T Nation

Front Deltoid Dominance

Bodybuilding
#1

I want that ‘chest/delt’ tie-in (separation) look. Well I want to work towards it not that I expect it to just pop up overnight.

The obvious thing to do is to work on the upper chest and front delt via incline work and front raises.

My question is how do you know if you’re ‘front delt dominant’? Especially from a visual perspective

Just asking so I know whether to start doing front raises consistently or not. Wouldn’t want to develop any shoulder imbalances in the long run.

Any comments will be much appreciated

#2

[quote]DanielDJ wrote:
I want that ‘chest/delt’ tie-in (separation) look. Well I want to work towards it not that I expect it to just pop up overnight.

The obvious thing to do is to work on the upper chest and front delt via incline work and front raises.

My question is how do you know if you’re ‘front delt dominant’? Especially from a visual perspective

Just asking so I know whether to start doing front raises consistently or not. Wouldn’t want to develop any shoulder imbalances in the long run.

Any comments will be much appreciated

[/quote]

Front Delt dominance is pretty common mostly with people starting out. I mean you use it in just about every pressing movement and we all know how much everyone loves to press heavy shit.

IMO aesthetically this can be improved or prevented with plenty of isolation work with your middle delt (lateral raises) and your rear delt (bentover raises or rev pec deck In addition to your rowing movements)
every now and again i go heavy with lateral raises, but I’ve found the delt heads respond best to sets of 15 and 20.

Edit: oh and i always aim to have my lateral raise equal to or stronger than my front raise.

#3

Thanks for the reply.

The advice you’ve given is something I’ve kind of taken up recently. Besides a balanced shoulder routine, I currently train a bit of side delts after chest and a bit of rear delts after back.

I will start implementing higher rep ranges though, I’ve always stayed between 8-12.

I think my question was rather stupid/badly worded lol.

Basically from a side profile I feel my delts are balanced but from a back bi pose the front delt just seems to pop out more.

I was pretty much confused as to whether that made me front delt dominant because I wouldn’t want to increase that imbalance by further training my front delts with raises even though I’ve recently decided to up the frequency on the other delt heads.

#4

[quote]DanielDJ wrote:

My question is how do you know if you’re ‘front delt dominant’? Especially from a visual perspective

[/quote]

I knew I was “delt dominant” when I was 17,a bber was sitting at my table during new year eve and he told me that,before that I thought that my chest was lacking…
from my own perspective, delt dominant is just enother way to say that chest is flat(tish) compared to delts&arms.
from a mechanical side,(maybe…) as chest (in a delts dominant being) is relatively weaker than delts&tris these have to do some of the chest work…
many strong benchers are delts&tris dominant (tate) so just benching heavy could not solve the problem.
some good examples of delts dominants bbers could be mike menzter, dorian yates (exspecially on clavicular/upper chest) ,jay cutler or evan centopani…

#5

[quote]buzza wrote:

[quote]DanielDJ wrote:

My question is how do you know if you’re ‘front delt dominant’? Especially from a visual perspective

[/quote]

I knew I was “delt dominant” when I was 17,a bber was sitting at my table during new year eve and he told me that,before that I thought that my chest was lacking…
from my own perspective, delt dominant is just enother way to say that chest is flat(tish) compared to delts&arms.
from a mechanical side,(maybe…) as chest (in a delts dominant being) is relatively weaker than delts&tris these have to do some of the chest work…
many strong benchers are delts&tris dominant (tate) so just benching heavy could not solve the problem.
some good examples of delts dominants bbers could be mike menzter, dorian yates (exspecially on clavicular/upper chest) ,jay cutler or evan centopani…[/quote]

When i say ‘front delt dominant’ I mean in comparison to the other heads of the delts.

From a normal relaxed view I feel like my delts are even and I don’t need to avoid doing front delt isolation movements but in a bi pose it looks like the other heads are non existent. Will attach a pic for clarity guess it makes things a lot easier to understand.

#6

When people say they are ‘muscle dominant’ they arent referring to aesthetic imbalances. Theyre referring to which muscles take over to perform a given lift.

Some get a lot of bicep stimulation during a seated row, whereas others feel their forearm muscles doing a lot of the work (in additon to the back muscles of course).

Some people feel their delts doing most of the work during a bench press whereas others get more stimulation in their triceps.

Your rear delt head is smaller, yes. But this just means you havent exposed it to enough stimulus. It doesnt necesasrily mean that your rear delt is defective.

Muscle dominance refers to synergistic muiscle groups, IMO. Your front delt cant dominate your rear delt because there arent any lifts that both play a substantial role in.

#7

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
When people say they are ‘muscle dominant’ they arent referring to aesthetic imbalances. Theyre referring to which muscles take over to perform a given lift.

Some get a lot of bicep stimulation during a seated row, whereas others feel their forearm muscles doing a lot of the work (in additon to the back muscles of course).

Some people feel their delts doing most of the work during a bench press whereas others get more stimulation in their triceps.

Your rear delt head is smaller, yes. But this just means you havent exposed it to enough stimulus. It doesnt necesasrily mean that your rear delt is defective.

Muscle dominance refers to synergistic muiscle groups, IMO. Your front delt cant dominate your rear delt because there arent any lifts that both play a substantial role in.

[/quote]
Bad wording on my part, was only speaking from an aesthetic point of view.

Lesson learnt.

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

#8

your proportions seem fine btw. emphasize things if youd like but there are no glaring issues.

#9

I agree with both Paulie and Bonez on this one.

Personally, I don’t feel like I’m to the point where I need to isolate my front delts. I feel them getting enough stimulus from chest and shoulder movements. I Also try to do more pulling movements then pushing. The separation that you want will come in due time. Just stick with it.

#10

BONEZ and Mike, thanks for all the advice.

Think I will just avoid isolating front delts for now, because aside from chest and shoulders I probably also get some indirect stimulus on some heavy bicep movements as well as obviously pressing movements for triceps.

Thanks again.