What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today I want to try to help you grow bigger delts.
Now, you're going to have to promise that you'll trust the advice I'm giving you.
If you do, I am guaranteeing you that you're going to see results from what I'm telling
you.
Now, I'm a big advocate of heavy overhead pressing.
We work overhead pressing into everything we do.
There's a value when you're training athletes to be better and more explosive at training
overhead with heavier weights.
When you're trying to grow bigger delts, specifically hypertrophy your delts, your heavy weights
are likely going to be the enemy.
The enemy, because what's happens is it invites the opportunity to substitute.
Substitution is one of the biggest problems when it comes to growing bigger delts because
the delts, and the shoulders in particular, will as for help from everywhere.
They'll ask for help form the low back to cheat a weight up.
They'll ask for help from the legs and from the hips.
They'll ask for help from your torso and trunk to lean away, up as you're trying to lift
it.
We don’t want that.
We want to direct what we're trying to direct into the muscle we're trying to train.
What is the muscle we're trying to train?
Well, specifically when we're talking about growing bigger delts from the side here – capped
delts – you're looking at the middle delt.
The middle delt, you can see here as I trace it out, is not a very big muscle.
It comes here, and starts right there on the upper arm, down, and around, and into there.
This is what we're dealing with.
So how do you train that?
All you're trying to do, remember guys, when you're trying to get a muscle to contract,
you're just trying to shorten it.
It's long when it's down at the side.
It's shortened when it's up toward the top.
That's about all you've got.
So, all we have to do is figure out ways we can do that.
But you're going to have to do this: you're going to have to drop your ego, significantly.
That's not heavy weight there.
It's a very light weight.
The sooner I realize this, the more willing I was able to compromise that belief system,
and the faster my delts were able to grow.
This is in recent years, too.
So, here's what we have to do.
We have to look at – I'm just going to grab the lightest weight here to show you what
we're trying to aim to do.
I want you guys to do this along with me.
You don’t even need a weight.
The first thing, in order to feel what we're talking about, and feel this muscle contract
is to pull it up with a bent elbow.
So, we're going to take it to this position here.
Almost like I'm trying to punch from here.
You can see – and I'm leaning forward slightly because we want to make sure that middle delt
stays up toward the ceiling.
Not leaning too far forward and not facing toward the back.
So, we want to get that middle delt here facing toward the ceiling.
So, it needs to be at the angle our torso, a bit forward.
I've covered that before.
Now, if we bring our arm up into this position, I should feel a tightening, and a contraction
right there.
You should feel it right now, too.
If you don’t, you're probably seriously lacking that mind-muscle connection that's
valuable when it comes to getting that muscle to respond.
So, from here, with that contraction being felt there, now you want to be able to extend
that arm out without losing that contraction.
Straight out.
Long.
As far as you can.
I'm trying to reach Jesse, even though he's at least another foot away from me.
And I hold that.
Now, from here I want to be able to go up another inch or two, to there.
I can feel that lighting up this area here.
You can see as I come down, all the work being done by the muscles.
Here.
Working, squeezing, out, straight out, squeezing, and then as I come down you can see that muscle
working.
This is a 5lb dumbbell and I swear I felt that a lot.
The idea is that substitutions are killing you and what you're trying to do.
If I try to get the dumbbell – if I know that the goal is to get that dumbbell and
get it out to the side here, slightly turned up, none of that 'pouring the pitcher' nonsense,
guys.
The thumb is higher than the pinky.
With the torso being leaned forward, I know I'm going to have that middle delt exposed
straight up against gravity.
If I'm in that position there, how else could I get the dumbbell up?
If I want to, I can start to lift, and then I can do this, which we see a lot of guys
do.
That.
What's happening there?
I'm getting some abduction, which is the role of the middle delt, and then I get external
rotation to get out to the top.
Not that external rotation is a bad thing, but when you're trying to direct all the force
into the middle delt, you don’t want that.
So, you don’t want external rotation.
The other thing that happens is, I get to here and I can't get any further.
So, what do I do?
I lean in the opposite direction.
By leaning the torso I'm not even moving my arm into anymore abduction.
I'm just leaning the torso and getting up higher.
That's another substitution.
The biggest and most popular substitution that people make, that's wrong, is involving
the trap.
We call it the 'traps trap' because what happens is, I get it to here and now I can't really
get it up anymore.
I don’t really have any more strength to get this up.
My middle delts are far weaker than you think they are.
So, what I do is start to shrug it up.
Just by shrugging and involving the traps I'm bringing this dumbbell higher, but really
compensating artificially bringing that dumbbell higher.
Not because the delts did anymore work.
So, what you need to do is make the delts, and force the delts to do the work they're
supposed to do.
For me, I probably train with at 10lb.
All I'm going to do is, again, I can either stick with that activation drill that I showed
you, or I can try to stay straight the whole time.
So, I get a little lean forward here, I get my thumb higher than my pinky, and I'm going
to try and extend my arm as straight as I can, slow.
Slow repetitions, straight out to there.
Once I think I'm up there I hold.
I go another inch or so up and then down.
Now, if I really want to keep this work going, I don’t bring it all the way down here.
I stop about here, keeping the tension on it, and I bring it back up again, initiating
every second from the delt.
Then another inch and then down.
Then up again.
Up.
Down just a little bit here.
Maybe come back up again.
And then down.
10lbs.
The problem is this, guys: your delts aren't as strong as you think they are.
All that overhead pressing is utilizing a lot of other areas, a lot of the kinetic chain
to help you do that.
And that's a great thing.
Again, athletically, that's a great thing.
But when we're trying to get hypertrophy, inefficiency is where you want to go for.
You want to make this movement as inefficient as possible.
Make the delts do all the work.
Take away all their help and they will respond.
They will respond with a lot lighter weight than you think.
I guarantee it.
Just do this, guys.
Do it in this step and I promise you'll see fast gains from doing this.
Again, without much more than just a lot of focus.
I hope you've found the video helpful, guys.
If you're looking for programs where we build in the science and the technique because technique
matters.
It changes how you do things.
It's not just the exercise.
A side-lateral is not just a side-lateral.
It's how you do it that matters the most, as we've just evidenced, as you will as well.
All of our programs incorporate all that detail because, as I've said, it matters.
You can find them over at ATHLEANX.com.
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All right, guys.
I'll be back here again soon, in just a couple of days.
See ya.