The Ultimate Delt Program
The Ultimate Delt Program
The Unsung Hero of Physiques
When people rave about specific body parts, the two most common subjects are the arms and quads. The arms have always been the showpiece muscle that trainers of all levels are asked to flex and gladly oblige, and huge legs have taken on an almost mythic significance in recent decades. Plenty of folks appreciate thick pecs and the elusive rugged back. Oddly enough, the shoulders don’t seem to get anywhere near the glory of those other muscle groups. But make no mistake. You will never have an exceptional physique without wide, round, full deltoids with all three heads developed to the max. And if your delts are lagging, your physique will never have that look of overall impressive mass and power, and it sure won’t have a great V-taper. You need width in both the upper back and the shoulders to complete that coveted look. Your delts probably aren’t as good as they could be. I say that not to be judgmental or cruel— it’s just a fact. There are some things you need to know, and some techniques you should be implementing, that will help your shoulders reach their full potential. Let’s get to it.
All Three Heads Matter Equally
One fundamental fact you must take to heart is that all three heads of the deltoids— anterior, medial and posterior— must be given equal time and attention. Much of the time, trainers focus most on overhead presses. Presses are absolutely essential and form a foundation for overall mass. Guys also tend to enjoy them because they allow for the use of the most weight. Who doesn’t like to hoist up the big dumbbells or a bar or machine loaded up with 45s? But overhead presses work mainly the front delts, with some stimulation going to the medial heads. The rear delts don’t get any work at all. The typical shoulder routine of the average gym rat is a bunch of sets of presses, a few rounds of lateral raises and a wee bit of rear delt work, if any. Since everyone and their cousin loves to do heavy presses for the chest, this usually leads to shoulders that carry most of their development in the front, with some development in the sides— and a void where the rear delts should be, as if some flesh-eating bacteria consumed them. If any of this is hitting close to home, don’t worry. You’re in good company, and the good news is that this is a situation you can fix with some strategy and hard work. The goal should be “3-D delts” that are round and full from all angles. That’s what we are going to strive for.
Form Matters – A Lot
In any discussion about improving a lagging area, we must take a moment to remind ourselves how essential proper form is. John Meadows made an excellent point recently in MD when he noted that factors like working the muscle group in question more often, or even with the best possible workout routine for it, would fail to produce results if the form was poor. When your form is sketchy, the target muscle isn’t being activated properly. He used chest as an example, as poor technique in presses will often work more front delts and triceps than the pecs. So it is with the shoulders. Any type of lateral raise to the side or rear can easily be dominated by the traps and/or other muscles of the upper back, such as the rhomboids, teres major and teres minor. Ballistic form on overhead presses can work more of your nervous system and connective tissues than your actual deltoids. Maybe you have seen Olympic lifters who are able to pick up a heavy barbell and snap it to an overhead press position in the blink of an eye. They are all very athletically built, but you will notice that most are not as heavily muscled as bodybuilders. This is because they train explosively, and the muscles aren’t under tension long enough to stimulate a growth response. This is not to say that you should be doing your reps in slow motion, but you do need to do them at a speed where you are able to control the movement and most importantly, feel the target muscles contracting.
Direct Front Delt Work – Not Needed
There will be no direct front delt work in this program, for the simple reason that I have never seen weak front delts except in the case of guys who have absolutely no shoulder development at all. If you do any pressing at all for the chest and shoulders, you will get all the anterior delt work you need. Trust me on this.
Constructing the Ideal Shoulder Routine
Putting together the ideal shoulder routine is based on where most trainers go wrong. Firstly, the rear delts are almost always given short shrift, undertrained and practically ignored. This is why so few guys have decent development back there. So we always start with rear delts. Doing so will not take away from the rest of the workout. If anything, it will help serve as a nice general warm-up for the movements that follow. And by training the posterior delts when you are fresh, they will finally have the chance to grow to their full potential. After rear delts, we will move on to a free-weight pressing movement. Though we will also be doing a machine press at the very end, it always makes sense to do the barbell or dumbbell overhead press earlier on in the workout. As any workout goes on, your energy will ebb, and your balance and coordination begin to deteriorate. Following the free-weight press, we do two different exercises for the medial delts. And finally, we wrap it all up with a machine press to finish the workout with a killer overall deltoid pump.
The Side Delt ‘Bonus’ Workout
Sometimes, hitting a lagging muscle group twice a week is an effective way to help it grow. With shoulders, performing two full shoulder workouts a week would lead to overtraining in most people. You have to keep in mind that the front delts take a real beating on chest day, and the rear delts work hard on just about every back exercise. But that doesn’t mean you can’t give the side delts some extra attention. A few years ago, Victor Martinez told me how he used to do lateral raises after his chest workouts for just that reason. It makes a lot of sense. It’s those side heads that give you the round, “capped” look to the shoulders, so working them again on another day either before or after training a different body part can help you add more mass and fullness to them. When you choose to perform this “bonus” side deltoid routine is up to you, but you should make sure it’s at least 48 hours before or after your full shoulder workout. Otherwise, they will never have the chance to completely recover and grow.
