- 6 weeks ago
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00:00In this video, I'm showing you my top three shoulder exercises for round 3D delts.
00:04One exercise each for the front, side, and rear heads.
00:08And for some extra scientific credibility, I'm bringing in exercise scientist Dr. Mike Isretel,
00:12who's going to share his top three as well.
00:14Up first, front delts.
00:15Now, a very common mistake here is actually giving the front delts too much volume
00:19since they already get a lot of stimulation from any chest work in your program.
00:23In fact, this German study from the 1990s found that bodybuilders have five times the front delt size
00:28as non-lifters, but only three times the side delt size as non-lifters.
00:32So they often are overemphasized.
00:34Would you agree with that?
00:35Like side and rear are more important from a bodybuilding standpoint?
00:37I take that even more to an extreme perspective.
00:39I agree with that so much.
00:41I go overboard and I say rear delt training is overrated as well.
00:44If you're training your back properly, your rear delts should be very well developed.
00:48You can just pour a lot of volume into the side delts.
00:50And also visually, if you ever see someone who has big shoulders and you look at them,
00:54you're like, oh, those delts are really big.
00:56Almost in every case, it's the side delts that are actually very big.
00:58And the rear delts, of course, construct the rest of it.
01:01The front delts matter, but it's side delts that really count.
01:03So I think side delt training should be 70% to 90% of delt training.
01:07Wow.
01:07So while the side delts are clearly the most important,
01:09the other two heads still complete the 3D look.
01:12So let's start with the anterior or front head.
01:14My number one exercise here is a machine shoulder press.
01:17And that's simply because being seated increases stability,
01:21which will ensure virtually all the tension is being directed to the shoulders where you want it.
01:25And secondly, most people can push machine exercises closer to failure
01:28without worrying about dropping the weight or breaking technique.
01:31And I like this Panada machine in particular because it allows for a huge range of motion
01:35and a big stretch on the front delts and the bottom.
01:38So one thing I noticed training with Mike on his channel as well,
01:41he really, really emphasizes controlled technique and a deep stretch.
01:45And also in the stretch position, he tends to do a lot of pausing,
01:49which can be very humbling in terms of the amount of weight that you use.
01:53So that's something I actually don't typically do.
01:55I'm a little bit more of like a constant tension guy most of the time.
01:58So that's been really cool.
01:59I feel like I'll continue implementing some of that in my training.
02:01Oh, and another thing I like about this machine is that it's unilateral,
02:05meaning each shoulder is forced to work individually,
02:07which can be great for fixing any left to right shoulder imbalances.
02:10That feels really good.
02:11Doesn't it?
02:12Yeah.
02:12See?
02:13Yeah.
02:15Is that okay to say?
02:17I'll usually hit these for six to 10 reps.
02:18And of course, any decent shoulder press machine will get the job done.
02:21And if you don't have access to one,
02:23you can get a very similar effect with a seated dumbbell shoulder press,
02:26which is also unilateral and forces each shoulder to work individually.
02:29Okay.
02:30So Dr. Mike's number one pick for the front delts is an easy bar front raise.
02:34And he gave two reasons why.
02:35One of the reasons is that it gives a ton of motion to the front delts,
02:40a huge range of motion there.
02:41And also because it is an isolation exercise.
02:44And it's pretty rare to see for front delts.
02:46Most people choose a compound press, which is cool and all,
02:48but if your ticep volume is where it is, if your pecs are sore,
02:51if your shoulder joints are upset with you because you've been doing a lot of pressing,
02:54maybe the overhead press is not in the cards.
02:56If I wanted the maximum effect of something like this,
02:58I would actually do it on a free motion machine
03:00so that I could move my hand behind the plane of my body
03:03and get a huge stretch to the front delt.
03:05But a lot of people don't have access to a machine like that.
03:07And this is a fine alternative exercise.
03:09Okay.
03:09It's a similar thing.
03:10So the cues here is that you want to keep your chest up.
03:12If you cave your chest, you're not stretching your front delts as much.
03:15What you want to do is essentially, it's like a curl,
03:18except you never bend your elbows.
03:20So it just comes up all the way, nice and high.
03:23And then you milk the eccentric, and it's going to be hardest here,
03:27all the way down, chest up at the bottom.
03:30Ugh, goodbye front belts.
03:31Do you think it's dangerous to go beyond this point here?
03:34I think there's never been a reason to suspect that if you know anatomy.
03:38Right.
03:38Things that are causing joint pain tend to be not so great for the joints.
