Shoulder presses for width?

[inacloudofchalk]

Just seems like the free weight shoulder press does nothing for my shoulders but tire me out. They dont give me a pump or make them grow. Actually the machine military's at least give me a tiny pump. Its funny because I only believe in compound exercises.If i want big quads, I know I have to squat and eat. If i want a thick back, I know I have to deadlift. Chest I bench. But if I want big side delts, I don't know what Im supposed to do anymore, I tried alot of shit and wide grip upright rows and side laterals seem to pump them up and I feel it in my side delts. And at least the next day I do feel some soreness there but I always question if those isolation movements are making them grow. I was doing them til recently when I read that if I want big side delts, I should focus on adding 50 pounds to my overhead presses. And lately I look even smaller and I am eating more.

Whenever I press overhead, free weight or machine military's, the next day feels like I never even trained them. Does anyone else not do overhead presses and still manage to grow side delts?

 

[osiris]

Just seems like the free weight shoulder press does nothing for my shoulders but tire me out. They dont give me a pump or make them grow. Actually the machine military's at least give me a tiny pump. Its funny because I only believe in compound exercises.If i want big quads, I know I have to squat and eat. If i want a thick back, I know I have to deadlift. Chest I bench. But if I want big side delts, I don't know what Im supposed to do anymore, I tried alot of shit and wide grip upright rows and side laterals seem to pump them up and I feel it in my side delts. And at least the next day I do feel some soreness there but I always question if those isolation movements are making them grow. I was doing them til recently when I read that if I want big side delts, I should focus on adding 50 pounds to my overhead presses. And lately I look even smaller and I am eating more.

Whenever I press overhead, free weight or machine military's, the next day feels like I never even trained them. Does anyone else not do overhead presses and still manage to grow side delts?

I dont press ofyen if at all. I have pics in my follistatin trial log under user logs. And I thonk my shoulders are decent
nt from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk

 

[littlebill]

I do weekly typically with dbells and really try and isolate but of course at the top you are going to get a lot of triceps so maybe pre-exhaust them first. Works for me.

 

[ericinbc]

one thing is never lockout when doing shoulder press, your just taking the tension off of your delts and giving them time to relax. you might want to try lighter wieghts too and keep your form dead on. heavy wieghts and low reps never worked for me. lower the dumbells to ear level and and raise them to just out of lockout. same thing with your laterals , dont go to heavy you'll justs end up swinging your body around and not doing much for shoulders. my final two cents is never have a shoulder day the poor things are used in every upper body exercise so they are very easy to overtrain

 

[jrod]

Lateral raises

 

[ManoftheWorld]

Lateral raises

X2 .... using the cable pulley to keep constant tension and load on the delts through out entire range

 

[inacloudofchalk]

one thing is never lockout when doing shoulder press, your just taking the tension off of your delts and giving them time to relax. you might want to try lighter wieghts too and keep your form dead on. heavy wieghts and low reps never worked for me. lower the dumbells to ear level and and raise them to just out of lockout. same thing with your laterals , dont go to heavy you'll justs end up swinging your body around and not doing much for shoulders. my final two cents is never have a shoulder day the poor things are used in every upper body exercise so they are very easy to overtrain

I agree not to have a shoulder day because they get used in every workout. Currently i was doing only M/W/F workouts. chest/tris monday, legs wed and shoulders/back on friday. my biceps get hit on back so i dont do them. actually i grow better bis from doing rows and pullups. but what i was doing before and it seemed to actually work was....

2 day split. upper and lower. like the westside barbell routine for powerlifters which of course could also be used for bodybuilders with an added assistance exercise or two after the main lift. similar to the 5/3/1 routine. for upper, i would do incline bench and incline flyes followed by wide grip upright rows, then 1 ex for triceps like JM presses or similar "skullcrushers" followed by either heavy dumbbell rowing or BW pullups. my leg day was either a squat or dead variation and sometimes both like squats with stiff legged deadlift. i would do the lower day say wed, then fri i would do the upper day. take 2 full days of rest. then repeat. this trained each part every 5 days. after switching to the once per week routine, i actually appear smaller and flatter and weaker.

 

[BA69]

My shoulders are bigger now than when I was on 2g+ anabolics. On 100mg test. The difference has been tremendous, my shoulder joints feel 1000X better. I've also seen dramatic improvement in my calves and traps. My Forearms and wrist strengh has also improved greatly

I do the following:

-Hang Cleans and power cleans
-Push Press
-One arm db snatch
-Alternating standing db press
-Plate raise + truck driver
-Lateral Raises
-Rear delt raises (light) and rear delt machine

The cleans take a while to really get down.

I split my training the following way:

-Chest + Pushing shoulders (any pressing or front delt) + Triceps
-Back + Pulling shoulders (Cleans + raises) + Bis
-Legs
-Rotational core movements + abs + one arm db snatch

If you are not doing the following movements, you are seriously depriving yourself of good potential muscle growth:

-Hang Cleans and power cleans
-Push Press
-One arm db snatch

You can find tutorials on how to do these lifts online. The push press is my favorite. You start standing with a barbell as if you are doing a simple shoulder press. You go into quarter squat position and drive the weight up explosively. You end up on tip of your toes to activate quadruple extension. Negatives are not important with these explosive lifts. You can do more sets as a results. Let the weight drop back and then explode for the next rep, etc... Try not to look up at the weight as it adds stress to your lower back. Look straight instead.

