Seated Shoulder Press – Tony also calls this the “military press” in case you were wondering. Anyways, during the second round of these, I couldn’t handle the 35 lbs. because my arms were getting a little bit tired and I was feeling the burn. So I dropped down to 30 lbs. for my dumbbells – just so you know, Tony normally uses 60 lb. dumbbells for this exercise.
- 6 Direction Shoulder Flys – During the second round of these, I had to lower my weight from 10 lbs. to 5 lbs. and kind of felt like the weight was too light. But, when you are doing 12 reps with 6 directions per rep, the burn is going to kick your ass. Use whatever mental power you have left during the second round of these and make sure you are staying controlled. A lot of people get jacked up by the amount of weight they use, but when I see their form it looks like shit. Make sure you are using good form for these shoulder flys and maintaining control. The weights shouldn’t come up past your jaw on the flys.
Round #2: Elevated Pike Press, Seated Bent Shoulder Flys, Bent Over Flys (Pinkie Up)
First Set
- Pike Press (Feet in the Air) – To start off the second round, Tony fires back with more pike presses. At first I was thinking that the entire workout was going to repeat the entire first round… Fortunately there were some different exercises and variations that he included. He also mentions the fact that if you are feeling tired to start the second round, you may not want to do an elevated pike press. Remember that you always have the option of using a chair or even keeping your feet on the ground. Since I was feeling good during these pike presses, I think that I cranked out about 16 reps to start things off with feet-in-the-air. Tony is smart and drops his feet to the ground after about 10 reps so finish up the final few.
- Seated / Bent Shoulder Flys – For these shoulder flys, you sit down on a chair or bench, and basically do one fly while sitting up, and then you bend over with your head down towards your knees, and do another fly. Tony pushed me through 14 reps and I definitely felt my shoulder muscles fully engaged. I chose a fairly light weight so that I could maintain good control and finish all 14 reps. I believe I went with either 15 lbs. or 20 lbs in each hand so that I could survive the exercise whilst maintaining solid form.
- Seated Bent Over Flys (Pinkie Up) – For this exercise, you sit on the edge of your chair, and you bend forward so that your face is close to your knees. You do NOT need much weight for this exercise because the motion you are going for is a fly straight out to the side. You keep the weight on the ground between your feet and the chair, and you lift your arms straight out to the side without twisting the weights. You keep your thumbs to the inside and pinkies towards the outside the entire time. You should go for as many reps as you possibly can so that you feel the burn – Tony ends up doing 15 reps; I followed his lead. Tony used 8 lb. dumbbells for this exercise and I ended up using 10 lb. dumbbells and they worked perfectly.
Second Set
- Pike Press (Feet in the Air) – During this final set of pike presses, Tony says “I have an ego like anybody else, but I’m not gonna be controlled by it” and Mason says, “That’s not true,” and Tony responds, “Yeah you’re right, I’m ego free” which had me laughing…haha he’s got some solid comebacks. The reason he brings up his ego is because he was going to do them with his feet on the floor. Instead he keeps his feet and legs elevated and does 8 reps with them elevated, and then does about 8 more reps with his feet on the ground, but to his credit, he does add an alternating leg raise in the mix. Since I loved these pike presses so much and I let my ego get in the way a little bit, I decided to do 16 reps while staying elevated mostly because I was doing really well with this move.
- Seated / Bent Shoulder Flys – Before the second run through of the “seated bent shoulder flys” Tony taps on his shoulder (that the camera is on) and says, “That is 50 year old meat, people” and Mason starts laughing saying, “I don’t know if that was attractive or not… 50 year old meat”…LMAO. The second round of these should be challenging so make sure you get a good burn. Try to stick with the same weight you used for the first round, but if you feel like you’re compromising form, lower the weight.
- Seated Bent Over Fly (Pinkie Up) – For this final round, Tony decides to continue using 8 lbs. because he can keep the range of motion that he wants. If you choose too heavy of weight for this move, you will notice that your arms are flying back instead of straight out to the side. Make sure you lower your weight so that you are extending to the side – you will still feel the burn if you do enough reps.
