And so the irony of all ironies, the exercise with the word upright in its name,
it's the one most likely to leave you on your back.
What up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.com. What you see behind me is a bunch of different shoulder
exercises. Many of them you probably recognize because you've either done them in the past or
you're still doing them today. However, after today's video, you're going to want to get rid
of a few of them. You see, I m going to rank them from the worst to the best to leave you with only
the best shoulder exercises that are going to deliver you the gains that you're after.
And so as we begin the ranking process here, it's important to define the criteria upon which the
exercises are ranked. And while progressively overloading an exercise to develop strength is
an important element of all the exercises, it's not the main criteria for how we select these.
We're looking for hypertrophy, we're looking for muscle growth. And the ability of these exercises
to do that is going to be the main reason for why we rank them in the order we do.
That being said, we always have to rely on the safer options and when it comes to the shoulder,
the most mobile joint in the body, unfortunately, along with that mobility comes some sacrifices to
our stability. With the lack of stability comes some poor exercise choices, especially if going
to repeat them for years to come. We're not talking about being able to get away with one
rep or even a few workouts. I'm talking about year after year after year of doing these exercises,
that has to be part of the equation. We're going to want to mitigate those injury risk and leave
you with the better options that are still going to be able to produce the gains.
However, unlike anything else we've done in the series before, we're talking about a different
setup here when it comes to the shoulder. We have three distinct heads the front head, the middle
and the rear delt. We want to give you the best rankings for each of those heads. And of course,
I'm not going to overlook the fact that we want just overall shoulder development. I'm going to
give you give you some bonus rankings for those too. But that being said, let's just start off
where we always do with this series and that's at the bottom and just work our way up because it can
only get better from there. And I'm going to start with the worst of the worst, the Upright Row.
There's a saying out there that says there's no such thing as a bad kid,
just bad parents. But luckily, when it comes to exercises, there's no family tree that we have
to worry about, and the Upright Row is just a bad exercise. Now I know a lot of people will
defend that and say there's no such thing as a bad exercise either, but I disagree. Every single rep
of an Upright Row places your shoulder into an internally rotated position with elevation. Yes,
the exact position that you would test somebody in if you were looking for impingement.
When the biomechanics of the exercise itself are literally fighting your own body's anatomy,
I just can't wrap my arms around the exercise and love it. I don't care if you get away with
it in a single workout or even a training block or even 15 years of training with the exercise,
over time you're likely going to run into a problem. And while yes, the exercise can
be improved slightly by lowering the height of the barbell or dumbbells when you lift them up,
the fact is, there's better exercise options that can achieve the same thing and do a better
job at it with lower risk. For that reason, the Upright Row gets the first red X.
All right, so I mentioned that there's no family tree when it comes to exercises. But if there was
the Cuban Press would be the evil twin brother of the Upright Row. As a matter of fact,
maybe even more evil and that's because we're adding another element to an already
bad biomechanical exercise. You see when we lift this up, we're getting external rotation, which
some would argue makes this a good exercise. But it really isn't because you're lifting yourself
up there from an internally rotated position. Not to mention, the best part about this exercise is
probably the press because you've got your elbows, at least in a somewhat forward position.
However, the real dangers happen when you start to lower the dumbbells. You're getting into this
eccentric internal rotation again. But even worse, you've got to increase momentum with
those dumbbells further away from the chest, making this just more harmful to the shoulders
than even the Upright Row. For that reason, this also gets the next big red X in this category.
Speaking about the press, can we talk about the version we all started out doing the first
time we ever trained shoulders, the Behind the Neck Press. Look, I did it too and for no other
reason that I saw it in Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, and it looked pretty damn good.
Once again, doing this variation of the press just puts our shoulders in a position where
we're fighting our own anatomy. There's something called the scapular plain, which is a 45-degree
angle or so in front of our body so that the elbow doesn't have to track back behind our
body like it does in a Behind the Neck Press. There is nothing wrong with an overhead press,
as you're going to see here later on this video. But when we do it from this position, you're
placing yourself in an unnecessary injury risk that we could do from a better position without
sacrificing any of the gains that we should be getting from the exercise. So for that reason,
as always, the details matter, and in this case, the positioning of the shoulder is too
far back makes this one one that I would also throw in the bottom of the barrel category.
