What's up, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj on www.SeanNal.com.
And this has been a highly requested video from you guys, so today we're talking about
the subject of building 3D delts, so how to build a pair of round muscular shoulders.
In my opinion, well-developed shoulders in combination with a decent upper back, is the
most important combination to give your upper body that's stronger more powerful look, especially
underneath clothes.
So, even though most average trainees tend to put most their focus on building up, you
know, their chest and their biceps, I'd say that your shoulders and upper back are actually
even more important and will have a bigger impact on your overall appearance.
Now, that said, the truth is that there really aren't any big secrets when it comes to proper
shoulder training.
And just like with your other muscle groups, it really just comes down to proper exercise
selection combined with proper training technique and then applying basic progressive overload
from there by increasing the weight and reps over time, and being patient and consistent
with it, because muscle growth is a slow and gradual process.
As a natural trainee you're not going to build a huge set of delts overnight and you have
to put in the time if you want to see significant results.
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Now, when it comes to the shoulders you have three heads you're dealing with.
You have the anterior head, which is the front; the lateral head, which is the side; and the
posterior head, which is the rear.
Now all three heads are important and you obviously want to maximize the development
of each one, but when it comes specifically to getting that capped 3D delt look, the lateral
head is going to be the most important area to hone in on.
Because it sits directly on the side of the shoulder and it contributes the most to that
wide rounded look.
The second most important would be the posterior head.
And I would say that the least important when it comes to that rounded look is going to
be the anterior heads.
And it just, kind of, sits on the front of the shoulder and it doesn't really pop out
in the same way that the other two heads do.
If you were hitting a back double bicep pose then the anterior head does become more noticeable,
like you can see here, but just walking around relaxed, like you will be most of the time,
it's not going to be quite as important for that 3D look.
And the lateral and posterior heads are going to play a bigger role.
So those are the three heads of the deltoid and from there we just have to look at the
functions of each and how to target them for the best results.
Now, the anterior head probably isn't going to be an area that you're going to need to
specifically worry about, because it already gets hit very hard during any type of compound
pressing for the chest.
You might have noticed that this front area of your shoulder here gets really sore after
doing chess work, and that's because it's heavily involved in all of those pressing
movements.
And then if you're doing overhead pressing of some kind as well, which most people are,
like a military press or a seated overhead dumbbell press, that's also primarily an anterior
delt and tricep exercise.
There is some side delt involvement, there are two depending on how you execute them,
but it's mainly a front delt exercise.
So in my opinion, unless you are an intermediate or advanced lifter and you can specifically
see that your anterior head needs more development, I wouldn't recommend bothering to isolate
it using front raising movements, since it's already getting enough work just from chest
pressing alone, and from shoulder pressing as well.
Now after that when it comes to hitting the lateral and posterior heads, there's quite
a few different things you can do, but two main exercises that I'd recommend focusing
on would be lateral raises and face pulls.
The combination of those two exercises, plus your compound presses for chest and shoulders,
plus the stimulation your rear delts get during rowing movements for back, plus just the overall
indirect stimulation that your shoulders get during, pretty much any basic upper body movement,
that's likely going to be enough to build your shoulders effectively.
And you don't need a ton of different exercises and a ton of different variations to get great
results.
So I'll go over my recommendations for the proper form for those two lifts, and then
I'll also give you two more optional movements you can do as well if your shoulders are a
lagging muscle or if it's just an area you want to hone in on with some more specialized
training.
So for lateral raises, ultimately any basic lateral raise movement will be effective whether
it's with dumbbells, or a cable, or a machine.
But I generally recommend a basic standing cable lateral raise because it gives you more
consistent tension from top to bottom in comparison to dumbbells, and because it's generally easier
on the shoulder joint as well.
So for this, just stand next to a cable machine and grab on to the handle and perform a regular
one-arm lateral raise.
A couple of tips: make sure to keep your wrist in a neutral position all the way through.
So don't point your pinkies upward at the top like you might have seen elsewhere because
that actually puts stress on your rotator cuff.
You can also increase the activation of the side delt by leaning forward slightly.
Locking your abs down at all times to take your traps a bit more out of the movement.
And also raising the cable up only to shoulder height but no higher.
Because going higher mainly just hit your traps.
And also make sure that your elbow and your hand stay in line with each other all the
way through rather than finishing with your hand higher than your elbow.
That's something a lot of lifters do, but when you finish with your hand higher than
your elbow you're actually shifting the stress away from the lateral delt and on to the rotator
cuff.
Now, if you don't have access to a cable machine then using dumbbells is still effective.
And one of my favorite variations for that is an incline bench lateral raise, like you
see here, because that's going to keep your upper body locked into the proper angle, so
that you can just put all of your focus on maximizing the tension on your shoulders.
Now, when it comes to lateral raise movements, I'd highly recommend treating them as a moderate
weight more controlled movement rather than just grabbing onto a pair of heavy weights
and swinging them around using a lot of momentum.