Round #3: Deep Arnold Press, Upright Row Y-Press, Rehab
First Set
- Deep Arnold Press – Damn, the deep Arnold presses, aye? I’ve never heard of them but they were pretty cool. They basically involve doing half of a bicep curl (going halfway down) and then curling up, while corkscrewing the weights into a Y-Press (weights above your head out to the side so that your upper body looks like a “Y”). Anyways, I was able to handle 35 lb. dumbbells for this particular exercise and they were challenging. I felt the burn for the last 6 reps because my arms were getting tired this late in the workout.
- Upright Row Y-Press – For the upright row Y-press, you still use the dumbbells and lift the weights like you would for an upright row. So your knuckles are facing away from your body, the weights come up to your shoulders, and then you flip them so that you are doing a “Y-Press.” You want to keep your upper body and back as calm and controlled as possible. If you aren’t able to maintain good control, you should probably drop your weight.
- Rehab (Rotator Cuff Strengtheners) – This last move is called “rehab” but probably should be called, single arm lying shoulder raises. This exercise should give you a good idea which shoulder is stronger than the other. You use your dumbbells and lay down on one side of your body. The arm that is off the ground lifts the dumbbell up so that you are doing half of a fly motion and the weight comes up. This one is hard to explain in words, so just watch Tony carefully on the DVD and follow his advice. You do get better range of motion if you are able to lie down on a bench vs. the floor.
Second Set
- Deep Arnold Press – These were really tough for me in comparison to the first round because I stuck with the 35 lbs. in each hand and had to crank out a total of 12 reps. Although these were pretty difficult for the final round, the next move was even tougher during this last round.
- Upright Row Y-Press – The reason that the upright row Y-presses were probably the toughest move in this last round is because you don’t really get a break after finishing the deep Arnold press. I stuck with 35 lbs. on each side, but had to lower my weight to 30 lbs. because the burn was too tough to fight off.
- Rehab (Rotator Cuff Strengtheners) – During this round, Tony shows you how to do the floor version and says that the floor will help prevent injuries, but you do lose some range of motion. My arms were both on fire for this last set of shoulder dumbbell lifts. Tony talks about “shoulder meat” and has Mason in hysterics because he talks about a “shoulder meat thread” and his legs flopping around.
Cool Down Stretch
For the cool down, Tony will show you how to properly stretch out your shoulders, back, as well as your hands and wrists. You worked a lot of muscles in your hands and upper body that these are worth giving a shot. I normally do similar stretches to these during all workouts that target the arms. He also makes sure to fit in the cross body shoulder stretch as well as the “behind the back” shoulder stretch. As the “bonus” just for Mason, Tony takes off his shirt and lets the camera zoom in on his flexed back muscles and “diamond delts.” If you feel tight when this workout ends, I would recommend doing more stretching than what Tony does for his cool down.
Diamond Delts Review (Conclusion)
If I wouldn’t have been sick today, I think that I probably would have done another workout in addition to this Diamond Delts routine like Killer Abs. The reason I would have done another routine is because this workout was less than 40 minutes and really wasn’t super intense. I personally think that the Mammoth UML routine was probably just as tough as this one even if you are choosing challenging weights. There are a total of 18 exercises in this routine and most do a great job of targeting your shoulders and deltoids. I loved this workout from start to finish, but feel like Tony could have definitely thrown in at least one more round for some extra burn.
How to use this Diamond Delts workout
If you currently aren’t sure how you should incorporate Diamond Delts into your routine, my recommendation would be to use it either: as a workout during your recovery week, a workout for a day when you aren’t feeling 100%, and/or for a supplemental routine that you plan on combining with another workout. If you currently own the full One on One with Tony Horton Volume 1 DVDs, I would recommend doing this routine with Killer Abs at the very least if you are the type of person that likes to dig deep and go the extra mile. If you feel like you got a great workout from this routine, then you probably should listen to your body and take it easy – always trust yourself.
Deltoids workout that I will use again
Having finished the Diamond Delts routine today, I can safely say that I will very likely use it again at some point in the future. Since I’m always mixing up my workout routine, this is a great DVD to own because it adds something completely new to your workout schedule. There are some phenomenal moves such as the “elevated pike press” and “6 direction shoulder flys” that you won’t find in many other routines. I still think that most of the routines in P90X are tougher than this one (e.g. “Shoulders & Arms”), but the goal of this workout is to specifically strengthen the delts – and that goal was easily accomplished by the time the 40 minutes of this routine had elapsed.