So if you haven't picked up on this by now as a physical therapist, I don't like internal rotation
of the shoulder from an elevated arm position for obvious reasons. That being said, there's
one exercise that can make me go from loving it to hating it just like that. It s this exercise
right here, it's the Side Lateral Raise, but done from the pour the pitcher position. You might have
heard this tip before that when you get to the top of the lateral raise, you want to act like
you're pouring pitchers of water and have your thumb pointing down your pinky pointing up.
If you notice what's going on right there, yes, you've got internal rotation from an elevated
arm position. That being said, when you realize you can get the same activation and benefits to
the middle delt by simply leaning forward a little bit and keeping your thumb higher than
the pinky to ensure that you have external rotation at the shoulder, you're still going
to place that middle delt and that direct line of the downward force of gravity still making
it do all the work without sacrificing anything from the exercise, just increasing the safety of
it, and save the pitcher pouring for something you do down here, maybe a table level and save
your shoulders in the process by putting the PTP side lateral raise in the big red X category.
And with that, I now get to break out my blue marker as we work our way up the rankings, this
time to the Better Category. where we're talking about good, solid exercises and specifically
hitting the front, middle and rear delt in that order. We start with the front and the exercise,
here is the Press Out. And while this is a good exercise for targeting the front delt,
there are definitely some built in limitations here, namely the lack of range of motion. We're
not taking the weight from our thighs all the way up in an arc to end in this position,
we're kind of short cutting it by starting at our chest and simply ending in a position that
we expect to end in when we're targeting our front doors. There are better options here that
won't be as limited, but I do believe this is a good entry point exercise for those looking to
target the front delts, and that's why the Press Does get the first in the Better Category.
Sticking in the Better Category, now working our way around to the middle delt, the exercise
of choice here is the Cheat Lateral. And I've mentioned the merits of this exercise before many
times on this channel. It gives us an opportunity to use a weight that we may not always be used to
using here if we're strictly limiting ourselves to light weights on a lateral raise. But at the
same time, that introduces some eccentric overload stresses that we know are good drivers of muscle
hypertrophy. However, with this comes often times some extra momentum, and with the momentum comes
some muscle substitution. But if we're considering all aspects here and realizing that the momentum
in muscle substitution could be taking away from our ability to focus and drive our intention
through the middle delt, then we realize here that we've done a good job of selecting the exercise,
but not the best yet. And that's why it belongs in the Better Category for now.
Which brings us to the last of the Better Category and this time wrapping all the way around to the
rear delt. You do train your rear delts, don't you? The exercise in focus here is the Reverse
Fly. This might be the most common exercise people perform when they're trying to target their rear
delts. Unfortunately, as I covered on this channel before, it's certainly not the best. And the main
limitation here is the range of motion. You see when you're trying to target the rear delt the
main thing you can try to do is get extension of the arm back behind the body. It's not just about
abducting the arm away from you, as if you're doing a side lateral raise bent over, it really is
about getting that arm back behind the body. And if you use even just a little bit more weight than
you can handle here, the range of motion is going to be limited even more. It's a good exercise. It
does work the rear delt, no doubt, but it's not the best of its ability to do so. And for that
reason, we're going to put this one in the Better Category when it comes to the rear delts.
And with that, we continue our way up the rankings to the Better Still Category,
and I break out my yellow marker to put our focus once again back on the front delt.
And here we're looking at the Arnold Press. Now look, I realize that Arnold's become a
little bit of a polarizing figure these days, but there's one thing I think we all could agree on,
the guy knew how to build muscle. And the front delt exercise of choice that he used,
got your elbows out in front of your body because it demanded that you start with your hands facing
your body. And if you followed along to this point, one of the reasons why I didn't like that
Behind the Neck Press was exactly due to the elbow positioning. This is getting that problem fixed
by getting your arms out in front of your body. However, as with all shoulder press variations,
it's tough to limit the gains to just the front delt. When we realize that we have better options
for targeting the front delt more effectively, we can see why this gets the Better Still
nod, but still not Best in this category. And continuing here in the Better Still Category,
we now shift our focus once again to the middle delt. And here we're taking a step up from the
Cheat Lateral Raise with something called the Abduction Row. What it's doing is it's still
allowing us to use the heavier weights at the Cheat Lateral might, but it's allowing us to do it
with a more focused contraction. Not necessarily solely on the middle delt, which is impossible
anyway, but it does include more of a contraction at the top, which is something we didn't really
have control over with the Cheat Lateral. The way we're accomplishing this is with a different set
of substitution muscles. As opposed to letting the upper traps kick in, we're actually able to turn
this into more of a rowing motion, hence the name which introduces some of the upper back muscles,
most notably the rear delt, which is going to help us to get this heavier dumbbell up to the top.
