What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today, 6 exercises for your delts you're probably not doing.
I promise, if you start mixing them in you're going to be surprised by the results that
you see.
You see, we get too stuck in a rut when it comes to shoulder training.
We press, we shoulder raise, and we shoulder raise.
Maybe you're doing a little bit of reverse shoulder raises, but that's it.
If we want to get our delts to work we actually have more ways that we can scientifically
incorporate movement the way our shoulders actually want to move in the first place.
So we can do that with these 6 exercises.
First up is the crush grip shoulder press out.
Right here what we're doing is, we're actually allowing our chest to contribute in a way
that actually helps to take it out of the action to allow the shoulders and the front
delts, more specifically, to do the work.
Because we add this isometric contraction, we're squeezing the dumbbell as hard as we
possibly can, we're activating the chest isometrically.
So now when we press the arms out, away from our body we're going to preferentially make
sure that the delts are doing all the work.
Now, we could alter the angle here – which is another reason why I love this exercise
– to make it either more, or less difficult.
If I press the dumbbell straight out I'm doing more work, obviously, with my front delts
there, as they are more subject to the force of gravity on the way down, acting on our
arms.
If we press them up at a higher angle here, I actually get the opportunity to make this
a little bit easier because the moment arm, of the arms themselves, is actually shorter.
However, because we're actually pressing more upright now, it's still working the shoulders.
So you have a lot of things working for you here to make this exercise one that's going
to effectively hit your delts.
Especially if you haven't tried it before.
Sticking with the front delts, but now also including the middle delts we have the dumbbell
butterfly raise.
What we're doing here is, we're actually allowing the positioning of our shoulders to help control
the activation, and transition from the front delt, to the middle delt safely.
You guys know how I feel about internal rotation when it comes to shoulders.
Especially as we go into elevation of the arm.
Well, we are elevation the arm here and we are internally rotating the arm by going from
an externally rotated position, back to neutral.
So we are not actually into, or approaching internal rotation of the arm at the top position,
but we're getting all the benefits of middle delt activation by having an internal rotation
going on at the shoulder.
So you'll see I start with the externally rotated arms, underhand positioning here,
and I raise the dumbbells up, and out to the side.
So we have the adduction that we know we need, and it's a little bit of that front work angling
of the arms to get the front delt.
As we transition to the side, by going from the externally rotated position to a more
neutral position we're actually having the act of internal rotation going on, which will
fire up those middle delts.
Try this, guys.
I promise you, you're going to feel the difference and if you haven't done your side lateral
raises this way, you're definitely going to start mixing them in because you'll feel what
a big difference it makes.
Next one, I want you to stand up, and pull up your pants.
I'm serious.
Stand up, grab your pants like this, and pull them straight up.
What you should be feeling, other than one hell of a wedgie, is one hell of a contraction
here.
Not just in your middle delt, but also in your rear delt.
Why that is, is because we're getting the benefit in this position here of having the
abduction of the arm, in relation to the torso, but also the extension of the arm, back, behind
the torso to also fire up that hard to hit rear delt.
Now, we can do this with dumbbells in a weighted form right here with a hip hugger.
The benefit of this exercise is, because of the shortened moment arm, because we don’t
have to lift our arm straight out to the sides as we would in a normal lateral raise, we
can use heavier weights to hit this area.
That's one thing we don’t usually get the opportunity to do, unless we're pressing.
So you want to take these weights, hold them down at your sides – this is not an upright
row, you guys know how I feel about that exercise as well – this is an externally rotated
hand position as we come up.
We're only stopping about the level of the navel, or a little above.
You will feel, again, an incredible contraction whether or not you're even using weights at
all.
If you're just doing that whole pants-pulling thing, you're still going to feel it there
as well.
This is one you're going to definitely want to add to your routine.
I'm definitely favoring those middle delt exercises because I think people struggle
to find options outside of the side lateral raise, but this is another one we can do here.
It looks a little unorthodox, but if you've been watching this channel for any length
of time you've probably already tried it, and with good results.
This is the bodyweight side lateral raise.
I debuted this one back in our ATHLEAN-0 Bodyweight Only program.
But what you're doing here is taking advantage of the concept of relative movement.
If our arm is raising out to the side here, as we do with some sort of a dumbbell side
lateral raise, we can still do the same movement if we take our arm and fix it in position,
and then move our body away from it.
In both instances we have abduction of the arm, which we know is going to fire up that
middle delt.
So as I rotate my torso on this fixed arm on the ground here, I'm getting that relative
abduction of the arm in relation to the torso.
That means delt activation.
So you want to do this.
Especially if you're not in a position to be doing any weights at all, and you need
a bodyweight option, and you're not just doing handstand shoulder raises, or pike pushups;
this is going to fill in great for you.
Now we're heading back to the rear delt because you can simply not get enough rear delt work.
Especially if all you've been doing is reverse fly's.
That's simply not going to hit the rear delt as best as you possibly can.
Now this underhand dumbbell variation is one I actually broke out an entire video dedicated
just to this, and I still think it's being underutilized.
If you've been watching the channel though, and doing what I've been telling you to do,
you've probably already been using this with great benefit.
However, for those who haven't, I have to repeat it again.
The key, when you're trying to activate your rear delt, is not going into this reverse
fly motion here.
What you really need to do is get into extension of the arm back, behind the body.
So you can see how much more I can get behind the body than if I were to do this.
I actually get stopped anatomically at this position here.
But if I can go into extension I can get the upper arm further back, and if I add one other
component to it – external rotation – I can even go further.
The degree of contraction that you can feel is enormous.
As a matter of fact, you don’t even need to put a dumbbell in your hand.
If you take your hand right now, stand up, externally rotate, and pull up, and back you'll
feel that rear delt fire up like never before.
So by virtue of actually adding a little dumbbell to this equation, we can turn this into an
exercise, mimic the position I'm showing you right here, work both sides, and I promise
you better rear delt gains than you've ever gotten before.
Last, but not least, we have to save the little exercise, with the big bang.
This is the swimmers.
I know, at first glance, it probably looks like a rehab exercise.
The fact is, I really can't use heavy weights here.
Maybe 5lbs, or at most 10lbs, but what really matters is what is going on in the shoulders.
There is a lot going on because by virtue of the path of the dumbbells here, I'm managing
to hit all three heads of the delt in one move.
As I raise my arms up, and out to the sides, the middle delts are helping me do that, my
arms swoop forward to the front, and then eccentrically the front delts get loaded up
again.
Now, when I go back again, and reload – again, it starts with rear delt activation.
We have that extension going on in the arms that we just talked about that is so important.
Then we come up to the top, we move our arms forward, and we repeat that.
We're hitting all three heads and it doesn’t require heavy, heavy weights to feel this.
What's more of a requirement is the activation and the contraction of the three heads of
the delts, and you're able to do it in one shot with this exercise.
So there you have it, guys.
There are 6 new exercises for you to put into your shoulder training arsenal to help you
get better results.
I'm not a big fan of just doing different, to be different.
If you're going to do different you'd better make sure you have an anatomical backup, a
plan, or reason for why you're doing what you're doing.
Guys, we put the science back in strength here every, single time we make a video for
you, to make sure you know why you're doing what you're doing.
If you're looking for a complete training program head to ATHLEANX.com.
We put the science back in all our workouts as well, of course.
You can get those over at ATHLEANX.com.
In the meantime, if you liked the video leave your comments below.
Tell me what else you want me to cover and I'll do my best to do that for you in the
days, and weeks ahead.
All right, see you soon.