Exercises for Deltoid Size/Growth

[samoan_muscle]

Keen to hear others opinions on how beneficial the Dumbell/Barbell Shoulder Press is for Deltoid growth/stimulation.

Does this exercise really target the Deltoid head as originally thought?

Are we better off just doing various types of Lateral Raises and hundreds of them for a shoulder workout?

[Pseudonym]

I've always done Shoulder Presses because, well, I've always done them.

As a compound exercise that lets you go heavy, I think they're good. But I know what you mean - they focus strongly on front delts, rather than medial, and there's a lot of upper chest in there too if you're not careful.

So I do them, and then I follow them up with lateral raises. (What do you mean by "various types"?)

I've also noticed more people doing behind the neck barbell presses recently - I thought they were frowned upon, but are they back in vogue now?

[jimjim83]

I only train my shoulder once twice a month...........

Just fucking with ya.

As far as shoulder workouts go Ive always had a pressing movement and a side raises. Guys who have a big shoulder press always seem to have big shoulders so I guess it speaks for itself.

Whats your take on it SM?

As far as behind the head presses go Ive been doing them for a while They seem to be fine. I have to use a bit less weigh but they get a good work out. I think some people beleive that they are more dangerous? Its about common sense every thing is dangerous if you have too much weight.

[mike27]

seated shoulder press 4 sets of 8-10 60sec rest

upright row bb 4 sets 8 60sec rest

machine shoulder press 3 sets of 12 60sec rest

side rasie 15,12,10,10

thats normally what i do and find it works well. 2-3mins between exercise

[mike27]

oh and 3sets of 12 on the rev pec dec

or bent rev db fly

[groovy]

I was going to post asking for shoulder workouts as my shoulders are really really weak.

I tried to do dumbell raises (front, side rear), but i never seem to feel them in my shoulders even with very light weight and doing the exercises slowly without swinging.

I was thinking lots and lots seated front and behind the neck presses would be better.

Keen to hear advise from others.

[train hard]

seated dumbell shoulder press and behind the neck barbell press are the only 2 compounds i do for shoulders along with the isolation exercises which i feel are more beneficial to a bodybuilder then the compounds as your delts get hit pretty hard during chest and to a lesser extent back aswell i can go a couple of weeks without training shoulders and not lose any strength at all but could never do that with other muscle groups

[HarryB]

I love to shoulder press, any kind of shoulder press, I'll sometimes do 2 different pressing exercises in a workout. To just do different variations of laterals for shoulders would be like just doing flyes for chest. Yes they isolate the muscle better but you can't handle the same load when doing them and therefore can't overload the muscle as effectively. Behind neck presses are ok if you have the shoulder mobility to perform them they force you to be more upright so hits your medial a bit better than front press. Its all about where elbow travels in relation to your shoulder joint.

It might just be me though, I have always had good delts but I've also always worked my shoulder presses hard.

[Mrbig]

For me my best gains were made when I stopped shoulder pressing I felt they were over worked from all the heavy benching incline pressing and heavy weighted dips I can still overhead press over 100kg but dont ever do it sometimes just do some laterals and the end of a chest workout

thats just me my delts are definatly not a weak point they will get bigger as the rest of my body does I dont see the need to do any heavy O/H presses

to each their own

[samoan_muscle]

Like most of you, for years I've been doing shoulder or overhead presses followed by lateral and front raises.

As Pseudonym says, I've done them simply because I've always done them.

Never really had too much of a problem growing my delts, had impressive results from hammering them twice a week in previous training cycles.

However, what has caused me to re-evaluate my approach to training shoulders is that a few notable guys that I've spoken to on shoulder routines have rated the overhead presses as being pretty worthless in developing shoulder muscles. "Its more of a tricep excercise" to "its bad on joints and elbows" or "it targets more of the front delt more than anything else" are some of the reasons given.

Harry B I noticed in your journal entry the other day you purposely performed raises only for your shoulder workout? Why was that?

At the end of the day its the same old different strokes for different folks I guess...

For me personally, I like my delts to slightly overpower the rest of my upper body. 2-3 years ago I achieved this and I guess this time round I just want to know if I can be a little smarter in my approach to training them to get back there.

[tomsammce]

Inject every single shot of oil into ur delts and yeah pressing and isolation. I always knew was doing good job when they sore 24:7 from all the shit in them but train anyway till they so sore u can't even lift ur drink bottle up to ur mouth lol. Mine used to over power my whole body when I was going hard... It looks fucking sick as! It's not genetics or training it's injecting every single shot of gear in there for months on end coz no ones showed u how to do it in any other place. Lol sounds like a bad joke but just saying how it is

[HarryB]

Actually SM what I did was start my workout with laterals to tire my delts out before I did my pressing. I followed those laterals with hammer strength machine presses. Maybe some guys don't do overhead presses but gee every guy in the pro ranks with crazy big delts does them. Going back to my chest analogy, would you just do flyes and crossovers for chest? Every issue you will have pressing overhead with elbows and shoulders will also occur with any kind of chest training so if the idea of not needing pressing holds true for shoulders then it should also hold true for chest.

If your triceps dominate in the movement then pre exhaust.

Lol Tom some truth to that too.

[PeterDolan]

I've found my delt growth always tends to be better using the pre exhaust method that harry mentioned but I prefer DB presses. I'm a long way off the size of you guys though so take what you will from this

[Luigi]

Keen to hear others opinions on how beneficial the Dumbell/Barbell Shoulder Press is for Deltoid growth/stimulation.

Does this exercise really target the Deltoid head as originally thought?

Are we better off just doing various types of Lateral Raises and hundreds of them for a shoulder workout?

good question.

would love to hear an answer from someone with decent side delts.