03:42But if you can do this without any joint pain,
03:44I mean, listen, if there's something from a cupboard you want that's up there,
03:48are you like, well, I would get it, but I don't want to be crippled for life.
03:51That's not the case.
03:52I think it's totally fine.
03:53And Mike explained that for these, he uses relatively higher reps in the 10 to 20 range,
03:57with a more explosive positive and a slow and controlled 4 to 5 second negative,
04:02especially maintaining control at the midpoint where tension is the highest.
04:06Finish resisting.
04:07Oh, wow.
04:09Very nice.
04:10Doesn't take a lot.
04:10Man, I'll say this.
04:11If people are cutting out this part, they're missing out on a lot.
04:16I would say the most effective part of this movement,
04:18generally there are some nuances here,
04:20is from 45 degrees to 135 degrees, here to here.
04:23So I can't lie, this is like the craziest front delt pump I think I've had possibly ever.
04:28Okay, so with front delts out of the way,
04:30we're hitting the most important head for 3D delts, the side delts.
04:33So I'm going to let you go first for side delts.
04:35What would be your number one?
04:36There are many number ones.
04:39You're my number one.
04:40So what's the number one, number one?
04:41Well, an exercise that I think is really top tier is what I call the super rom lateral,
04:46super engine motion lateral.
04:47Exactly like a lateral raise, just keep going.
04:50Okay.
04:51And at any point, do I do this or this?
04:53No, whatever.
04:53Just normal.
04:53Okay.
04:54So for me, this feels natural to kind of thumbs up it a little bit.
04:57Sure.
04:57Is that okay?
04:58Thumbs up it as little as possible on the way up.
05:00Okay.
05:01But try to keep your pinkies up.
05:02But if you run into stuff or it feels weird, you can thumbs up naturally.
05:05Doesn't feel weird.
05:05So you like this better?
05:06Yes, because then it activates the side delts.
05:08Yeah, yeah, for sure.
05:09And let me just explain that very briefly.
05:11If I thumb up it, you can see that the resistance path is in line with the front delt fibers.
05:16If I do this, now the resistance is in line with the side delt fibers.
05:21If you feel pain doing this, then consider going thumbs up.
05:23It might be better.
05:23Sure.
05:24But in my case, this feels great.
05:26Great.
05:27I love it.
05:27So why not?
05:28Mike recommends doing these for moderate to higher reps in the 10 to 20 range.
05:32And once again, really emphasizes good control on the negative on each and every rep.
05:36All right.
05:37So my number one side delt exercise is a cross body cable Y-raise.
05:41Most people, when they do lateral raises, go directly out to the side.
05:44There's nothing wrong with that.
05:45The main reason I like these is the stretch you get here.
05:48If you were going to stretch your side delt, you wouldn't just hold it here.
05:51You're not getting a ton of stretch here.
05:53If you pull it across your body, now you have more stretch on the delt.
05:57Also, most people think of the shoulders as having three distinct heads, the front,
06:00side, and rear.
06:01But anatomy research shows that are more like seven deltoid compartments, each having unique
06:05muscle fibers that fan out in slightly different directions.
06:08So hitting the delts from slightly different angles is more likely to make sure that all
06:12the fibers get hit evenly.
06:14And here's how I do that.
06:15I position my torso so that I feel that stretch come in on my side delt, and then I'll sweep
06:20the weight out and back, almost as if drawing and flicking a sword.
06:29So we feel the nice stretch, and then we're up, out, and back.
06:34Beautiful control, Jeff.
06:36That's awesome.
06:38Okay.
06:39Nice.
06:40Next, let's take a look at our top two exercises for the posterior head.
06:43Mike's number one pick here is a Super Rom reverse cable fly.
06:47I've actually never done them the way he coaches them, so I picked up on some really
06:50great cues.
06:51A couple of really important cues here.
06:52First, you want to go past your hand connection.
06:56Yep, just like that.
06:57People say, well, wouldn't that create asymmetries?
06:59Totally.
07:00But you just, every other set, what you're going to do is you're going to switch your
07:03hands, which one goes off the bottom.
07:05And a big thing is you want generally to keep your elbows locked out so that you can make
07:10sure it's all real delts.
07:11You will not be able to use as much load that way, but minimizing the load while maximizing
07:15muscle involvement is a really good thing.
07:17And here's a big one.
07:18Further back, Jeff.
07:19Go ahead and pull all the way back.
07:21Yes.
07:21And here, we get a peak contraction to the muscle.
07:25You can feel the burn accumulating while you do it.
07:27And then slowly peel that muscle out on the way back.
07:30So it's a really good thing to really crunch at the top.
