Do you spend equal time working your rear, lateral, and front delts? I’ve been doing lateral side raises and shoulder presses, and am wondering if I need to add an equal amount of front shoulder work each week. I know a lot of guys only do shoulder presses, but how important is it to isolate front and rear shoulders as well?
I spend more time doing side and rear delts. I figure my front heads get a ton of work from all of the heavy chest work I do. Sure I do include pressing movements, but they are usually relegated towards the end of my shoulder sessions.
S
I agree with Stu. People usually get too much work on front delt from various exercises, not to mention injury potential (from personal experience).
What is the proper way to do rear delt raises with dumbbells? I need a better mind-muscle connection.
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
What is the proper way to do rear delt raises with dumbbells? I need a better mind-muscle connection.[/quote]
Whatever way gives you your connection is the right way. There are too many ways and variables for there to be one “right way”.
[quote]cueball wrote:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
What is the proper way to do rear delt raises with dumbbells? I need a better mind-muscle connection.[/quote]
Whatever way gives you your connection is the right way. There are too many ways and variables for there to be one “right way”.[/quote]
I’m not even sure if I even need to do direct rear delt work because I do heavy rows every time and they supposedly hit the rear delt…
cable rows 170 for 3x10 for example
for side delts today I did dumbbell raises with 37.5 lbs (2.5 pounds attached via chain to the dumbbell) for 3x10 then 35 lbs for 1x10. I’ll move up to 40s next time.
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
What is the proper way to do rear delt raises with dumbbells? I need a better mind-muscle connection.[/quote]
Check out that video (especially at around 3:50), it might help you out.
I didn’t watch the Cook video, but I like to take a relatively light weight (I’ve never gone above 25’s!), face down on an incline bench, and KEEPING MY THUMBS POINTED DOWN THE ENTIRE TIME, do a very strict movement, keeping my elbows straight (to help eliminate any back muscle assistance), and doing a very limited ROM (maybe about 75% of what I could do) in order to keep a constant stress on the small muscle that is your posterior delt head.
S
Can someone comment on side lateral raise form? There seem to be two schools - one to use lighter weight and use a straight arm and another to use a heavier weight and have the arm bent in.
What i am doing is bent arm.
Straight arm (Look at 2m50s)
bent arm
I like the heavier weight, bit more body english Lateral Raise - the super strict with lighter weight has never done it for me
I think both have their place. Lately I’ve been starting with seriously strict db laterals, and then after a few sets (serving as almost a pre-exhaust), I go on to 1 arm leaning away laterals, with much heavier DBs and a slight bend in my elbows.
S
Charles Glass is really good on the lateral raise. You have to lead with the upper arm – it should be above the forearm in the movement, with arms straight to the side, no body english. If you bring the weight in front, with arms bent, and swing it up, it becomes more of a rotator cuff move IMO. Hell, it works for Branch though – but I find guys going up to 60, 70 lbs on this move is ridiculous. It’s just ego.
[quote]Sexxxton wrote:
Charles Glass is really good on the lateral raise. You have to lead with the upper arm – it should be above the forearm in the movement, with arms straight to the side, no body english. If you bring the weight in front, with arms bent, and swing it up, it becomes more of a rotator cuff move IMO. Hell, it works for Branch though – but I find guys going up to 60, 70 lbs on this move is ridiculous. It’s just ego.[/quote]
Do they have big shoulders?
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
[quote]cueball wrote:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
What is the proper way to do rear delt raises with dumbbells? I need a better mind-muscle connection.[/quote]
Whatever way gives you your connection is the right way. There are too many ways and variables for there to be one “right way”.[/quote]
I’m not even sure if I even need to do direct rear delt work because I do heavy rows every time and they supposedly hit the rear delt…
cable rows 170 for 3x10 for example
for side delts today I did dumbbell raises with 37.5 lbs (2.5 pounds attached via chain to the dumbbell) for 3x10 then 35 lbs for 1x10. I’ll move up to 40s next time.
[/quote]
You do rows with 170 and side laterals with 37.5?
[quote]SMF wrote:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
[quote]cueball wrote:
[quote]celtics2022 wrote:
What is the proper way to do rear delt raises with dumbbells? I need a better mind-muscle connection.[/quote]
Whatever way gives you your connection is the right way. There are too many ways and variables for there to be one “right way”.[/quote]
I’m not even sure if I even need to do direct rear delt work because I do heavy rows every time and they supposedly hit the rear delt…
cable rows 170 for 3x10 for example
for side delts today I did dumbbell raises with 37.5 lbs (2.5 pounds attached via chain to the dumbbell) for 3x10 then 35 lbs for 1x10. I’ll move up to 40s next time.
[/quote]
You do rows with 170 and side laterals with 37.5?[/quote]
I find cable rows a lot harder than t-bar which i used to do 255x10. Havent done them in a while, though.
Anyway, I do my side laterals very much like dennis Wolfe at 3:20
Ok. That cleared things up for me.
[quote]forlife wrote:
Do you spend equal time working your rear, lateral, and front delts? I’ve been doing lateral side raises and shoulder presses, and am wondering if I need to add an equal amount of front shoulder work each week. I know a lot of guys only do shoulder presses, but how important is it to isolate front and rear shoulders as well?[/quote]
I think if you are already doing lat raises and shoulder presses you are already hitting the front of your shoulders pretty well (when combined with your other pressing work).
For rear delts, I really like face pulls too. Really light, keeping the elbows high and chest up.
PS: Damn’t! I had to break the 666 post limit to type this!
One of the best things I did for my shoulders was begin every workout with rear delts. Most people don’t work them at all or consider them one of those “afterthought” muscles, but I think this mentality is a huge mistake.
Another big thing for me was turning DB lateral raises (an exercise that I never really could get the hang of/see any progress from) into more of a lateral raise + upright row hybrid exercise.
So yes, I try to find ways to work all three heads equally.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
Another big thing for me was turning DB lateral raises (an exercise that I never really could get the hang of/see any progress from) into more of a lateral raise + upright row hybrid exercise.
[/quote]
Could your describe this in more detail, Mr. Popular?
Are you saying that you start with the palm facing your side and then rotate the palm back behind you with elbow bending out and then up like the upright row?
I would describe it as a mix between a DB upright row, and an L-lateral raise I guess. You always hear the typical advice with lateral raises to “think about raising your elbows” during the movement, and I took that very literally and turned it into more of a power movement that I feel is much easier on the shoulders than a typical BB upright row.
I start with my elbows slightly bent and my hands in front of my thighs, and then I row the dumbbells upwards while simultaneously spreading out my arms. The finishing position would look something like forearm to upper arm at 90 degrees to each other, upper arms forming a straight line through the torso, dumbbells at the same height or just slightly below the elbows.
It’s very similar to the form you can see here:
Except I like to do it a little… “prettier” lol. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but I like to do it as less of a featherless bird flapping it’s wings motion, and more of a delt row.
Hope this helps.