delt training

[qbkilla]

What is your routine and philosophy on building large round delts? What has worked, what hasn't?

I have never had good delts. Some say its about volume, hit the rear and side first and hard with tons of volume. Others say you need to get strong in overhead press before you worry about manipulating. volume.

What does your routine look like, number of sets, frequency?

 

[Harry1]

What is your routine and philosophy on building large round delts? What has worked, what hasn't?

I have never had good delts. Some say its about volume, hit the rear and side first and hard with tons of volume. Others say you need to get strong in overhead press before you worry about manipulating. volume.

What does your routine look like, number of sets, frequency?

Im not huge lol but here is what did, I typically stuck with a "bro split" i would start with a seated dumbell press 3x12 moving on to side raises 3x12, face pulls 3x12 and hit some machines etc. Earlier on this year I completely switched to strength training so I do a lot of standing military presses, and surprisingly I couldn't lift much weight although when i did seated dumbell press i could lift up to 30kg (66lbs) on each side! I did start increasing weight on the bar i do 5 reps per 5 sets as heavy as i can manage the other day just to test the waters i easily lifted 50kg each side on seated dumbell press so I believe standing military presses definitely helped me. My delts have definitely grown

Im sure others will give you some great ideas

 

[danieltx]

I had naturally broad shoulders before ever lifting weights and they progressed quickly when I started. Then everything else caught up and I had to really experiment to get them going again.

Currently at my all-time biggest, the last 2 years I've done PPL hitting everything twice a week. I train shoulders after chest.

Push 1:

• Seated single arm lateral raise on Free Motion bicep curl, 3 sets
• Seated Smith behind the neck press, 3 sets
• Single arm Hammer Strength lateral raise machine, 3 sets

Push 2:

• DB front / lateral raise superset, 3 sets
• Seated Smith military press, 3 sets
• Single arm Hammer Strength lateral raise machine DC style, 3 sets

I hit rear delts on my back width day, 4 sets of this weird movement I made up on a cable stack.

I do mostly 10-12 reps on shoulders but will go as low as 8 or as high as 15.

All that is somewhat irrelevant though - when it comes to hypertrophy, you have to figure out what exercises let you individually best feel the muscle squeeze and stretch through the range of motion. If you don't feel the side delts burning, they're not working. There are no required movements. Try different stuff, take notes on what you're doing and the results, and you'll build the ideal routine for you.

 

[Biggerp73]

Seems to me like guys with big, round delts always place the priority on the lateral/side head... Dumbell side laterals is bread and butter... Also, upright barbell rows... Presses are good but IMO focusing on them to the detriment of laterals will result in subpar delts...

My routine =

3-4 sets warm ups side laterals
3-4 sets heavy side laterals
2-3 sets warm ups upright rows
3-4 sets heavy upright rows
2-3 sets warm ups incline press
3-4 sets heavy incline press
4 sets rotator cuff work, inside, outside, upwards, and downwards rotations (16 sets total)


The incline press is for both upper chest and front delts, its a very steep incline, as I don't do upper chest on chest day, and don't like to hit front delts too much anyways. Works for me.

 

[USMuscle9403]

I really started hammering the hell out of delts and arms with volume and they've responded really well. Well, high volume for me, anyway. I also barely do any pressing movements for delts, most exercises are some form of raise. My favorite is a seated side lateral, arms arcing and turning forward on the concentric part of the movement. Does that make sense? Probably not. Anyway, usually done with higher reps but still heavy as I can go. Lots of warmup with this, progressively heavier. Work set is something you'd fail at about 12-15 with, and continues in a rest pause style (not quite as long as DC, just a few deep breaths), hammer it again and one or two more times. Partials, then statics. Sometimes I'll then stand and do forced reps one arm at a time. If I'm feeling like it, I'll do a drop set, but normally not. Very little rest, straight to a lateral machine that I like (but is maxed out, unfortunately), sets done in more of a straight set fashion with partials and statics at the end. Sometimes I'll do a few sets (junk volume, probably) of cable laterals after this. I call this 'high volume' for me because the total reps can still end up being fairly high.

I wish I could do more pressing movements but my joints just hate me afterwards and I can't afford to have bad joints on my job.

