best exercise for side delt thickness?

russmeister · Oct 11, 2004

hey fellas, i really need to bing up the size on my side delts! what exercise would you say is the best for it?

MR.BICEPS · Oct 11, 2004

laterals and wide grip upright rows..

Nemesis79 · Oct 11, 2004

laterals are the way to go

do laterals hold it for five seconds than drop..really burns the crap outta em. you can do em simultaneously or one at a time.

russmeister · Oct 11, 2004

i'll have to give those a try.

i've tried a few differrent things like drop set side laterals. but i'll give these ideas a try also!
thanks
russ

Nemesis79 · Oct 11, 2004

or just go heavy as hell..and do some cheat sets..but don't swing too much..i found that doing35-40lbs..holding on to something really bombarded them..as far as gear goes..do a spot inject in the delt..I noticed that my shit got bigger cause of that..been shooting prop there...but sometimes my right shoulder hurts when I bench so i switched to shooting in the thighs.

MikeS · Oct 11, 2004

Id say side laterals for sure. Mix it up! One time do dumbells heavy; next time
do cables for 15-25 reps. Or both within the same workout. The reps really helped bring my delts from poor to adequete.

zephyr22 · Oct 11, 2004

I like old school...

Heavy pressing. My delts are rather large and round. I find that the heavier I press the larger and rounder my delts become. I use side laterals just as a finisher like every other workout for delts. Shit take a look at BIGKIWIS delts and youll see what I mean. Im in no way even close to that but he behind the neck presses some serious weight. Also genetic structure plays a big role in deltoids. At least that is my belief. The reason I say this is because people with rather long arms tend to have a hard time with delts due to poor leverage. Do you have long arms compared to your frame??? Later.

Mr_Magoo · Oct 11, 2004

standing military presses, behind the neck push-presses.......once the weight is up there, focus on the negative by throwing ur elbows bacl

mung · Oct 11, 2004

For those of you doing DC style, do you incorporate laterals as one of your exercises?

MikeS · Oct 12, 2004

I believe no matter what heavy presses should be the basis of your delt routine. But I was always strong on those-and my delt size was not good. It wasnt until I started to incorporate extensive holistic laterals (front and side) to delt work that my dcelts improved greatly.

b_montalban · Oct 12, 2004

try lateral raises with your thumbs pointing down. hits em real good. youll probably have to drop the weight 10lbs or so. I also do em one side at a time while holding onto a power rack. extend your free arm and grab the rack. move your feet into the rack a bit so your leaned over to the side your working. gives a bit broader range of motion where it counts, so you get a real good contraction at the top the lift.

TooPowerful4u · Oct 12, 2004

I like DCs thinkin on this one. He basicly says u see tons of people in the gym heavin up dumbells for lateral raises week in and week out and how many great delts do you see. BUT hvae you ever seen someone who can press 315 with good form controlled and didnt have huge delts? Well hes basicly sayin your entire delt complex will grow if your a big presser.

IronMike · Oct 12, 2004

...

Early on I struggled to bring up the side laterals, but now my shoulders are a strength. I don't think there are any fancy tricks, what it took for me was just changing angles SLIGHTLY, just refining the technique little by little until i actually got the most out of the exercise. Do your lateral raises wrong and you'll either end up using tons of momentum, traps, rear delts... anything but the side delts.

This is something I like to do. Sit on a chair or bench, start with some relatively light dbells. Raise them to a reasonable height but not up to where your elbows are level with your shoulder (I do those in a diff variation). Raise them until it feels about as far is it will comfortably go, then slowly lower and raise in a 2 sec up, 2 sec down (roughly) rhythm. Never take the weight off your delts ie don't go slack at the bottom. Don't worry about how high you are getting them, just worry about feeling that side delt working.

Once you know what hits that muscle group well for you, you can switch things up and you'll know what is successful and what isn't. IronMike

russmeister · Oct 12, 2004

iron mike

your idea sounds real painful!!! sounds like a good idea to try. thanks everybody for all the valuable input. i'm looking forward to making my delts grow.

Trulyhuge · Oct 12, 2004

You beat me to it TooPowerful. Hit the presses hard and heavy!

TH

BALDNAZI · Oct 12, 2004

DC training

Heavy presses work for sure.There has been some disagreement as to laterals being effective in a DC program,but I think it works well.Your supposed to pick 3 exercises to choose from and alternate 1 for each delt workout.For me it was behind the neck presses,hammer strength presses,and side laterals.

The day that I did laterals was my favorite.After my chest work was done,id warm up my side delts with some light laterals to make sure they were full of blood and ready to work.The on to the 1 big rest pause set

It looked something like this...
60lb DBs 10 reps to failure
15 very deep breaths,probably 25 seconds rest then the 60s again, got maybe 6 this time,15 deep breaths,and then 1 final all out set with the 60's again,maybe 3-4 reps

At this point the delts would be on fire and so full of blood you cant lift your arms.But if you really want to annihilate them further(not possible most of the time),then once in awhile when i had extra energy I would rest another 15 deep breaths and then grab 30-40lb DBs and bang out as many reps as possible.I can promise you the pump cannot be imagined.

For me laterals are a great part of the DC program.Especially after a heavy incline bench "rest pause" set.Your delts already got hit from the pressing movement,now your just finishing them off....

Tom · Oct 12, 2004

Delts without pressing

About a month ago I stopped all overhead pressing movements due to shoulder pain. Since then I have been working my shoulders with light weight and high volume. First I superset front and side delts by holding onto the sides of a 35lb plate and doing 15 reps of a straight arm front raise super-setted with 15 rep side laterals with 20 lb dumbells. I do 7 supersets like that followed by bent over rear delt raises for 5 sets of 15 reps again with light weight. Then 4 sets of 20 on the shrugs and I'm done. I have made amazing changes in the shape and thickness of my shoulders doing this without pressing at all.

hardkor · Oct 12, 2004

Tom said:
About a month ago I stopped all overhead pressing movements due to shoulder pain. Since then I have been working my shoulders with light weight and high volume. First I superset front and side delts by holding onto the sides of a 35lb plate and doing 15 reps of a straight arm front raise super-setted with 15 rep side laterals with 20 lb dumbells. I do 7 supersets like that followed by bent over rear delt raises for 5 sets of 15 reps again with light weight. Then 4 sets of 20 on the shrugs and I'm done. I have made amazing changes in the shape and thickness of my shoulders doing this without pressing at all.

Congrats on your results! Since you're not doing any overhead pressing movements at all and you're getting good results, you might as well stick delts with chest and maybe rear delts/traps with back. You wont be any weaker on these movements and it'll give more time for your shoulder to recuperate. This has worked for me and although i don't do any overhead pressed, i make sure that my incline movements for chest is set at a high angle so that the delts get more than normal stimulation.

I also read on a different thread that someone who spoke to Kevin Levrone claimed that he rarely does any direct work for his delts as they get more than enough stimulation from his chest and back workouts. I'm sure its genetics for him but his shoulders are one of the all time best. In one of the Battle for Olympia videos, he does four sets of side laterals after his chest workout and that was it. Might be true!

bigbaldbulldog · Oct 12, 2004

MR.BICEPS said:
laterals and wide grip upright rows..

What he said..

big_byrd52 · Oct 12, 2004

mine responded great when i started doing my laterals leaning against a incline bench set at about 80 degrees. keep the shoulders locked back and arms st8 out to the side instead of angled. u have to use lighter weight, like 15, but it blasts them.