Because the movement is still driven with abduction of the elbow away from the side,
you're still going to get those immense benefits in terms of creating a stimulus
for growth for the middle delt. Think of it like 20% row, 80% abduction. And when you do, you're
going to have 100% of a good exercise option when it comes to creating better middle outgrowth.
I have to admit this one stings a little bit. Can we just get it out of the way? Look,
it's not often that we conclude any list of the best exercises without Face Pulls ranking all
the way at the top. But when it comes to rear delt exercises, it s a really solid option, but
it s just not the best. I know a dagger. However, let's take a look at why. The Face Pull is,
as I've said many times in this channel, one of the best exercises you could do
and one you should probably do at the end of every single workout you do because we simply do not get
enough attention to the posterior chain and the muscles of the upper back and mid scap
that this exercise does a great job doing. But therein lies the problem, the upper back
and mid scap. Throw in the rotator cuff and you've got a lot of other muscles doing the job,
not just the rear delt, which limits this to being the best rear delt driver. However,
the Face Pull is always going to appear in a list of great exercises, but for the rear delt,
it's a Better Still just not the best. All right, that wasn't so bad.
And so with that, we now continue to work our way up the rankings. This time I get to break
out my green marker for the Almost Best Category. So not quite at the top yet, but really damn good.
And for this, for the front delt, we're going back to the press and this time it's the Scoop Press.
You see, the Scoop Press has some very unique advantages over the Arnold Press,
namely an increased range of motion and focus on the front delt.
So you can see that when we start the exercise, we lock in by getting a fixed
90-degree position at the elbow. You're not going to open that angle at any point
thereafter because we're not going to turn this into a bicep exercise. Keep it locked in here,
and you're going to scoop your arms up to that front rack or shoulder pressing level
and continue to press up overhead. We still have all the benefits of the elbows out in front of
our body that we do on the Arnold Press. But we're getting the additional range of motion
on the first half of the exercise that still actually allowing us to utilize a heavy load
because of the bent arm position and the closeness of the dumbbells to our body. This exercise is
a better pressing option when you re looking for better exercises, and it s the reason why
it belongs in the Almost Best Category. And that brings us to the next exercise here,
this one focused on the middle delt. And for this we re going back to the Side Lateral Raise
in the Almost Best Category. I know what you're saying, Jeff, you always do this. You say one
thing's bad and the next day you say it's good. No, actually, guys as always, the details matter.
Did you realize that one word could actually change the entire meaning of a sentence?
Like I could say, you make me really hard, or I can say, you make me really laugh hard.
See, it's a big difference when it comes to the Side Lateral Raise here, as I mentioned before,
the details matter a lot because this becomes a great exercise in the spot. When we're looking for
targeted middle delt growth, we want to lighten up the weight here and focus on the middle delt.
And we can do it in a much safer position by forgetting about pouring those pitchers.
Instead get that thumb higher than the pinky at the top. Lean forward just a bit to make sure,
as I mentioned before, to keep that downward force of gravity squarely focused on the middle delt,
making it do all the work. Go through the exercise at a slow but steady pace,
and this one becomes one of your best options when you're looking to create hypertrophy,
and it's one that needs to be in almost every shoulder workout when that's what you're after.
This is where the Side Lateral Raise gets this position here and the Almost Best Category.
And wrapping up the Almost Best Category now we turn our attention to the back side again,
the rear delt. And for this, I'm looking at the Hip Hugger and this one gets its name from the
position of the dumbbells as you do the exercise. You should look like you're trying to pick up a
pair of pants that kind of drop down to low. Now, if you look at the mechanics of the exercise,
the one thing that's in place here that's really important is the good extension of the arm back
behind the body. Remember, you don't have to lift your arms out to the side and keep them long
to get them into a position behind your body. You can use heavy weights here. As a matter of fact,
you're going to need to use heavier weights here to make this a main driver of growth.
