Shoulder Exercises

The deltoid has three heads and each responds to a different direction of pull. The front delt presses the arm overhead and in front of you, so it already gets plenty of work from bench and overhead pressing. The side delt lifts the arm out to the side and is what makes shoulders look wide — lateral raises in their many forms are its main job. The rear delt pulls the arm backwards and is trained by face pulls, reverse flyes and rows.

Most lifters have plenty of front-delt volume and nowhere near enough side and rear. A balanced week is one press plus 6–10 sets each of lateral and rear-delt work, kept light at 12–20 reps where the joint stays comfortable and the muscle is still the limiting factor. Raise the arm to roughly shoulder height, lead with the elbow instead of the hand, and slow the lowering down — swinging heavy dumbbells up trains the traps instead. Cables and machines hold tension at the top of the range better than dumbbells do.