Shoulder training tips for noobs

[RealNinja]

This forum places a lot of emphasis on shoulder training, and rightfully so. Big delts are very important for building an aesthetic physique and enhancing your V taper. This thread is just a few tips and tricks on shoulder training technique for those who are new to the gym, so if you’re bigger than me do whatever you want. I don’t consider myself big by any means but Ive put a lot of work into my delts and think ive done a decent job at filling them out, with the exception of rear delts needing some work. This is my current physique at 17 years old and around a year of consistent lifting.

FRONT DELTS

• I almost exclusively do incline pressing for chest with the exception of dips for warm ups/finishers. If you’re doing 10-20 sets a week of incline bench for chest you will see pretty good front delt growth from that alone but you should shoulder press anyways.
• Avoid cheating with your upper chest on seated shoulder presses. A lot of guys set the bench at too low of an incline and arch/lean back too much which lessens the shoulder stimulus you get from the exercise. Keep the bench close to a 90 degree angle. Retract your scapula for stability but don’t use a big arch.
• When doing barbell/smith machine shoulder presses keep the bar path close to your face. When you’re pressing, the bar should come down to around your clavicles at the bottom.
• Get strong with your shoulder pressing. Work towards being able to barbell press a plate with good form. Incorporate heavy sets of 4-6 reps in addition to lighter sets of 10-12.
• Don’t tuck your elbows too much when you’re doing dumbbell shoulder pressing. Keeping them flared out to your sides instead of inwards = more front and side delt involvement.
• Full range of motion, all the way down and all the way up. Work on developing a mind muscle connection with your delts. On the way down keep your upper back still and feel your delts stretch under the weight. Go all the way up and squeeze them.

SIDE DELTS

• Volume. Side delts love volume. Use low weight, high reps, and go crazy with the sets. The classic “spam lateral raises” advice is legit. Every time I train shoulders I do 5-7 sets of lateral raises to complete failure, sometimes using drop sets. Some weeks I have done like 20-25 sets of lateral raises to failure and they recovered fine and grew faster.
• Train to FAILURE. Do not fucking stop the set when you can’t get the weight all the way up, or even halfway up. Keep the set going until you can’t move your arms an inch. Learn to tolerate the burn and keep going.
• Dumbbell lateral raises with good form are great. Classic DB laterals feel the best for me and give me the best pump. “Muh constant tension bro” I’m not saying you shouldn’t do cable laterals or machine laterals if those let you connect with your delts better, I just prefer dumbbells. This goes for any muscle by the way. Dont worry about what YouTubers say you should do, always do exercises that give you the best pump and make you most sore.
• When you do DB laterals, lock your shoulder blades in place to avoid cheating with the traps. Don’t shrug the weight up, the movement should come from your shoulders only. When I do lateral raises I flare my lats to keep my scapulae still.
• I do lateral raises with the dumbbells held near my pockets. Slight bend in the arm. Lean your torso forward a bit and raise the dumbbells until your arms are parallel with the ground. Feel your delt squeeze and feel the blood pumping into it with each rep. Control it on the way down. I’m not one of these faggots doing a 5 second eccentric but always control the weight.
• Incorporate behind the neck pressing if you’re able to do it safely. High rep behind the neck press is amazing for delts all around. I use a smith machine for these. Warm up well, do a bunch of reps with bar only, and add weight slowly. If you feel pain then don’t do it but if you can, then start doing these. You can go heavy but that starts giving me rotator cuff pain so I recommend 8-12 reps on this. Grip wide with your elbows flared, upper arm should be parallel to the ground. Go all the way down until the bar touches your traps. High rep sets of BTN press will make your delts BURN.

REAR DELTS

• Rear delts can handle a good amount of isolation volume as well, just account for any elbows-flared rowing you’re doing for upper back. These tend to hit rear delts pretty good.
• Facepulls are a good exercise for mobility and injury prevention purposes but I prefer dumbbell flies and reverse pec deck for rear delt growth.
• I like to do rear delt flies sitting on a bench, leaning over. Torso not completely parallel to the ground, still sitting up a bit. Some guys like to do these with their arms all the way out, like a T shape. I find that my rear delts contract harder when I do flies bringing the dumbbell out at an angle, like this:

(This drawing is supposed to be a top-down view of the exercise from behind; by the way. JFL at my drawing skills)

But like anything, this is individual. So try different positions until you find one you like. Do the rear delts fly with one hand and play around with arm position while using your other hand to feel where your rear delt contracts the hardest.

• Always go to failure with rear delts too. When I’m doing dumbbell rear delt flies and I can’t get the weight up properly, I bend my elbows and start “rowing” the dumbbells to take my rear delts to failure.
• Do dumbbell rear delt flies light until you get the form down. Very easy to cheat with your traps.
• Reverse pec deck is another good rear delt isolation. Sit on the pad with a slight forward lean. Keep your chest sticking up. Hold the handles with a slight bend in your arm and go back until your upper arm is parallel with your torso. Squeeze the rear delts. Control the eccentric. For me personally I find that it helps me not cheat with my traps when my arms aren’t completely straight on these. Let your shoulders move freely, don’t tense your entire upper back.

 

[taxidrivermaxxer]

read every molecule, good guide

 

[autistic_tendencies]

Always be squeezing and contracting throughout the whole movement
Use less weight if you have to

 

[Mr.Proper]

If you have a weak rotator cuff plus anatomical predisposition, spamming shoulder exercises can screw things for a long time. Be careful and do rotator cuff exercises with elastic bands and small weights, also "face pulls" and hanging on a bar.