How to build shoulders your bros will admire

The shoulders are one of the most important body parts when it comes to building a great physique. Especially the side delts help build the v-taper and give the arms that extra oomph. In this article, we will help you with what you need to know to build those boulder shoulders.

The deltoid contains three heads. The anterior in the front, the medial in the middle, and the posterior in the back. They play an important role in both stabilizing and movements of the arms. strengthening the three heads can be helpful for not only aesthetic reasons but also for well-being and performance. On top of this, the shoulder is often an undertrained muscle group.

Front delts

The front delt is the part of the shoulder that sees the most action and often does not need any isolated training to grow. The reason for this is that both pressing from the chest and shoulder highly utilize the front delt.

Volume

The front delt most likely does not need any direct work to be maintained or grow on a program containing a sufficient amount of chest volume and for most people, their maximal recoverable volume is between 12-16 sets/week of direct training sets if one chooses to do so.

Rep ranges

Front delts can be trained in both the 5-10, 10-20, and 20-30 rep ranges without problems. Compound presses such as bench presses and shoulder presses likely work best in the lower rep range, while dumbbell work and isolation work can be done in the mid-range. Finally, isolation works can be done for up to 30 reps if someone has the patience for so many reps.

Exercises

For most people presses from the chest, such as bench press or dumbbell bench press will be enough training to stimulate growth in the front delts and it would be completely reasonable to leave direct front delt training out of a program. However, here is a couple of choice for those who want a little extra for the front delts

Isolation

The choices for isolation work on the front delts are mainly front raises. The exercises are probably best trained in the 10-20 and 20-30 rep ranges. High-quality movement, tempo, and getting a pump should be the main goal. Progress should most likely focus on increasing reps and only increasing weight when the top of a rep range is reached.

Compound

Both the barbell bench press and shoulder press train the front delts very well. They both are likely best used in the 5-10 rep range for the largest possible stimuli. The dumbbell variations of the lifts work just as well but are likely better at higher rep ranges due to their stability demands. Since most programs usually have some kind of benching this is usually enough to train the front dels.

Side delts

The side delts are the muscle that gives the shoulder that round death star look. It is hugely important for the v-taper and is also often underdeveloped in the average trainee. This is because generally compound exercises do not work the side delt very well.

Volume

The side delts do not get a lot of work from compound exercises, for most people. This also means that they can take on a lot of direct work. The side delts can be maintained with around 6 sets/week of direct work and 8 sets/week is enough to stimulate growth.

The side delts are also fairly small muscle and usually recovers quite fast. This means that depending on frequency maximal recoverable volume can be as much as 25 sets/week and all the way up to 40 sets/week. However, we do recommend that one starts with lower doses between 10-20 sets/week, before trying anything crazy.

Rep ranges

Most people will not be able to train the side delts in the 5-10 rep range efficiently and we thus recommend that most work is done in the 10-20 and 20-30 rep range. On top of this side delts often benefit a lot from very controlled training which might not be as easy for the more disruptive lower rep ranges. Due to the ability to tolerate high volumes the side delts might also benefit from the use of intensity techniques.

Exercises

The side delts receive very little stimuli from compound lifts in general. Even the shoulder press will not be a solid choice for building big side delts. Instead one will have to rely mostly if not completely on isolation work.

Lateral raises

Lateral raises are going to be stable in any program that aims to build bigger side delts. The exercise is likely executed best with at least 10+ reps/set, with lighter weight and more focus on feeling the muscle.
Lateral raises can be performed in many different ways. Performing them seated can increase the focus on strict movement and adding a tempo will especially help to hit the side delt more efficiently. On top of this, the side delt might benefit uniquely from the use of cables, due to the way gravity works. Due to the vector force of gravity dumbbell, lateral raises won't work much at the bottom half of the rep, where the side delt is strongest. This can be remedied by using cables or machines made for training the side delt.

Upright rows

Upright rows are another great choice and might be the closest you can get to a compound exercise that targets the side delts directly. It can probably be done heavier and with fever, reps that the lateral raise. But it is also great between 10-20 reps/set and maybe even higher.

Two common problems with the upright row are that it can bother some people's shoulders and sometimes also the wrists. For this reason, like with all exercises, it is recommended to add volume and intensity slowly to build tolerance. But more acute strategies can also be employed. Using straps can help the wrists and if raising the bar above the shoulders hurt, getting to shoulder level is more than sufficient. However other people might be able to tolerate extreme ranges of motion and less weight but moving the bar all the way to the nose might work great as well.

Rear delts

The rear delts are right between the front and medial delts in terms of training. They get a lot of volume from all pulling training, such as pull-ups and rows, but can also take quite a beating themselves.

Volume

As with the front delts, it is likely possible to maintain the rear delts by just doing pulling training and no direct training is needed to maintain the rear delts. To reach minimal effective volume the rear delts needs around 6 sets for most people and they can take between 18 and up 35 sets per week depending on frequency.

Rep ranges

Outside of pulling training the rear delts are most likely trained best at the higher rep ranges and sets with 10-20 and 20-30 reps most likely works the best. Focusing on tempo and pump is likely the best way to go since heavier-pulling exercise supply plenty of disruption.

Exercises

Most pulling exercises such as rows and pull-ups will give plenty of stimulus to the rear delts. Training them directly is probably best done with higher reps and with more focus on the mind-muscle connection.

Face pulls

Face pulls are almost a meme at this point, but they are a great choice for the rear delts. They are great at higher reps such as 20-30 reps/set. With a slow tempo and with a great focus on the stretch at both ends of the range of motion.

Bentover lateral raises

Bentover lateral raises can be a tricky exercise and most likely benefit from lighter weight and higher reps than most people expect. It can be an absolute killer at higher reps though.

Training modalities

As with any other body parts standard sets across and down sets will work great for training the delts. The largest part of training should probably consist of such sets. However, due to the resilient nature of the delts, it might also be beneficial to employ intensity techniques to get more approaches to failure.

Myoreps

To perform a set of myoreps find a weight where 14-16 reps can be performed. When the set is done rest for 5 breaths or 30 sec and perform another set. This mini-set should be of no less than 3-5 reps. Repeat this until 5 sets have been performed or less than 3 reps can be performed.

Supersets

A superset is the combination of two exercises, such that after the first set is done, one immediately starts the next set. This is often done with antagonistic muscle groups to save time. But it can also be done with two exercises that work the same muscle. For example, do a set of lateral raises and then immediately do a set of upright rows. The upright rows might have to be pretty light.

Drop sets

A drop set is when a set is performed and then 10% of the weight is dropped to do another set immediately, one can then continue as far as one isn't just flailing the weight about.