when glancing around my gym in between sets and stupid jokes, i see some men training their delts. Their delt work is as minimal as some half ass military press, a standing lateral raise in which their arms dont come within several inches of their chin level, and then some wack ass dumbbell shrugs where they are rolling their shoulders.
We all know that having big, round, muscular shoulders can make your physique appear larger from every angle. Since the deltoid muscle is composed of 3 heads, a well-balanced shoulder program should target 3 heads, with more emphasis on lagging areas, which for most is the rear head.
It seems the rear head is forgotten about by most, or simply touched upon, maybe doing some bent over lateral dumbbell raises in which they arent bent far enough and their palm position is too level, turning their rear movement into a lateral head movement. But the truth of the matter is the Rear head is a Key component to ANY rear pose.
Go to google, look at some back double bis, some rear lat spreads, hell even a side chest shot. If a competitor is lacking rear delts, the entirety of their delt looks weak. All too often i see Front delts that just completely over power the rear delts, giving the illusion that the rear delts are that much smaller.
And one must never forget the importance of illusions in this sport, they can make or break a competitor. Proportions serve to enhance illusions, giving one an edge: IE A small waist gives the appearance of wider shoulders and thicker legs, etc.
So first we look at your delts. Is your front head overpowering? Do you do a whole lot of front work? When i first started analyzing my photos, my front head was freakishly disproportional. So, to compensate, i had to make some changes in my program. I basically removed front isolation work. Its possible every couple weeks ill throw in a movement to keep them sharp, but aside from my 1 compound movement on shoulders day, i aim to not hit my front head.
My delt program looks like this:
Compound movement- Military/DB press
Lateral head
Lateral head
Rear Head
Rear head
Because of putting more focus on my lateral and rear heads, my delts have ballooned- I now have wider shoulders, my rear head damn near matches my front head, and my overall proportions look all the better. I urge those of you who are putting focus on your front heads to look at your physique, get someone to take a picture of a rear double bi and look at it. Is it Proportional?
Also, i touched on this earlier, but just incase- To those of you grinding your shoulders and rolling them while doing shrugs, you are hitting your Glenohumeral joint a lot more than what youre doing to your traps, and "Hitting" a joint is never a good thing.