 

[USMuscle9403]

Seems to me like guys with big, round delts always place the priority on the lateral/side head... Dumbell side laterals is bread and butter... Also, upright barbell rows... Presses are good but IMO focusing on them to the detriment of laterals will result in subpar delts...

My routine =

3-4 sets warm ups side laterals
3-4 sets heavy side laterals
2-3 sets warm ups upright rows
3-4 sets heavy upright rows
2-3 sets warm ups incline press
3-4 sets heavy incline press
4 sets rotator cuff work, inside, outside, upwards, and downwards rotations (16 sets total)


The incline press is for both upper chest and front delts, its a very steep incline, as I don't do upper chest on chest day, and don't like to hit front delts too much anyways. Works for me.

My shoulders only really started popping by prioritizing raises and laterals. Now they're getting capped off nicely. Women like that shit, too!

 

[Yellowninja]

I concentrate on side delt dumbell raises and rear delt dumbell or machine flys. I dont do any front raises because my front delts get hit enough with incline bench presses

 

[Bleed]

My experience is similar to usmuscle. High volume. Wide grip upright rows, side lateral raises focusing on bloodflow, face pulls (doing these correctly is so important), and behind the neck pulldowns for upperback.

My shoulders were always weak. I started doing a volume focus and dropped the shoulder presses and it worked a charm for me. Im definitely looking wider these days. About fuken time!

 

[thewizkid]

What is your routine and philosophy on building large round delts? What has worked, what hasn't?

I have never had good delts. Some say its about volume, hit the rear and side first and hard with tons of volume. Others say you need to get strong in overhead press before you worry about manipulating. volume.

What does your routine look like, number of sets, frequency?

only thing that built shoulders for me was lots of delt raises instead of presses
upright row, side delt raise, front felt raise, problem i find with shoulders is it's hard on the wrists/elbows to do heavy raises, if your gym has a side delt machine you can go heavier on raises and not impact the joints

 

[johnjuanb1]

What is your routine and philosophy on building large round delts? What has worked, what hasn't?

I have never had good delts. Some say its about volume, hit the rear and side first and hard with tons of volume. Others say you need to get strong in overhead press before you worry about manipulating. volume.

What does your routine look like, number of sets, frequency?

I rarely see guys go heavy on delts. My delts have always been my strength. I train them heavy. I now do 2 exercises for middle delt, 2 exercises for rear delt, one for front delt. When I had good rotator cuffs I did 9 sets of military press with the barbell. I started with 135Lbs and worked up to 295Lb, then did 4 sets at 225Lbs. Rep range was 5-12 reps.
Lateral raises i grew best doing 4 sets with 45Lb dumbbells for 20+ reps. Rear delts I do 4 sets bent dumbbell laterals with 45+Lbs 12-20 reps. I used to put most shots in my delts but they’re too scared up now.

 

[IronLion2]

If you're struggling already the last thing in the world you should be doing is seeing what other people are doing with
1) exercise selection
2) volume
3) frequency
If you cant apply tension and illicit adaptation make your approach more simple and constant until you can.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

I have to reiterate that EXERCISE SELECTION is everything.
I know too many bodybuilders who discovered a tip/trick/exercise much later in their lifting career and the light bulb went off, "oh shit, i actually FEEL this in my side delts."

One of my favorite delt exercises is cable side raises. Keeps the tension on the entire range of motion compared to DB side raises which kinda dies in certain areas. Jordan Peters and Dusty are a huge fan of these.

 

[brutus69]

I have to reiterate that EXERCISE SELECTION is everything.
I know too many bodybuilders who discovered a tip/trick/exercise much later in their lifting career and the light bulb went off, "oh shit, i actually FEEL this in my side delts."

One of my favorite delt exercises is cable side raises. Keeps the tension on the entire range of motion compared to DB side raises which kinda dies in certain areas. Jordan Peters and Dusty are a huge fan of these.

i do em also, leaning away from the cable, and i dont lower my arm all the way back down, i keep it somewhat level with my outside leg to keep tension. then when it gets really hard i drop my arm down, and when it gets really really hard i bend my knees and use momentum to get the last bit of effort in, and whats cool about doing it like that is, i dont need to go heavy.

 

[Pericles]

your press meaning nothing when it comes to delt size

you could do 10 sets of week. of incline butterflies (Eugene te0) and have better delts than most can. fathom.

