How To Train Shoulders

The deltoid is made up of 3 heads.

Usually when we focus on training the deltoid we focus on the biggest, most prominent part of the muscle: the anterior (front) head of the deltoid (shoulder). We work this muscle by doing presses, like the military press, push press, Arny’s, and so forth.

Here’s the thing about isolating the anterior deltoid…

We train the anterior delt anytime we do a press, so we’re working it when we do chest, but also any triceps exercises involving a push. Where we should be giving more focus is to the lateral and posterior heads of the deltoid (the side and back).

Does that mean we quick working the anterior head all-together? No. But we train the side and rear a lot more.

We do this through lateral raises, rear delt raises (and flys), bent arm lateral raises, and so forth. We also need a lot of tempo variation when training the shoulders.

Check out this video for a few of my favorite shoulders sets (add them to your routine IMMEDIATELY). Note: notice the movement on the rear delt raise, you don’t need to have a full range of motion to train the rear delt, actually, the ROM for the rear delt is a lot shorter than previously thought.

Here’s what to do:

Shoulders Day 1

A1. Seated lateral raise – 5 sets of 6-8 reps with a 4 second tempo on the eccentric contraction (1 second pause everywhere else).

– rest 20 seconds –

A2. Chest Supported rear delt raise (with twist) – 5 sets of 20-25 reps with no cadence, just go at a controlled pace.

– rest 30 seconds –

Shoulders Day 2 (a week later)

A1. Front raise + lateral raise (as shown in video) 5-7 reps x 5 sets

– rest 30 seconds –

A2. Rear delt flys (fly machine) 5 sets of 30 + reps going as fast as possible

That’s how you should structure your shoulder training. Focus more on the lateral and rear deltoid, and let the anterior develop along with your chest training.

NOTE: make sure you’re performing to FAILURE. The deltoids, being a smaller muscle group, can take a lot of damage and recover properly. So even if you’re only busting out partial reps to finish a set, keep going until you can do no more!

PS. Maybe the best program I’ve done for developing big, round, athletic shoulders is the Adonis Index. It’s the one program that’ll help you shrink your waist while dramatically broadening your shoulders.

Check out this video about the program and how it differs from everything else out there: