Deltoid exercises for a nice v-taper should incorporate rear deltoid exercises to ensure you are hitting all angles of your shoulders. “The shoulder muscles are really the muscles of love and war”, says Nancy Etcoff Ph.D., author of Survival of the Prettiest. Strong shoulders literally sweep women off their feet.
Here’s how you can expand yours from every angle.
To achieve the wide, thick look that maximizes your v-taper, you must hit your delts from all angles. What this means is targeting the front, middle, and rear delts for complete development. This post outlines the deltoids workout with strategy tips to help you broaden and thicken your shoulders like when you were a teenager.
First Pre-exhaust Your Delts With Lateral Raise Supersets
Doing this isolation movement before over-head presses and upright rows serves as pre-exhaustion for your delts. Your goal is to warm up the entire shoulder region and pre-fatigue each head before your compound lifts. Another good reason to warm up thoroughly before hitting the compound exercises is that the shoulder joint is at risk of serious wear and tear. Your first move, which works the front, middle, and rear delt heads, both pre-exhausts and warms up your shoulders at the same time.
Super set front, then side and finally bent-over lateral raises with light weight:
Dumbbell front lateral raises – Focus on bringing your thumb higher than your pinky finger to better target the front delts.
Dumbbell side raises – Lift the weights up and to the side, slightly twisting your wrists, as if you were pouring water out of a pitcher, so that the rear of the dumbbell is higher than the front. To further work the middle delts, continue the movement higher than your head and hold this position for 1-2 seconds.
Dumbbell bent over lateral raises – Keep your head looking forward, or down, to maintain the natural position of the spine and avoid neck injury. You want to maintain the natural s-curve of the spine during the movement. This proper head position also helps isolate the delt muscles during the exercise.
Build Your Front and Side Deltoids with Push & Military Presses
Military Press - To isolate your middle delts, focus on pushing the bar up and then down slightly behind your head.
Push press – You can use the cheating principle for this exercise – bend your knees slightly and then press up with your legs to get the bar moving.
Try them all but make sure you include rear deltoid exercises.