The Workouts
There will be a total of four workouts to follow. You will alternate two different full shoulder routines from one workout to the next, and do the same with two different side delt “bonus” routines. You should strive to gradually increase the weights you use as the weeks go by, but never at the expense of form and even more importantly, feeling in the muscle. Presses are a compound movement that you won’t necessarily feel in quite the same way as the other exercises, but in all other movements you should focus on quality contractions and getting a nice, tight pump. Warm-ups are not shown, but always take the time to warm up as much as you need to. This is especially critical with your free-weight presses. Never launch into working weights on those without preceding them with at least two to three lighter sets.
Full Shoulder Routine A
Bent Dumbbell Lateral Raises 4 x 12
Rope Face Pulls 4 x 12
Seated Dumbbell Presses 4 x 12, 10, 8, 8
Dumbbell Lateral Raises 4 x 12
Wide-grip Barbell Upright Rows 4 x 12
Smith Machine Presses 4 x 12
Full Shoulder Routine B
Machine Rear Lateral Raises 4 x 12
One-arm Cable Rear Lateral Raises 4 x 12, each arm
Barbell Military Presses 4 x 12, 10, 8, 8
Machine Lateral Raises 4 x 12
Dumbbell Upright Rows 4 x 12
Machine Presses 4 x 12
Side Delt ‘Bonus’ Routine A
One-arm Cable Lateral Raises 4 x 12, each arm
Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises 7 x 10-12*
*FST-7 style, same weight and only 30 seconds between sets.
Side Delt ‘Bonus’ Routine B
Up and Down the Rack Laterals* 2 rounds
*Start with a pair of light dumbbells, doing 10-12 reps, and move up the rack without resting until you reach a weight you can only do for six to eight reps. Immediately reverse direction and grab lighter dumbbells, continuing until the pump is too much to bear and even light dumbbells are impossible to budge. The progression might look like this:
15 x 12
20 x 12
25 x 12
30 x 10
35 x 10
40 x 8
35 x 8
30 x 8
25 x 10
20 x 10
15 x 8
Rest three minutes, and do it all over again.
Fascial Stretching
Fascia is a tough connective tissue that encases the skeletal muscles, not unlike steel belting on radial automobile tires. In fact, on the molecular level, fascia is actually stronger than steel! It was Ohio’s John Parrillo who originally proposed over 30 years ago that fascia could serve to restrict muscle growth. To counter this limitation, he prescribed aggressive fascial stretches for each muscle group. Dante Trudel continued and expanded on this concept in his DC Training system. The scientific community has been debating the topic for years as well, with the main argument being whether it is the actual fascia itself that can be “stretched,” or rather fascial adhesions. Therapies such as Rolfing, myofascial release and even deep-tissue massage all supposedly contribute toward this effect as well. For our purposes, every one of these workouts should end with a shoulder stretch of 60 to 90 seconds. The easiest way to do this is to set a Smith machine bar at about hip level and face away from the bar. Grab the bar behind you with a shoulder-width, underhand grip, and then lean forward until you are on your knees and feel the deltoids stretching. Try to hold that stretch for 60 seconds. You may only get 30 or so the first couple of times you try it, but over time you’ll be able to hold it longer. Does this contribute to better growth in the delts? Anecdotal evidence from many bodybuilders over decades says it does, so it’s certainly worth a couple of extra minutes of your time.
Build Bigger Delts, Now!
Thicker, wider, rounder delts will make anyone’s physique appear more impressive. Follow these workouts as they are listed, and you will definitely see improvement in as soon as a few weeks’ time. After four to six months, you should notice a very real difference— and so will everyone else!
Form Pointers
All Overhead Presses:
Proper range of motion is to lower the bar, dumbbells or machine movement arms until your upper arms are parallel to the ground. Some insist on lowering until dumbbells touch their shoulders or the bar hits their clavicles. This is actually too far, and will overstretch your shoulder joints.
Dumbbell Lateral Raises:
Keep your hands slightly higher than your elbows as you bring the weights up. For some, the “pouring water out” motion at the top of the rep enhances the muscle contraction; for others, it does nothing. Experiment with light dumbbells to find the right form for you that allows you to feel the side delts contracting maximally.
Upright Rows:
The correct form for upright rows isn’t a straight upward pull, but rather an arcing motion of pulling up and back. Think about pulling the bar or dumbbells over your shoulders. Obviously that’s not possible, but it will put you in the proper plane of motion.
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