[HarryB]

Hey Luigi, what makes you think no on here has great side delts? I have great delts, anterior, medial and posterior heads all developed and proportionate to each other. Tom has wicked delts from every angle from pics I have seen. Hell SM who asked the questions has great delts. What prompted you to make that statement?

[olympia]

Hand stand presses supersetted with lat raises.

[Luigi]

Hey Luigi, what makes you think no on here has great side delts? I have great delts, anterior, medial and posterior heads all developed and proportionate to each other. Tom has wicked delts from every angle from pics I have seen. Hell SM who asked the questions has great delts. What prompted you to make that statement?

i didnt say no one on here has decent side delts.

i said i would like to hear from some people with decent side delts

meaning. the guys on here with good side delts i would love for them to post there training routine and any tips they can give an amateur like myself.

side delts is something i have always wanted and yea maybe it is just genetics but if they have any tips i would like to try them out.

[Specter]

Like most of you, for years I've been doing shoulder or overhead presses followed by lateral and front raises.

As Pseudonym says, I've done them simply because I've always done them.

Never really had too much of a problem growing my delts, had impressive results from hammering them twice a week in previous training cycles.

However, what has caused me to re-evaluate my approach to training shoulders is that a few notable guys that I've spoken to on shoulder routines have rated the overhead presses as being pretty worthless in developing shoulder muscles. "Its more of a tricep excercise" to "its bad on joints and elbows" or "it targets more of the front delt more than anything else" are some of the reasons given.

Harry B I noticed in your journal entry the other day you purposely performed raises only for your shoulder workout? Why was that?

At the end of the day its the same old different strokes for different folks I guess...

For me personally, I like my delts to slightly overpower the rest of my upper body. 2-3 years ago I achieved this and I guess this time round I just want to know if I can be a little smarter in my approach to training them to get back there.

what doesnt f*ck over our joints these days..... :pfft:

[thatwaslight]

i made HUGE gains in delt size when i started OH pressing once/twice a week, my delts have lagged hard up until the point i included them. i find i get a far more horrific pump when using BB over DB so i never db press. IME they love a bit more volume too fire up!

[jimjim83]

Hey Luigi, what makes you think no on here has great side delts? I have great delts, anterior, medial and posterior heads all developed and proportionate to each other. Tom has wicked delts from every angle from pics I have seen. Hell SM who asked the questions has great delts. What prompted you to make that statement?

i didnt say no one on here has decent side delts.

i said i would like to hear from some people with decent side delts

meaning. the guys on here with good side delts i would love for them to post there training routine and any tips they can give an amateur like myself.

side delts is something i have always wanted and yea maybe it is just genetics but if they have any tips i would like to try them out.

Genetics is a pussies excuse!!! :pfft:

I find the best for side delts is light side raises. Light because its too easy to use momentum to get the weight up. We can all swing 30kg dumbells about wich has its place but I sit with ankles crossed on a bench and work with 16-18kgs. works fine with a great pump.

I had a lad ask me for a spot for seated dumbellpress, He explained to me what a spot was first of all and to push his elbows. :doh: Ive been lifting weights since this kid was sucking him mums tit.

Anyway we/I get the 40kg DBs up, and he does 3inch presses. Now he had average shoulders. He would have been better using 20s for full ROM.

Ive seen it alot with shoulder people using too much weight for side raise and presses. Back off the weight a bit and stop swinging the weight and you will be suprised with the results

[thatwaslight]

couldn't agree more jimjim, i think form is of the upmost priority when it comes to isolating the delts. i know too many guys that power clean there db raises lol.

[Chemo]

I dont shoulder press on shoulder day. I still consider it a push/press action so it goes into my push/press day, Incline bench usually does it for me, and is something i occasionally sub in for shoulder press.

Shoulder days is heavy upright rows with lighter side lateral raises and front raises.

Ever since doing upright rows my delts look much better and rounder, so i stick to it.

(possibly because my delts are average and my arms are small lol)

Good thread! something ive been stewing over for a while now

[Bobsta]

In my opinion you cant go wrong with lots and lots of overhead pressing. All different types of overhead presses. Lower reps with heavy weights but get the volume from doing lots of sets instead.

Also drop sets work great when using super heavy weights to increase the volume. I like mechanical drop sets so you can still use the same weight as opposed to just decreasing the weights for the drop set.

i.e do a heavy set of milatry press follow it up straight away with no rest with push presses where now you can use a bit of momentum, using the same weight and finsh it off with seated shoulder press lockouts in the power rack, setting the pins so that you just work the top half of the movement, again using the same weight.

A lot of people would worry about their front delts growing too much from overhead pressing but s what? if you got big rear delts as well you'd look mint.

Lateral raises have their place too and are great but most people dont do them right so it dose'nt realy hit their side delts.

[trainlikeafreak]

couldn't agree more jimjim, i think form is of the upmost priority when it comes to isolating the delts. i know too many guys that power clean there db raises lol.

Agree 100% bro. I think this is the case for every single body part. Unless you are gentically gifted in certain body parts, form should always come before the weight being thrown around. Eg BB Rowing 140kg is stupid IMO, unless your Branch Warren ofcoarse

[HarryB]

couldn't agree more jimjim, i think form is of the upmost priority when it comes to isolating the delts. i know too many guys that power clean there db raises lol.

Agree 100% bro. I think this is the case for every single body part. Unless you are gentically gifted in certain body parts, form should always come before the weight being thrown around. Eg BB Rowing 140kg is stupid IMO, unless your Branch Warren ofcoarse

IMO opinion you have text book form and effective form.