Heavy pressing for delts

[qbkilla]

Someone at the gym today asked me for advice on bringing up his side delts which is odd because mine suck. I told him to focus on heavy overhead pressing and getting strong as fuck in oh press and the hammer machine because that's what's worked for me. Side laterals...heavy...or light weight for high reps never did much. He told me other guys told him side laterals and I told him that's how you hit them ..they just never did anything for me and focussing on heavy overhead pressing a couple days a week got me better results. I also know DC training focuses on moving heavy weight and that can't be done with laterals.

Has anyone else had better luck building the cap focusing on heavy oh pressing vs isolation movement for the side? Usually I read overhead press is more for the front but I'm sure it involves the side to some degree.

 

[heavyhitter]

Why not both? I always do a pressing movement in each shoulder workout. My favorite is rack drag presses ala John Meadows. Follow that with cable or Dumbell laterals, and then usually a Dumbell upright row, or banded or Dumbell y raises. I also always do a rear delt movement

 

[MasteroniPepperoni]

Db seated or standing military
Hammer strength plate loaded press or just a generic shoulder press do well - I like to mix the grip . Close/neutral/wide

Always db side laterals , heavy w/ dropsets and cable front raise

Don't need much more imo

 

[qbkilla]

Why not both? I always do a pressing movement in each shoulder workout. My favorite is rack drag presses ala John Meadows. Follow that with cable or Dumbell laterals, and then usually a Dumbell upright row, or banded or Dumbell y raises. I also always do a rear delt movement

I do a rear delt movement as well, for shoulder health. The reason why I no longer do both is just efficiency. I don't want to use gym time/sets, doing side laterals if they have never done anything for me. Say per week I do 8 sets for front, 8 for rear, 8 for side. I would rather just drop the side (since they do nothing) and do another heavy over head movement. Or use those weekly sets to bring up a lagging part.

 

[tenny]

if you are under 30.....yes ......blast that shit....
otherwise....back off....light weight....behind the neck
(to the ears)...fast reps....25 to 50 at a time...
massive pump...delts...tris...traps....total workout
in 4 sets....

 

[Cabron]

nvm..

 

[heavyhitter]

I do a rear delt movement as well, for shoulder health. The reason why I no longer do both is just efficiency. I don't want to use gym time/sets, doing side laterals if they have never done anything for me. Say per week I do 8 sets for front, 8 for rear, 8 for side. I would rather just drop the side (since they do nothing) and do another heavy over head movement. Or use those weekly sets to bring up a lagging part.

It’s got to be a structural thing for you, but I guarantee there’s a way you could do laterals that would work for you

 

[heavyhitter]

what does meadows have to say about it now???

Not sure I understand the question? It’s a great exercise whether John is still alive or not

 

[Fit2Serve]

dumbell laterals were my staple
rarely did heavy over head presses usually more like burn out sets after laterals
BUT i did like upright barbell row or w cable. u can go pretty damn heavy

 

[275bills]

Lol

 

[Kaladryn]

I dislike overhead presses, I used to go very heavy and it never did anything for my delts just made my traps grow and may have led to shoulder issues I now face. I had an injury and had to train light for close to a year, the delts responded very well to light weight and high reps (and slightly higher than usual volume as well). Delts are all about feeling the muscle to me now, lots of front and side lateral variations and some light pressing but only when the delts are already trashed (oh and wide dumbbell upright rows are nice for side delts).

Of course, you can never say how much of my current success with lighter weight and higher reps is related to doing the heavy work when I was younger, but that being said, I don't think being strong at overhead pressing is very "functional" I think we have that shoulder flexibility mainly for grabbing and pulling not for pressing. If you are going to press heavy, make sure you are basically doing a high incline press not fully upright.

 

[luki7788]

I have never seen anyone press 315lbs military on repetitions and has weak shoulders but I have seen people who have never done heavy shoulders press but only leterals and had huge ones too - genetics mostly

 

[jeroendebleser]

I agree with heavyhitter, why not just do both just in case?

Adding in a set of side laterals is hardly going to overtrain you. I also advise to use cables or a machine for them because they are superior to DB side laterals because they provide constant tension.

 

[Simon90]

Why not both? I always do a pressing movement in each shoulder workout. My favorite is rack drag presses ala John Meadows. Follow that with cable or Dumbell laterals, and then usually a Dumbell upright row, or banded or Dumbell y raises. I also always do a rear delt movement

I agree on the rack drag press, feels great! Feel alot more tension on the delts than a standard oh press

 

[qbkilla]

I have never seen anyone press 315lbs military on repetitions and has weak shoulders but I have seen people who have never done heavy shoulders press but only leterals and had huge ones too - genetics mostly

I tend to agree with this. I've always been a stickler for form. Maybe to a fault, as most of my life I probably should have worried a little less about perfect form and more about progression.

I wonder if it's all about genetics ..me ..It doesn't matter what I do for chest my chest is always my best part, dips, dumbbell, hell I've just did push-ups because I don't want my chest to be disproportionately bigger than arms and it still was.

Meanwhile, some guys can exhaust method's and training styles and have no chest but their delts are huge, so maybe they can grow delts with anything.

 

[Rep]

In my 20's, I would routinely do 315 military press and all i got was shoulder surgeries. Most chest work hits the front delts. Focus on strict side lats and read delts. I use an ankle band on my forearm and do side laterals. My shoulders grew like a weed.... Ditch the heavy weights. Do moderate strict movements and light weight for reps. Well works for me, everyone responds different but remember the shoulder is delicate (joint)

 

[LATS]

I warn older lifters all the time to lay off heavy overheads.. the shoukder bare a heavy load during chest and back training.. and some tricep work.. if your over 35 or so you are asking for serious issues if you keep the overheads up.. ill do cable laterals.. front laterals .. rear laterals.. and variations of each to shake things up.. if your going to still do overheads keep it lighter in load and do them after your isolation movements.. higher reps..

 

[Delt123]

It doesn’t really matter for me, it all works. I do the DC two way split so just hitting them three times over two weeks with just three exercises. I do a smith press, bb upright row and a cuffed cable side raise (this one is the bomb). Always had relatively round shoulders, even as a natural.

 

[Cerberus777]

Drag press. Using the V Squat machine as a shoulder press and I find cable or machine for isolation work to be better. It has tension throughout the range of motion. I'm older so all is in the 15-30 rep range.

 

[pickapeck]

Wide grip upright row on a Smith machine superset with leaning side laterals.