Weight Training Tips and Articles

Tips For Wider Shoulders

December 19, 2007 on 12:01 am | In Proper Lifting Form, Weight Training Exercises, Shoulders, Arms |

  The shoulder, or deltoid, muscle is made up of 3 different heads, or attachments - the front, side, and rear. The front heads of the shoulder muscles get a ton of work when you do weight training exercises for the chest and the rear heads get some work when you do certain upper back exercises. Because of this you should focus most of your shoulder weight training workouts on hitting the side heads of the shoulders.

  Building the side heads of the shoulder muscles will help you add the most width to your upper body because they are the outermost muscles on each side of it. If you’ve been weight training for a while and usually start your shoulder workouts with military presses you may want to start with dumbbell presses instead since there’s a good chance that your front deltoids are more developed than your side deltoids. With dumbbell presses you can lower the weights to the sides of your head which will force the side delts to do most of the work. When you do military presses you have to lower the weight to in front of your head which will work the front deltoids more.

  Side lateral raises are another great weight training exercise for the side deltoid heads. Start with a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing your body and raise the dumbbells out to the sides until you arms are parellel to the floor. At the top of the movement try to have your hands in a position with the back of the hands a bit higher than the front of them (like you would when you’re pouring something). Keep your reps per set higher when you do side lateral raises than you do for most exercises. Side laterals raises can also be done with cables and some weight training machines.

  To really hit the side shoulders hard you can do some pre-exhaustion sets - supersets of side lateral raises follwed immediately by dumbbell presses. If you’re side deltoid heads are underdeveloped this technique will quickly build them up.

  Of course you should do some front and rear deltoid exercises during your shoulder weight training workouts, but for wider shoulders you need to make sure you target the side deltoids more since they don’t get as much work when you train other muscles.