Building Lateral Delts

Lynn M.

Lynn M.

Cathlete
Hi-

Does anybody have any good tips/suggestions for building the lateral (side) delts?

While I am pleased with the definition that I have on my front and rear delts, I just can't seem to get my lateral delts to pop.

Anything other than lateral raises or overhead shoulder presses that have worked for you?


Thanks in advance, Lynn
 
The lateral (side) raises will hit the side delts. Can be done standing or seated (recommended b/c you can't use your body weight for leverage).
 
Also try doing lateral raises one arm at a time, holding on to a support, so you can lift a heavier weight.

And 'low and wide' upright rows (keep hands near the outside of the torso, and only go up so your elbows are even with the shoulders, or a little bit more...none of that "hands underneath the chin" stuff).
 
Thanks all for the responses!

After reviewing your suggestions and also some others, I think my lateral shoulder work is going to really be all about how many different angles I can hit them at w/ lateral raises. Kathryn, I like the idea of doing one at a time too, I rarely do that but it makes alot of sense.

Take care, Lynn M.
 
You know, I also totally forgot about the good old fashioned military press. It works the entire delt but is especially effective for side delts.

Upright rows are great for the traps & rear delts, but not so much for the side or front delts.
 
Hi,

How about various angles of decline push ups? Feet on the step, feet on the ball, get into a pike position.....

They really pump up my delts, the medial especially.

Consistent yoga too, which might equate to dive bomber push ups.

Tracy
 
Thanks for the suggestions! :)

Laura, In re to Military presses, I don't feel them so much on the side delts more in the front. What am I doing wrong?

Tracy, I love decline pushups, but I always put them on my chest day. Maybe I need to switch them to shoulder day??

Lynn M.
 
Another thing to try : preexhaust sets. Do a set of lateral raises (which isolates the lateral delts more), then follow immediately with a set of dumbbell overhead presses, in which the traps and triceps help the delts out so you can get more out of them. That can be a way of really exhausting the muscle fibers (in a way that overhead presses alone maybe can't, because the triceps can be the weak link that makes you stop before the delts themselves are tired out).
 
You know, that's exactly what I do with my shoulder routine--I start w/heavy military press, then I superset lateral & front raises, & finish off w/superset of decline raises & what Cathe calls "rear squeezes." The only problem I have w/the supersets is cramping, since my shoulders are much stronger than my hands my hands always seriously cramp by the 20th rep.

Lynn, I assume you're using dumbbells? If you use a barbell for military press then you're bringing it either in front of or behind your head, in which case you're hitting the front or rear delts more. So form is really important to isolate the side delts.

Or, instead of the "exhaustion" method you could go for the really heavy method w/the lateral raises, doing low reps/heavy weight. Maybe 6 sets of 4-6 reps as heavy as you can go without hurting yourself. ;-)
 
Yep, I do military presses w/ dumbbells and usually start out a shoulder workout with them as well too. I go pretty heavy, at 3 sets of 6-10 reps. I usually do them on a seated bench with a back, straight up, but am contemplating laying on a slight incline to see if I can get more of that lateral delt into play. What do you think?

Also, I just read an article on a variation that sounds interesting w/ the side raises ( slow day at work, can you tell?? :)) Get in standard lateral raise position, elbows slightly bent. Raise elbows to shoulder level ( as usual), but instead of coming all the way back down, only go about 1/2-2/3 of the way down before you raise again. Doesn't that sound like it will get in there good?

Shoulders are on tap for tomorrow. Am looking forward to trying out some of these new ideas!! I'll let you all know how it goes.

Thanks again for your help, Lynn M.
 
Some more exercises to try:
1) 1-arm lateral raise at an incline. Lie sideways on an incline bench and lift with one arm. This takes the lateral delt through ROM that it's probably not accustomed to.
2) pulsing lateral raises. Do this in a four count:
count 1: lift up
count 2: pulse up (emphasis on the 'up' with the 'down' being just a release of tension, or a deliberate 'and-two' two-count to the move...both work)
count 3: same as 2
count 4: down
3) oh press with pulse
Same idea as 2, but this time the pulse is at the bottom
ct.1 down
ct.2, up-down pulse
ct.3, up-down pulse
ct.4 up

I wanted to do a quick, down-and-dirty shoulder set the other day, focusing on the side delts, and I did these three exercises as a tri-set (first the 1-arm incline lateral raise, then the pulsing laterals, then the pulsing press). Try doing each move once (I did a 12 count for each set), then recover and repeat. Do as many of these trisets as you can stand.
 
Lynn,

Since I hurt my back a few months ago and haven't been able to lift as much over head as I was before (max 15, moving to 18lbs in each hand), I've been using various push ups as a pre-fatigue exercise and then going into the traditional weight work, so that I don't have to lift as heavy, or doing an entire hour of various push ups and pull/chin ups. So for shoulders I do decline to prefatigue. What about wide grip pull ups? They really target the medial delt. Even an attempt assisted works the shoulders. Since doing the X, I've consistently had them in my upper body routine. And you can't forget yoga. I think that body weight exercises are underrated, and extremely beneficial. I've been told by DH & DS, not to get the arms any bigger, so it has worked for me!

What else helped was doing not a split, but full upper 3x per week for 6 weeks or so. I varied the workouts and really increased dense muscle tissue. I know that is not what most do, but it did help to develop my arms.

Tracy
 
Kathryn-
Love the idea of the side incline bench lat raises, that is a great suggestion. Will be trying this next shoulder day. Would you say the bench should be around 45 degrees for this?

I did a pretty focused shoulder routine on Friday, with alot of variations on the lat raise. I also did my military presses on an incline bench. Both of those seems to hit that area a bit more, which was great.

Tracy-
Thanks for the suggestions on the Pullups/Pushups. I'm an X graduate too so I am with you on how effective they are. I do wide grip pullups, but I always felt like that targeted more of my anterior delts, maybe my form is off? I do them at the gym on an assisted pullup machine, which may account for the difference as well.

The other thing I'm going to start doing is some kickboxing arm drills. I've been doing other things for cardio lately, and may do some of that just for a little extra shoulder work.

Thank You!! :)

Lynn M.
 
>Kathryn-
>Love the idea of the side incline bench lat raises, that is a
>great suggestion. Will be trying this next shoulder day.
>Would you say the bench should be around 45 degrees for this?

That's about what I had it at, and it seemed to work well (though for variety, you can always vary doing it at 45 degrees, then a bit less or a bit higher).
 
If you do your lat raises on an incline, you're still focusing on rear or front delts (depending on which way you face) rather than rear delts.

IMO the traditional exercises (lat raises & military press) are the ones that will be most effective, you just have to find creative ways of mixing them up for them to be most effective.
 
Just a suggestion...you could also use the resistance band to do either two arm lateral raise or one arm lateral raise. The band really helps to focus on the muscle and you can get an awesome burn in the shoulders. ")

Kristen
 
Hi Kirsten-

I love lateral raises w/ the band, those DEFINITELY get a good burn going!!
I kind of forgot about those, since lately I've been going to the gym to do shoulder work.. maybe I need to put those back into the regimen for awhile!
Take care, Lynn M.
 
>If you do your lat raises on an incline, you're still
>focusing on rear or front delts (depending on which way you
>face) rather than rear delts

??? You're facing sideways, lying on the bench, so the side delt is working against gravity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top