Do incline dumbbell presses hit your side delts at all?

[Jake LaMotta]

I understand any incline press mostly works your upper pecs and front delts. My question is, lets say I do an incline dumbbell press on a low incline (lets say 30 degrees), will that be hitting my side delts AT ALL?

 

[7_Deadly_Sins]

Can you flex your side delts and not your front delts?

 

[Jake LaMotta]

Can you flex your side delts and not your front delts?

I'm not sure I follow you bro. Are you saying they DO or DO NOT work the side delts to some degree?

 

[maldorf]

Can you flex your side delts and not your front delts?

Yeah, thats my thinking too. You really cannot stimulate just certain fibers and not others in the same muscle. Its all part of one muscle and they will all fire. SOme portions though will take more stress than others because of where they are located. So I would answer yes, that inclines at 45 degrees would hit the side delts. BTW, i wouldnt consider 45 degrees to be a low incline.

 

[Jake LaMotta]

...BTW, i wouldnt consider 45 degrees to be a low incline.

I screwed up. I meant 30 degrees. The incline at my gym is 30 degrees.

 

[maldorf]

I screwed up. I meant 30 degrees. The incline at my gym is 30 degrees.

K. well thats not too bad. When I do those I would use an adjustable bench, like whta you use for dumbells, and put it inside of a power rack or squat rack and use the barbell on that. Those adjustable benches go real low, set it on the very lowest notch. I have yet to find an incline barbell bench that is low enough. Most are too high and it hits delts too much and puts a lot of stress on the joint. The only exception to this is if you manage to find one of John Parillo's curved incline benches.

 

[Jake LaMotta]

K. well thats not too bad. When I do those I would use an adjustable bench, like whta you use for dumbells, and put it inside of a power rack or squat rack and use the barbell on that. Those adjustable benches go real low, set it on the very lowest notch. I have yet to find an incline barbell bench that is low enough. Most are too high and it hits delts too much and puts a lot of stress on the joint. The only exception to this is if you manage to find one of John Parillo's curved incline benches.

Does doing it at 30 degrees work your side delts at all? Or is this too low of an incline to have any affect on the side delts at all?

 

[maldorf]

Does doing it at 30 degrees work your side delts at all? Or is this too low of an incline to have any affect on the side delts at all?

Its impossible to do a pressing movement and not affect your deltoids. the deltoids are going to always be involved in that movement no matter what the angle is. going really high though on inclines is going to hit them a lot more. Delts get hit when you train chest and triceps too, if you do just compound movements, and doing just the side laterals is plenty because of this. Doing any more will overtrain them and lead to injury IMO. Glad to see you avoid overhead presses.

So why cant you squat or do bentover rows?

 

[7_Deadly_Sins]

I'm not sure I follow you bro. Are you saying they DO or DO NOT work the side delts to some degree?

Really I donno, but how can you target 1 head of a muscle? Can you flex only 1 head of your bicept? or the tear drop of your quad?
I have reason to believe if you can get a 405 incline for say, 10 reps, you won't have small delts. Or get a 315 Standing overhead press for 5 and you won't have small delts.

 

[maldorf]

Try to get that incline as low as it will go. I think most go below 30 degrees, but maybe im wrong. I never really measured it,lol.

 

[Jake LaMotta]

So why cant you squat?...

My shoulder ROM (from my RC surgery) won't let me get the bar behind my head.

...or do bentover rows?

I've had lower back problems before. Any time I do anything heavy and bent over my lower back screams. So I don't do it.

 

[maldorf]

My shoulder ROM (from my RC surgery) won't let me get the bar behind my head.

I've had lower back problems before. Any time I do anything heavy and bent over my lower back screams. So I don't do it.

Well, with the squats they do have those safety squat bars around that have like a yok on them and dont require you to put your hands back on the bar. That would work well, if you can find one at your gym. Most gyms dont have those though. When was the last time you tried to squat? Try with just the bar and see how that goes. Streching out the shoulders before doing anything helps too. If you cant do the squats, then go to leg presses.
You should try doing bentover rows with dumbells instead. YOu cannot use nearly as much weight and it works nearly as good. Start out really light, doing say 20 rep sets and slowly over several months work your way up to doing sets of 10. I bet you would be just fine.

 

[Stewie Griffon]

Yeah, thats my thinking too. You really cannot stimulate just certain fibers and not others in the same muscle. Its all part of one muscle and they will all fire. SOme portions though will take more stress than others because of where they are located. So I would answer yes, that inclines at 45 degrees would hit the side delts. BTW, i wouldnt consider 45 degrees to be a low incline.

gotta agree, muscles all function in sync with each other. when you think about it, most every muscle is used for every exercise to some degree. even with your incline you are using your forearms to grip it. you are most likely flexing your hams and calves cause your legs brace yourself against the floor. you back and rotators are tight to keep your form tight. you abs are tight to support your back. while all these arent going to cause growth, they are used.

lol i can remember getting a cramp in my right ham and calf doing a heavy ass bench back in the day!!!!

 

[BigSwole]

My shoulder ROM (from my RC surgery) won't let me get the bar behind my head.

I've had lower back problems before. Any time I do anything heavy and bent over my lower back screams. So I don't do it.

Front squats.

DB rows with one knee and hand on a flat bench. Or use the cable row machine. I actually like that better than bent over barbell rows because I can focus on my lats instead of my lower back doing the work.

 

[maldorf]

lol i can remember getting a cramp in my right ham and calf doing a heavy ass bench back in the day!!!!

Man! I had a few of those that just about made me cry. Could barely bench because the hams kept wanting to cramp up while benching.

 

[maldorf]

Front squats.

DB rows with one knee and hand on a flat bench. Or use the cable row machine. I actually like that better than bent over barbell rows because I can focus on my lats instead of my lower back doing the work.

Yes, good idea. Front squats you could do. Doing one arm dumbell rows leaning on the bench will take the stress off of lower back too. I forgot about that exercise. I never really did that one because most gyms dont have dumbells that go over 120 lbs.

 

[BigSwole]

Yes, good idea. Front squats you could do. Doing one arm dumbell rows leaning on the bench will take the stress off of lower back too. I forgot about that exercise. I never really did that one because most gyms dont have dumbells that go over 120 lbs.

Mine doesn't either. Well they go to 125 but close enough. Normally I will do pullups and the seated cable row before DB rows. Also, with DB rows I like to do them for 15-20 reps and on my last set I will go to complete failure. Matt Kroczaleski is who I got that idea from.

 

[maldorf]

Mine doesn't either. Well they go to 125 but close enough. Normally I will do pullups and the seated cable row before DB rows. Also, with DB rows I like to do them for 15-20 reps and on my last set I will go to complete failure. Matt Kroczaleski is who I got that idea from.

Well, for me nothing like really heavy barbell bentover rows for building a thick strong back. I liked the feeling of the dumbells, but they just dont go heavy enough. If you can get a workout from using the dumbells, I would say do those.

 

[BigSwole]

Well, for me nothing like really heavy barbell bentover rows for building a thick strong back. I liked the feeling of the dumbells, but they just dont go heavy enough. If you can get a workout from using the dumbells, I would say do those.

Honestly it's a product of laziness. I do back work after deadlifting and after I pull heavy the last thing I want to do is a row variation where my lower back has to support the load. If I didn't deadlift I would probably do barbell rows.

 

[Dionysusedge]

The only exception to this is if you manage to find one of John Parillo's curved incline benches.

I used to have one of those red Parillo curved benches, Maldorf.

That was THE BEST adjustable bench ive ever used, hands down.