It's just not necessary to go really heavy on lateral raises.
And over time you're going to be placing a lot of stress on your shoulder joints if you
go about it that way.
You might be fine for a few months, or a year, or longer, but ego lifting in this way, even
though it does build muscle, it usually catches up to most people given enough time, especially
on movements like lateral raises where the shoulders are in a more vulnerable position.
And if you're in this for the long run then you need to find a good balance between using
a weight that lets you train with enough overall intensity but that also minimizes the stress
on your joints as well.
For example, right now on dumbbell lateral raises I usually don't go any higher than
twenty to twenty-five pounds aside at the most for about anywhere from eight to twelve
controlled reps.
I've gone as heavy as like fifty pound dumbbells in the past using more momentum and I haven't
seen any difference in my shoulder development either way except that going heavier kills
my shoulder joints, whereas now with the lighter weights it gives me no pain at all and it
lets me activate my side delts just as, or even more effectively.
So after that we have face pulls, which are more of a rear delt focused exercise but they
also still hit the lateral head to a decent degree as well and also your upper back, too.
Now, this is a really underrated exercise with a variety of benefits, not just for building
muscle but for improving shoulder health as well, and I'd highly recommend including them
in your workout plan if you can.
So to do face pulls just grab a rope attachment and set it at upper chest height and then
hold the rope from underneath with a neutral hammer grip, like you see here.
If you train from home and you don't have access to cables then you can also use resistance
bands for this as well.
Keep your chest up, your shoulders back, and retract your shoulder blades, and then just
pull the rope back towards your face while at the same time imagining that you're trying
to pull the rope apart.
And a good form cue for this is to imagine that you're hitting a back double bicep pulls
on each rep.
Pause briefly in the fully contracted position and really focus on squeezing your rear delts
and upper back and then return back to the starting position.
And just like with lateral raises, go for a more controlled, more focused movement and
really think about the muscles you're trying to activate here.
And also if you find that the weight that you're using here is heavy enough, that it's
actually pulling your body forward and you can't get proper leverage, then what I do
is just put a box or a platform of some kind on the floor right up against the cable machine
and then with one leg pressing into the box and the other leg back.
So like I mentioned, for most average lifters the combination of horizontal and vertical
pressing, lateral raises, face pulls and rowing movements for back that should be enough for
complete shoulder development.
But if you do want to add some more exercise variety and really hone in on the delts, because
you're more of an intermediate or advanced lifter, or if it's just a lagging area and
something you really want to build up further, two other really good shoulder exercises that
you can include would be an upright row for the lateral head and/or a lateral raise for
the posterior head.
For upright rows I'd recommend doing them using, either a pair of dumbbells, two cable
attachments, like you see here, or a rope attachment.
Because regular upright rows with a straight bar will lock your wrists into an unnatural
position that can lead to injury over time.
And you also want to make sure to only pull the weight up to about chest height so that
your elbows are no higher than your shoulders.
Because if you pull the weight all the way up to your neck, like most people do, that's
really hard on the shoulder joints and can really put stress on them over time.
So as long as you make those two form modifications, upright rows are another good shoulder exercise
that you can include to hit the lateral head.
And then lastly would be a rear lateral raise to directly isolate the posterior head.
So you can either do a regular bent over lateral raise, a reverse fly from an upright position
using cables, or you can also use a pec deck.
The bent over rear lateral raise can be done using dumbbells or a cable, but just like
with the standing lateral raises I would suggest going with the cable variation if you can,
because dumbbells don't really give you much tension in the bottom half of the exercise.
And they only really hit your rear delts toward the mid and top half of the range.
Either variation is still going to be effective but if you do have cables available then you'll
definitely feel the difference by using the cable version.
So just start off in a bent over position with your upper body just above parallel to
the ground, grab on to the cable using a single hand attachment with a neutral grip, and from
there let your shoulder hang forward slightly, and keep your scapula flat rather than retracted.
And then just raise the cable out to your side until you feel a strong contraction in
the rear delt.
And like I said, you can also do this from a standing position in between a cable stand,
like you see here.
Just grabbing right onto the cables without any attachments, or you can also perform it
using a reverse pec deck machine if you have one available.
So that pretty much covers everything, guys.
I go with about eight to twelve reps most of the time on these exercises hitting the
shoulders directly about one and a half to two times directly per week.
Utilize those form tips I gave, apply progressive overload, be patient, and you will make solid
shoulder gains over time.
If you found this advice helpful, and you do want to get all the tools you need to train
all the different muscles on your body as effectively as possible, including step-by-step
workouts, and video exercise demonstrations, along with easy-to-follow meal plan, science-based
supplement recommendations as well, then you can download my Body Transformation Blueprint
by clicking here or by heading over to www.BTBluePrint.com using the link in the description box.
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Thanks for watching guys, and I'll see in the next video.