 

[Pericles]

I have to reiterate that EXERCISE SELECTION is everything.
I know too many bodybuilders who discovered a tip/trick/exercise much later in their lifting career and the light bulb went off, "oh shit, i actually FEEL this in my side delts."

One of my favorite delt exercises is cable side raises. Keeps the tension on the entire range of motion compared to DB side raises which kinda dies in certain areas. Jordan Peters and Dusty are a huge fan of these.

these work great, But you should try cable y raises instead as they are even more superior

 

[nihilixm]

(1)Cable side raises with the ankle attachment Jordan Peters style
DC set ~15-20 first round ~7-10 second ~3-5 third
(2)Right after the DC set extreme stretch 120 seconds hand cuff stretch

I do this once a week tho not typical aba split but i hit a bro split like DC suggested for advanced so yeah that's my side delt movement.

 

[alfresco]

I think the exercise that contributed the most to what little
shoulder development I have was moving my body through
space via the handstand shoulder press on parallel bars.
(Since I seem unable to access my legacy posts, I can’t
show you.) And the pump cannot be beat due to due to the
inverted position, really forcing the blood into the muscle.
As many reps as possible with body weight. When I got
stronger, I would have my partner rest a DB between
my feet for added resistance. Then 3 x 10, 2 -3 x per wk.

I would be a toss-up between the handstand presses and
a pre-exhaust routine I developed which involved; lateral
raises followed by wide grip upright rows followed by
presses. Zero rest between sets and all sets to beyond
failure. As many reps as possible, 1 -2 sets max., 3x per
week.

Other than that it would between presses behind the neck
and seated DB presses (until it became too dangerous
to get the DB’s into position by myself.) 3 x 10, 2 - 3x per wk.

Also, lateral raises (machine and DB) also played a huge part.
3 x 20, 2 - 3x per week. Drop sets are easy / good here.

Recently, I have been doing bent-over, chest resting on a 45 deg.
or less adjustable bench, lateral raises, They seem to be my
favorite delt specialization exercise now. But I do them a bit different
. . . After the ‘bent over’ segment I immediately stand-up and
do as many partial standing lateral raises as possible, really burns –
pumps the delts. 3 x20, 2 - 3 x per week.

Important point. I would now pick one exercise per workout.

FYI . . . I have never had a shoulder injury or pain. Caveat; I have
not done anything even remotely resembling a ‘bench press’ in
over 30 years, an exercise that created more problems than it
has solved and if you don’t believe me you simply have not trained
long enough . . . my opinion. (I an 65.)

Hope this helps.

 

[Rogue]

Lots of good ideas here.
Focus on the rear delt , always starting with it as a first move and second sometimes and your sides
will come in.
Developed rear delts is fantastic for shoulder development and expansion.

 

[Elvia1023]

There are so many possible ways of improving delts. Like with any body part progression overload is one major factor. The execution of your movements is another major factor. Then volume and frequency and I recommend rotating through time from higher to lower volume approaches through the years. Right now I am doing P/P/L and I train push (delts) every 4 or so days. I also do about 4 working sets every session for delts but plenty of warm ups. In this routine because I am doing chest and delts I tend to make each blend into the other. By that I mean I will usually finish shoulders and start chest with a high incline press so it's hitting both areas. I keep the rest of my delt routine mainly to lateral raises (cable, machine or db). I train reat delts on pull day and always start pull day with rear delts.

If you have a shoulder day I would recommend starting with rear delts, then side, then front. Although change the order from time to time. Execution and exercise selection is key then try to progress in weight/reps over time. In your high volume parts of the year I recommend super or giant sets for delts. Decent weight for high reps. Again there is so much to this. I would pick your fav style pressing movement, lateral raise movement and rear delt movement and try to progress over time in all. For pressing don't bring the bar down lower than your chin. Look up various videos of how to perfectly execute lateral raises as form is important on those. I would recommend lighter weight with strict form plus some bent arm heavier weight sets as well. I also do partial lateral raises with very heavy db's from time to time. I think you should keep your working sets very low (no more than 10 in one session) but play about with reps in each one (mixture of low, medium and high).

 

[runningback34]

Ive always blasted military press for shoulders, with great results..8x8 sets.. I usually go with side laterals, rears, and front db raises next, and then finish off with more military press, or Arnold presses. (just 3-4 sets)