T Nation

Dealing with Delt Issues

Bigger Stronger Leaner
#1

Hello nation!!

I have been having some frustrations over my delts lately (forever) (they’ve always sucked), and I was hoping I could post my routine and get some feedback on ways I can improve.

I do a chest/shoulders/tri day twice a week and this is what the shoulder portion consists of

One day is:
a shoulder circuit with
Seated BB press/lateral raise/front raise/up right row/rear delt fly
Reps will be like 8-15 and I do three rounds of that
At the end of my workouts if I have time I will throw in a set of high rep lateral partials, or 6 ways, or both.

The other shoulder day is
Seated DB press (heavy)
4 x 8-10 reps
Then
lateral raise/front raise/rear felt fly super set
At the end once again if I have time I’ll do a drop set of Arnold press, some 6 ways or sometimes shoulder press machine with continuous tension etc…
I always do cable station flys usually for high reps like 50 or sometimes a drop set
Um
I also do things like incline bench which my hero John meadows said helped his shoulder width or something.

I have been dilly daddling with smith machine seated shoulder press to add some heavier work since I don’t do heaving standing press (I found my lower back was just to sway-ish for my liking).

UMM
SO should I had a third little shoulder something or other on another day ??
I really want them to be more ball-like, ya know??
I have a Loki’s army tank top coming in the mail and my shoulders just aren’t up to snuff. You gotta earn a tank top like that bro’s, you really gotta earn it.

K thanks for listening !

#2

I’d focus a lot more on lateral raises and rear delt exercises (reverse pec deck FTW) and much less on pressing exercises. Most people already have decent front delts but lack in middle/rear delt development which results in a lack of “ball” look.

But that’s without me seeing any pictures to see where you’re lacking, so it could be way off base.

#3

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I’d focus a lot more on lateral raises and rear delt exercises (reverse pec deck FTW) and much less on pressing exercises. Most people already have decent front delts but lack in middle/rear delt development which results in a lack of “ball” look.

But that’s without me seeing any pictures to see where you’re lacking, so it could be way off base. [/quote]

I agree with this. Side and rear delts give you boulder shoulders. Front delts get hit hard enough in other pressing exercises so they shouldn’t be the focus of your shoulder training (in my opinion).

#4

[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I’d focus a lot more on lateral raises and rear delt exercises (reverse pec deck FTW) and much less on pressing exercises. Most people already have decent front delts but lack in middle/rear delt development which results in a lack of “ball” look.

But that’s without me seeing any pictures to see where you’re lacking, so it could be way off base. [/quote]

I agree with this. Side and rear delts give you boulder shoulders. Front delts get hit hard enough in other pressing exercises so they shouldn’t be the focus of your shoulder training (in my opinion).[/quote]
x3

Rear delts first… Always. Rear delts, rear delts, rear delts and then maybe some more rear delts :wink:

Look into some Meadows shoulder stuff. I’ve noticed good results since using it and cutting out virtually all shoulder pressing.

Another tip that’s helped me is to internally rotate my wrists/hands at the top of my lateral raise variations. Imagine that you’re pouring out a pitcher of water at the top of each rep. That really helps me hit the delts more.

#5

I take it you’re doing a push/pull/legs split. The problem with this split is, do Delts belong on Push day or Pull day? Neither way is ideal.

That’s why I put them on both. That is, I do ‘push’ delt work with Chest and Tris, and ‘pull’ delt work with Back/Bis. This has two advantages:

  1. It allows me to work delts more frequently (every other day, in my case) without overtraining them, and
  2. it lets me avoid overworking my bis/tris (which are involved to an extent in most delt exercises) by grouping all of my Pull exercises on one day, and all my Push exercises on another. Here’s what I’m doing currently:

Day 1. Chest; Push Shoulders (neutral-grip machine shoulder press; rear-delt laterals peak contractions); Triceps
Day 2. Legs
Day 3. Back; Pull Shoulders (machine partial laterals, DB lateral peak contractions, DB FROM laterals, Haney rows, face pulls); Biceps
Day 4. Cardio
(repeat Day 1, etc)

I feel like my delts have responded really well to this sort of programming. Hope this helps. Best of luck.

#6

Me and my training partner lift with this physique competitor dude every once in a while. He has awesome shoulders. He can destroy us at any rear delt exercise. Maybe make that a focus for a while like all those fellas above me said.

One rear delt thing I thought was cool was going to a cable station and doing some unilateral stuff where you grab just a ball or something on the cable and pull your arm across your body and maybe a little at a downward angle. Really good range of motion and rear delt action.

And plus Spock in that back double bicep sort of pic you took your front delts already look really good imo.

#7

My friends!!!

Thank you…

I have decided to fully revamp my routine and focus more on later-raising and less on frontal pressing.

I do a lot of high rep rear delt stuff, but I usually do it at the end so maybe I’ll switch that around as well.

I am one excited lil cookie!
I’ll update in a month and let you all know how my loki’s army tank worked out.

#8

[quote]Spock81 wrote:
My friends!!!

Thank you…

I have decided to fully revamp my routine and focus more on later-raising and less on frontal pressing.

I do a lot of high rep rear delt stuff, but I usually do it at the end so maybe I’ll switch that around as well.

I am one excited lil cookie!
I’ll update in a month and let you all know how my loki’s army tank worked out.

[/quote]

Update us in 3 months! :slight_smile:

#9

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:

[quote]Spock81 wrote:
I’ll update in a month and let you all know how my loki’s army tank worked out. [/quote]
Update us in 3 months! :)[/quote]
Yep. Not sure what kind of visible results you’ll notice in just four weeks.

A few more things to consider: if you’re training a bodypart more than once a week, think about using different exercises and/or different set/rep schemes in each session. For example, nothing less than 10 reps in one session/nothing over 10 reps in the other; all cables and machines/all free weights; etc.

Another technique I really like to use whenever possible is touch training to encourage the mind-muscle connection. For shoulders (especially with 1-arm laterals or standing 1-arm rear cable flyes), touch the working muscle with the fingertips of the non-working hand throughout each rep.

#10

Both those videos helped me a ton in understanding how to hit my my delts in a complete fashion. My rear delts improved a lot this summer if you want to go look at my prep thread (SPIDEY: Let’s Get You Shredded is what it was called I think if you want to look at the visual improvements) after watching those, doing high rep sets, Meadow style partials, and doing the Rear Delt Rows advocated by Jim Cordova (just google them).

Sorry if that’s a lot of information, but I hope it helps.

#11

Thanks for the continued tips/advice everyone.

And Spidey I LOVE lots of information, thanks !!