Pump isn't everything. Some powerlifters have huge shoulders and they've never felt a pump in there delts.

 

[inacloudofchalk]

My shoulders are bigger now than when I was on 2g+ anabolics. On 100mg test. The difference has been tremendous, my shoulder joints feel 1000X better. I've also seen dramatic improvement in my calves and traps. My Forearms and wrist strengh has also improved greatly

I do the following:

-Hang Cleans and power cleans
-Push Press
-One arm db snatch
-Alternating standing db press
-Plate raise + truck driver
-Lateral Raises
-Rear delt raises (light) and rear delt machine

The cleans take a while to really get down.

I split my training the following way:

-Chest + Pushing shoulders (any pressing or front delt) + Triceps
-Back + Pulling shoulders (Cleans + raises) + Bis
-Legs
-Rotational core movements + abs + one arm db snatch

If you are not doing the following movements, you are seriously depriving yourself of good potential muscle growth:

-Hang Cleans and power cleans
-Push Press
-One arm db snatch

You can find tutorials on how to do these lifts online. The push press is my favorite. You start standing with a barbell as if you are doing a simple shoulder press. You go into quarter squat position and drive the weight up explosively. You end up on tip of your toes to activate quadruple extension. Negatives are not important with these explosive lifts. You can do more sets as a results. Let the weight drop back and then explode for the next rep, etc... Try not to look up at the weight as it adds stress to your lower back. Look straight instead.

Pump isn't everything. Some powerlifters have huge shoulders and they've never felt a pump in there delts.

Well every powerlifter is different. Some are alot larger than others but most of their routine is based on the bench, squat, and deadlift and not on the overhead press. Those who have huge shoulders I am guessing grew them from doing the lateral raises they usually do after their heavy benching. Alot of them follow the westside routine which is very similar to my "upper" day split i listed above. they do their heavy max bench variation, followed by triceps, some delt raises, and lats. I think I'll stick to that instead of changing shit every day. I used to be into PLing as well but squat/deads mainly. I got strong on those but my upper body lagged behind so I thought of shifting my routine towards more hypertrophy as I do want to gain more weight, mostly muscle.

 

[ericinbc]

try sticking with one delt exercise on your chest day like dumbell presses or side laterals and train your rear delts on your back day after you train your lats and the rear head will really pop.
many people neglect thier rear delt and once you train it properly your whole shoulder looks great and will feel better to. balancing out the deltoid heads by bringing up your lagging rear delts will help pull your shoulders back giving you the appearance of wider shoulders also

 

[inacloudofchalk]

Thanks for that and yes I always neglected rear delts but I also want my sides to grow. Its both that I need really. In the past I would think rows and pullups and deads were enough for rear delts and it seems like it is but I guess 2 sets of the rear delt machine can't hurt. I tried it last time and i did feel a pump there and mind you I never did direct rear delt work before. Didnt think I needed it.

I switched back to my upper and lower split hitting each every 5 days. So after my bench, Ill do either the db presses or just side laterals or wide grip upright rows. I'll keep one movement for 3 weeks and try to work up on increasing the weights, then i'll switch it around. After doing that, I will do a tricep movement and then my lats (rows/pullups) which work my biceps. finally rear delts. On the lower day I do squats for quads and a dead variation so it always hits my back thickness and hams. I prefer training this way so that my upper body gets recovered completely between workouts because Im on only 100mg/week of test with 832ng so I'm considered natural. If I was on 1g + dbol I could train 5-6 days a week plus cardio easily.

 

[BarbaraBush]

in shoulder press your anterior deltoid is actually activated more than medial so its an exercise best suited at the end of your workout after your medial deltoids are already fatigued from direct isolation exercises, assuming you are just focusing on your medial deltoid i guess

 

[knucklehed]

I stick with laterals for the most part. However I recently started doing seated bar presses to bring up my upper chest. I don't go all the way to lockout, but focus more on moving the bar off my clavicals at the bottom.
I think Franco Columbu credited shoulder presses for his great upper chest development, so why not....?
Anyway it has helped my shoulder ahd upper chest both...

 

[superman18]

No exercise helped my shoulders grow better than Sitting Military Press.

 

[Bio]

wide grip upright rows and side laterals seem to pump them up and I feel it in my side delts. And at least the next day I do feel some soreness there but I always question if those isolation movements are making them grow. I was doing them til recently when I read that if I want big side delts, I should focus on adding 50 pounds to my overhead presses. And lately I look even smaller and I am eating more.

I think you answered your own question...Do what works best for you!

 

[inacloudofchalk]

Yes I did answer my own question in a sense. I just wanted some more feedback to confirm if others have success without overhead pressing. Also like reading all the feedback from the members. Thanks.

 

[rocco]

In my experience shoulder presses made my shoulders thick but not wide.WHat got me width was doing 8-10 sets of laterals every shoulder workout.

 

[slugger28]

I have the same problem with my shoulders. I have long arms and medium to wide scapula. I found doing HIT and using a 4 second postitive and negative works wonders. I skipped presses this week and did just laterals. Experiment and KISS.

 

[Ashop]

I use front military presses with a straight bar often. Its whats built the mass on my shoulders over the years.

 

[bigman135]

i compete in the apa raw division as a full meet lifter, generally i do have a dedicated shoulder and tricep day where ill do militarys, as i feel that strong shoulders help the bottom end of the raw bench.