However, we can limit some of the contribution of those upper back muscles that the Face Pull
wants to contribute by focusing more on pulling back with the elbows rather than straight up,
which would turn this into a shrug. If you get the mechanics of this right guys,
I promise you one of the most intense rear delt contractions you have ever felt. And it's one that
definitely belongs to the Almost Best Category and one that you definitely need to start doing
if you want to see the best results. And so we've reached the top of the top,
the best of the best, but we've got not one but three winners here, one for each head of
the delts. And we start right here at the front delts with the Dumbbell Front Raise. And when we
perform this exercise with dumbbells rather than a straight bar, we have the opportunity to split
the hands up and do them in alternating fashion one arm at a time. This affords us the benefit
to get a really strong focus on the muscle we're trying to build and focus on getting
a good contraction at the same time, letting the front delts do what they do best, flexing the arm
out in front of our body. There's no need to take the arms all the way up overhead because that just
starts to introduce additional work being done by the upper and lower traps at now we're really
focused on here when frontal growth is your goal. Guys, this is the best of the best when it comes
to the front delt and it gets the first green star or whatever the hell that shape is.
And so that brings us to the middle delt and again, the best of the best in this category.
You're not escaping some variation of a side that are raised, except my favorite is when we do it
with a Cable Lateral Raise. And here you can see that actually making a small adjustment here that
makes this even more effective. The cable set up allows me to get the main missing element from
the Side Lateral Raise, which is a stretch on the middle delt in the starting position. Think about
it unless you're performing the Dumbbell Lateral Raise on an incline bench with your arm dropped
in front of your body, you're never getting your arm into a stretch position on the middle delt
and therefore not getting the best contraction you can get. When we do the Cable Lateral Raise,
we're starting every single rep from a maximal stress position, which is going to allow you
to do this even better. Making it a better overall exercise when it's the middle delts
that you want to grow. And therefore it too gets that big green star or odd shaped whatever
for putting it in the best of the best. And so if the Reverse Fly did a good job of
getting that horizontal abduction and the hip hugger did a good job of getting that extension
that we're looking for. Well what if we marry the two? Again, back to the family aspect of this,
well, we would get the Rear Delt Row. What this does is it takes a lighter weight for sure,
but it gives us a chance to focus on getting the abduction of the shoulder away from the body,
but also more extension. And what we do is we actually supinate the hand a little bit,
which allows us to create some external rotation at the shoulder, which will allow us to get our
arm into extension behind the body a lot easier creating an overall better exercise. Just like
raising your arm up overhead it s easier with the hand turned out rather than turn in. We get
the same benefit here and the end result is we have a better contraction and an overall great
exercise option for hitting our rear delt. It's getting the Best designation here when it comes
to the rear delt shoulder exercises. But what if you're just looking to build
bigger shoulders overall? You're on a minimalist approach. You want to know what exercise is going
to do the best overall job of giving you the best bang for your buck. Well, at that point, guys, you
don't want to look to some of the presses in this category they're all really, really damn good.
You see, we have things like the Barbell Overhead Press, the Z Press, the Modified Bradford Press,
the Dumbbell Overhead Press and the Handstand Pushup. And they're all good options.
Each one, of course, has its own benefits. Like, for instance, the Barbell Overhead Press, while
being a great opportunity to really, really load heavily, does have a restriction for those people
that have some shoulder issues. Because of the fixed hand place on the bar that gets freed up,
we switch to the dumbbell version of the Overhead Press. The Modified Bradford Press gives those
guys that are still in love with doing the Behind the Neck Press a secondary option if you notice
the elbow positioning remains in front of the body, which is why we call it a Modified Bradford.
Never going back behind the body, so keeping your shoulders safe, but limiting the range
of motion for those that have a difficult time pressing all the way up overhead. The
Z Press is just an option for building up the overall strength of your entire shoulder when
you eliminate your legs from the equation in the seated position. You build your strength up here,
you take it back to a standing variation of a press and I promise you bigger strength gains
and bigger overall shoulders if you do so. And finally, the Handstand Pushup. If you just
don't have any access to weights at all, but you don't want to compromise your shoulder growth, the
Handstand Pushup is a great exercise for targeting all three heads of the delts, and you can do it
with simply a wall and your own body. All of these exercises are great options
when it comes to shoulder developers, and though none of them are great specialists necessarily,
they're all incredibly powerful when it comes to packing on mass to your shoulders and therefore
ones that you don't want to overlook. And then you have the guys with the rankings
of these shoulder exercises now complete, you have a better idea of what exercises
you should be focusing on and maybe which ones you can kind of do without. The fact is, guys,
when it comes to exercise selection, the details matter as always. If you're looking for a program
with details, always matter, make sure you head over to Athleanx.com and check out our Athlean-X
programs. If you found the video helpful, if you like this series, tell me what you want
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