07:33It won't cost you a ton of reps because it's easy there, but you'll connect to that rear
07:37delt.
07:38Typically, I would stop about here probably, but now I'm going to here.
07:43Yeah.
07:44And that extra bit.
07:45Yeah.
07:46Makes it way harder.
07:48Here's the best part.
07:49They actually start to accumulate metabolites.
07:51They hurt more and more in that position.
07:52You take that pain and you go, okay, I know exactly where my rear delts are because they
07:57hurt there.
07:57And then I slowly arc out and it's madness and I hate it and then it stretches like crazy.
08:02And then the whole thing starts again.
08:04That's right.
08:05And my top pick for the rear delts is the reverse pec deck.
08:08And honestly, Dr. Mike gave me the single best cue I've ever heard for this exercise.
08:13Here, the cue will massively reduce how much you're lifting, but will hit that target muscle
08:18better.
08:18For a good rear delt training, you want to reach forward really far.
08:22Also, you'll notice it pre-stretches the rear delts.
08:25You're not pulling.
08:26You're arcing out to try to paintbrush as far of a distance as you possibly can.
08:31Punch forward.
08:33Yes.
08:33And then sweep out.
08:36Paintbrush out as much as you can.
08:37It's like if you imagine that there is like you're standing on top of a pile of money and
08:42there's a camera measuring, you get to keep all of the money you do this with your hands.
08:47Yes, let's go.
08:48And I'm just going to show my last two reps here.
08:50And notice that at no point do I allow myself to pull my arms in.
08:53I'm sweeping my arms out and painting as much of the floor as I can on each and every rep.
08:58And then as if another, as if you're going to do another.
09:01One thing since I've been training with Mike a little bit that I've heard you say quite
09:05a bit is as if you're going to do another.
09:07I really like that cue because it forces you to be intentional with that last negative.
09:11Yes.
09:11Do it as if you're going to do another one.
09:13So you're controlling, controlling, controlling.
09:15Pause.
09:16Now you're done.
09:16And then let go.
09:17And that last negative may be one of the most muscle growth promoting portions of any rep
09:22you will ever do in any set.
09:24So why skip that?
09:25A lot of guys go all the way up and they go, uh, and it's like, oh, you went so,
09:28so good.
09:29So close.
09:30You're so close.
09:32There are tons of off-camera analogies to make, but I know you run a nice, wholesome
09:35channel and I will just shut up now.
09:37One, two, three, four.
09:39One, two, three, four.
09:39One, two, three, four.
09:40One, two, three, four.
09:42Who are you?
09:43Are you the powered by ice cream fella?
09:45That's me.
09:46You're an old fan.
09:47Again, you don't have to go hard or anything like that, but just, just so we have some B-Rule.
09:52Then I have to go home?
09:53Because like, you're, you're kind of, you're kind of locked into something.
09:55Just do what the machine says.
09:57Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:58I used to do a lot of standing barbell overhead pressing.
10:01Yeah, I know.
10:02And I got to a.
10:03I follow you.
10:04A lot of straight.
10:04Oh, thanks.
10:06Is that guy actually Thor?
10:08Sweet.
10:09We're on a desert island with all these machines.
10:12We have to do a front-delt exercise.
10:14What one do you pick?
10:15This is a very highly-equipped desert island.
10:18So if you're stopping from here to here, it's like, what, this whole other part, it's
10:22like eating half a slice of pizza and throwing the other half away.
10:25That's a common comment.
10:26Won't it hit your junk on the way down?
10:27Like, yes, if you're wildly uncoordinated and you deserve to have a junk destroyer.
10:31One more?
10:32Yeah, do one from the rear.
10:35And then slow on the way down is a big one.
10:37Okay, I'm gonna get the sleeves up.
10:40Oh, shit.
10:41Oh, shit.
10:42Did you see that?
10:42I changed my mind.
10:43Slow, right away, slow.
10:44Slow.
10:44And then slow.
10:45Slow.
10:46Slow.
10:47Slow.
10:48Slow.
10:49I want to give a big thank you to Mike.
10:51His channel is called Renaissance Periodization.
10:53He does all kinds of videos exactly like this, just really cool tips and cues and tweaks that
10:58I don't think you'll hear on any other channel.
11:00I also want to give a quick shout out to the gym, Pure Muscle and Fitness.
11:02They let us film here.
11:03They even turned the music down for us, so I really appreciate that.
11:06Thank you guys so much for watching.
11:07Don't forget to leave us a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and I'll see you guys all here
11:10in the next video.
11:11I'll see you guys then.
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