AREA 1 FRONT DELTS
Arnold Press
>> This is the most difficult overhead press to control because of the instability of dumbbells and the rotation of your wrists as you press overhead. Use a lighter weight than you would for standard dumbbell presses.
>> Do this move near the beginning of your workout, when your delts are relatively fresh.
>> In the start position, hold the weights in front of your shoulders, palms facing you, with your elbows pointed forwards and down. This provides a slightly longer range of motion than the standard dumbbell press does. Control the weights at all times.
>> Press the dumbbells up, turning your wrists to neutral, then pronated, after your hands pass your head. From the top, smoothly reverse direction.
TARGET TIP | To reduce middle-delt involvement, start in front of your shoulders, not out to your sides.
One-Arm Cable Front Raise
>> Grasp a D-handle attached to a low-pulley cable and step back, facing away from and to one side of the stack, feet about hip-width apart. Use a pronated (palm-down) grip, your arm extended down at your side, elbow slightly bent. Pull directly up to parallel. Avoid locking out or overly bending your elbow.
>> Try using a rope handle with a neutral grip for a different feel. Use both hands, allowing the cable to travel between your legs as you raise your arms to parallel.
TARGET TIP | As you raise your arm out in front of you, bring your hand diagonally towards the midline of your body to better target your front delt.
FRONT AND MIDDLE DELTS
Alternating Dumbbell Front Raise
>> Dumbbells are easier on your shoulders than a barbell, which doesn't allow much freedom in the joints. Dumbbells also let you work each side independently. To increase intensity, do both arms simultaneously.
>> Raise the weight directly in front of your shoulder. It's easy to cheat by using momentum to lift the dumbbell, so focus on keeping the movement strict.
>> If your form suffers, do this exercise seated on a flat bench with your legs together. You'll find it's more difficult when you reduce body English.
TARGET TIP | Focus on bringing your thumb higher than your little finger in the top position to better target the front delt head.
Cable Lateral Raise
>> Stand at right angles to and slightly behind a low-pulley cable, working arm to the outside, so you can pull the cable out perpendicular to the stack with your chest up, back arched and knees unlocked. Don't twist your body; keep your shoulders squarely facing forward throughout.
>> Maintain a slight bend in your elbow, bringing the handle out in a wide arc to about shoulder level. Your elbow should be in the same horizontal plane as your hand at the top of the move.
TARGET TIP | Stop the handle a few inches from your hip at the start of each rep to further isolate the middle delt. If the cable returns too far in front of your body, you de-emphasise the delt and place greater emphasis on the supraspinatus for the first 30 degrees.
Behind-the-Neck Press
>> Warm up beforehand and increase your weight slowly. If you have pre-existing shoulder injuries, stick with the front version.
>> Body position is important when pressing overhead, both for safety and ease of movement. Sit erect with your chest up and shoulders back, lower back slightly arched, abs tight, and feet flat and wide on the floor.
>> Keep your elbows under the bar, pointed down and out to your sides in the bottom position. Reverse direction smoothly.
>> In the down position, stop when the bar reaches the midpoint of the back of your head, then push it straight overhead to full arm extension (just short of elbow lockout).
TARGET TIP | To better isolate your middle delts, focus on pushing the bar up and slightly behind you.
Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise
>> Hold the dumbbells just outside your thighs, palms facing in. Lock your elbows in a small but noticeable bend for the duration of the set. If you start to open and close that bend, you reduce the middle-delt isolation.
>> Raise the weights out to your sides in a wide arc to about shoulder level. It's important to keep your elbows above your hands at the start of the move, bringing them to about the same horizontal plane
at the top.
TARGET TIP | To further work the middle delts, continue the movement until your arms are up to 45 degrees past parallel, and hold this top position for 1–2 seconds.
AREA 3 REAR DELTS
Bent-Over Cable Lateral Raise
>> Stand at right-angles to and slightly behind a low-cable pulley, feet shoulder-width apart. Bend at the
waist and keep your body square to the floor; don't twist your torso as you pull out to your side. Maintaina slight bend in your knees and keep your lower back slightly arched.
>> Lock a slight bend in your elbow.
>> Lift the handle out in a wide arc, keeping your elbow pointing towards the ceiling at the top, pulling your shoulder blade back and bringing your hand as high as you can.
TARGET TIP | The cable pulls your arm across your body in the down position, which takes emphasis away from the rear delt. Stop the movement at the point where your arm is perpendicular to the floor.
Reverse Pec-Deck Flye
>> Adjust the seatpad so you can grasp the handles at shoulder height. Don't drop your elbows; keep your arms parallel to the floor throughout the move.
>> Some machines offer a few different grips, so perform the move using both a neutral, palms-in grip as well as a pronated, palms-down grip.
>> Keep your chest pressed against the pad as you pull the handles out in a wide arc as far back as possible. Keep your head facing forward.
TARGET TIP | Due to the cam-based pulley system, this machine allows a biomechanical advantage: the weight gets easier to lift towards the finish, which is the weakest position during this exercise. Hold the finish position for 2–3 seconds while contracting your rear delts.
Building Your Delt Routine
1) Start your workout with a compound move — some kind of overhead press — after you warm up. Intermediate and advanced bodybuilders can add a second compound move if desired.
2) Include one exercise that targets each of the three delt heads in your routine. Since the rear head hardly works during overhead presses, it tends to get underused compared to the other two heads, so you may want to recruit it with your first single-joint move. To bring it up, consider adding a second rear-delt exercise (a technique you can use to bring up any of your delt heads).
3) Follow that with an exercise for each of the other two heads. Rotate the order of which comes first in your routine from week to week.
4) For compound exercises, do 2–4 sets in the 6–10-rep range. Go lighter on single-joint moves, doing 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps each. Published October 2007 |
