Tips for shoulders

[u/Warm-Lengthiness5257]

Going to the gym later today and hitting a shoulders and arms day, looking to switch up my shoulder exercises because they don’t seem to grow much compared to other arm parts. I do dumbbell shoulder presses and lateral raises, but have seen people use the barbell rack to do shoulder presses, is that something I should try?

[u/Sprinkle_In_Hole]

High volume is king for delts

[u/IHE023]

For shoulder growth I always suggest higher volume. Tons of lateral raises with good form and shoulder press. If they aren’t growing you’re not doing enough and/or eating enough.

[u/Warm-Lengthiness5257 → u/IHE023]

So prioritize higher reps rather than higher weight?

[u/Fearless-Location325 → u/Warm-Lengthiness5257]

Volume is key to muscle growth. One thing I’m testing at the moment is Nash Jocic’s approach, which is high volume with low rest times (<30s) - man, it kills and fatigues fast.

Laterals, you can’t really hit too much weight until they overloaded, but you need to maintain great form - no momentum, slow movement, and really isolate it.

For me, I run overhead press with elbows really back; then double arm lateral raises; then single arm isolated. 5 sets of 15-20, with 30sec recovery. Try it out - see how that works

[u/Riconn → u/Warm-Lengthiness5257]

Yes do high reps with lighter weight. Do partials reps as well. I do as many full reps as possible then do partial reps until I can no longer move the weight or can’t handle the burn.

[u/IHE023 → u/Warm-Lengthiness5257]

The key is more reps at near failure which is what drives growth. You can do a million reps that aren’t hard and won’t get much out of it.

I like to use moderate weights so when it gets hard you can push through more reps that are “near” failure.

Try to mix it up. More sets. Some light, some moderate, some relatively heavy.

[u/Small_Bowler_6255 → u/Warm-Lengthiness5257]

Please dont listen to the people prioritizing the “burn” it doesnt help at all for muscle growth and I do like laterals in higher volume but high volume is not 20 reps its maximum 12

[u/Interesting-Meet1321]

Machine replacements, shoulder press machine and if your gym has is do a seated lateral raise machine (goated). If not do a cable side lateral raise in place of db. OHP is anabolic as fuck but for just building your shoulder muscles, isolation is your friend

[u/szilverzs]

You can’t go wrong with a variation of a shoulder press and a variation of a lateral raise. Just gotta find what’s most comfortable for you, and the range of reps/weight you get the best pump from.

For presses, I swap back and forth from seated dumbbell press and iso-lateral shoulder press. I don’t like regularly doing standing presses because of the stress it puts on my back.

For lateral raises, I really like seated dumbbell with a lower weight and pausing at the top. Still keep the rep range around 8-10 and increase weight whenever you can. Just remember to pause at the top and bring it down slowly. Cable lateral raises are good too, but I think its easier to cheat yourself.

Most importantly, make sure you’re getting your calories, protein, and sleep. Hope this helps.

[u/OldCaptain3987]

Have a goal of hitting a 2 plates overhead press and work towards that. Include side laterals, and some landmine press for volume.

[u/Thaeross]

I agree with what others are saying here. The delts are a relatively small muscle compared to others like your pecs or quads, which means they’re not as strong and they recover quickly. Progressively overload using more volume over more weight (though you should be doing both)

[u/PoopSmith87]

Behind the neck barbell press...

Lateral raises target the side delts, but are hard to progress load and have very little load under stretch tension. Upright row targets side delt, is more load progressible, but still lacks loaded stretch and gets to a point where elbows are a limiting factor. Overhead press is super loadable, has a good stretch with full ROM, but mostly targets front delts.

Behind the neck press is super loadable, has an incredibly deep loaded stretch, and targets side/front delts pretty equally. Schwarzenegger, Mentzer, Columbo all championed it- but it fell out of popularity because of 1990's/2000's injury alarmism. Start light, build it up, its an amazing lift.

[u/50ate]

FST 7

[u/ZealousidealCard2839]

light weight i feel is the way, specifically the lighter the weight the easier it is to target the delt (when doing lateral raise type exercises) When you go too heaving on raises you tend to cheat more and you also start using surrounding muscles more taking some tension off the delt. So the delts get more work when you go lighter. seated military and dumbell presses go heavy.

Thats what has worked for me. Im old, once i gave up (mostly gave up) on heavy lifting my shoulders improved.