What are your opinions on hypertrophy for the medial delts by doing military presses?
(I´m not a fan of lateral raises)
[quote]trap_builder wrote:
(I�´m not a fan of lateral raises)[/quote]
why?
Minimally effective in my opinion.
I get much better bang for the buck with laterals.
[quote]trap_builder wrote:
What are your opinions on hypertrophy for the medial delts by doing military presses?
(I�´m not a fan of lateral raises)[/quote]
Have you tried heavy partial lateral raises?
I experience a sick pump performing those.
I hate laterals as well, but here’s a trick for working the medial delts. Try doing laterals while laying on a bench. This completely shifts the difficulty of the lift from the top (when standing) to the bottom (when laying) of the lift. I personally felt this more in the lower part of the medial delt.
This is also useful if you have shoulder impingement issues (sometimes a barrier on standing laterals)
[quote]MarcF wrote:
I hate laterals as well, but here’s a trick for working the medial delts. Try doing laterals while laying on a bench. [/quote]
I can’t picture this. Can you help me?
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
[quote]MarcF wrote:
I hate laterals as well, but here’s a trick for working the medial delts. Try doing laterals while laying on a bench. [/quote]
I can’t picture this. Can you help me?
[/quote]
Rear delts maybe? Seems like a rear delt destroyer type
Pressed for years, had no medial delts. Started doing laterals, grew medial delts almost overnight.
Pressing is awesome. I am constantly tempted to abandon all benching and focus entirely on pressing. However, it is what it is, and medial delt builder isn’t one of the things it is.
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
[quote]MarcF wrote:
I hate laterals as well, but here’s a trick for working the medial delts. Try doing laterals while laying on a bench. [/quote]
I can’t picture this. Can you help me?
[/quote]
I do these on on incline. You can imagine this on a flat bench too. Maximum downward force at start of movement, as MarcF was saying.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Pressing is awesome. I am constantly tempted to abandon all benching and focus entirely on pressing. However, it is what it is, and medial delt builder isn’t one of the things it is.[/quote]
how has pressing benefitted you?
[quote]TheCB wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Pressing is awesome. I am constantly tempted to abandon all benching and focus entirely on pressing. However, it is what it is, and medial delt builder isn’t one of the things it is.[/quote]
how has pressing benefitted you?[/quote]
I was able to take first in my last competition’s press medley based on years of pressing. I’ve been a pretty good presser in most comps.
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
I do these on on incline. You can imagine this on a flat bench too. Maximum downward force at start of movement, as MarcF was saying.
[/quote]
Got it, thank you. I’ve done these holding on to a rack; we called them “lean aways”
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]TheCB wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Pressing is awesome. I am constantly tempted to abandon all benching and focus entirely on pressing. However, it is what it is, and medial delt builder isn’t one of the things it is.[/quote]
how has pressing benefitted you?[/quote]
I was able to take first in my last competition’s press medley based on years of pressing. I’ve been a pretty good presser in most comps.[/quote]
sorry, to be clearer:
aside from being good at pressing in comps, if it hasn’t grown your mid delts, what do you feel the benefits have been (e.g it’s been a good tricep builder or whatever).
[quote]TheCB wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
[quote]TheCB wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
Pressing is awesome. I am constantly tempted to abandon all benching and focus entirely on pressing. However, it is what it is, and medial delt builder isn’t one of the things it is.[/quote]
how has pressing benefitted you?[/quote]
I was able to take first in my last competition’s press medley based on years of pressing. I’ve been a pretty good presser in most comps.[/quote]
sorry, to be clearer:
aside from being good at pressing in comps, if it hasn’t grown your mid delts, what do you feel the benefits have been (e.g it’s been a good tricep builder or whatever).
[/quote]
I don’t really have another reason to do them, haha. They make you strong in a brutal way. I suppose they probably help with the front delts too, since mine are big on my frame.
For me the best exercise for the medial delts are cable side laterals using the ankle leather cuffs. Cross the cable in fornt or behind you so the right arm uses the left cable and vice versa. I gives you max tension at the beginning of the movement, something dumbbells can’t do.
Want max tension at the contracted position? Use a narrower cable station or one arm at the time, and position so you have a vertical line in the cable when your arm is parallel to the floor, just nect to the rack.
With cables you have the biggest tension/force on the working muscle when the line of the cable is 90 degrees to the arm or leg, so you can adjust if you want max tension at the stretched or contracted position. Just try it out on different exercises and see for yourself.
I’ve seen improvement in my lateral deltoids from military pressing, but not the “standing incline press” version many people use.
If the barbell stays somewhere between the center of the head and the the back of the head when it’s overhead, the lateral delts will be hit fairly well. The head must be in line with the spine though, not pushed forward.
I’ve seen results with both seated Z Presses, and standing behind-the-neck presses with limited ROM. With the second, I’d bring the bar down no further than the top of the ears. In both of those, the bar is pushed overhead and back. This shifts the load from the front delts to the lateral delts.
It takes a lot of shoulder mobility, thoracic spine mobility, and body awareness to do that, and still can risk impingement if you’re not careful with the ROM.
As a shoulder builder, lateral raises are probably better.
Partial wide-grip upright rows also work decently well. Just bring the bar up until your elbows are in line with your shoulders, hold it for a few seconds, then lower. You want your hands to be directly under your elbows at the top.
The enigmatic and occassional victim to false allegations of sexual misconduct, Mr Walkway, once wrote a wonderful essay on lifting for bodybuilding where he coined the phrase “locking out with the delts” on overhead pressing.
Granted, you don’t actually use the delts to lockout, it is a pretty good mental cue to maximise side delt involvement if you adamant on not doing side raises.
[quote]dt79 wrote:
The enigmatic and occassional victim to false allegations of sexual misconduct, Mr Walkway, once wrote a wonderful essay on lifting for bodybuilding where he coined the phrase “locking out with the delts” on overhead pressing.
Granted, you don’t actually use the delts to lockout, it is a pretty good mental cue to maximise side delt involvement if you adamant on not doing side raises.[/quote]
Never saw that, but just found it: What I've Picked Up Along The Way - Competitive Bodybuilding - Forums - T Nation
lol, that’s the annoying thing about Walkway. When he’s not being a douche he actually does know an awful lot about bodybuilding
That Walkaway thread is a great read.