lacking shoulders - What helped you grow them when they werent?

[juicy122]

i have a huge chest and pretty big arms but my shoulders really suffer for some reason. My split is chest and tris, back and bis , and shoulder/traps, legs off repeat. On shoulder day i start with db press i lift decent 85lbs for 10 , 10, 10 , then i do seated db laterals low weight high reps and squeeze, then I do cable front delts, then rear delts and traps. Ive been doing it this way for a while and i have tried going heavy and lighter on the movements after db press and i have no luck. For some reason this is the one thing that is affecting my physique my god damn shoulders just dont grow much... any idea what i should try and change? Im frustrated now as this seems to be my weak body genetic and my chest out dominates the shit out of my shoulders. I dont have no capped delts no nothing its just flat and blends in with my arms.

 

[Silentlemon1011]

i have a huge chest and pretty big arms but my shoulders really suffer for some reason. My split is chest and tris, back and bis , and shoulder/traps, legs off repeat. On shoulder day i start with db press i lift decent 85lbs for 10 , 10, 10 , then i do seated db laterals low weight high reps and squeeze, then I do cable front delts, then rear delts and traps. Ive been doing it this way for a while and i have tried going heavy and lighter on the movements after db press and i have no luck. For some reason this is the one thing that is affecting my physique my god damn shoulders just dont grow much... any idea what i should try and change? Im frustrated now as this seems to be my weak body genetic and my chest out dominates the shit out of my shoulders. I dont have no capped delts no nothing its just flat and blends in with my arms.

Volume volume volume.
Stuff like :
Lateral raises
Start at your heaviest 12 rep set.
Drop set, the whole fucking weight rack consecutively until you're screaming with 5lb weights.

 

[Eman]

I would keep shoulder day the same except I would undulate the intensity.

So, you normally do 85lb presses for 10 @ 10rpe. Instead, do 65lbs for ~15 but keep 2-3 reps in reserve (RIR). The following week, do it again but lower to 1-2rir (maybe ~70lbs). The goal is to repeat this until you're in the 8 rep neighborhood at 0rir... Then you begin the block again but start with higher weights because you've adapted.

Next, volume. Add laterals after chest. Ideally, you'd hit them 3x a week. I would focus more on the middle delt because you'll get the most visible results from that.

However, it's wise to take a week every month or so where you're going very light as a deload. If you continue to adapt, you'll need more and more volume to grow until you exceed what you can recover from feasibly.

TLDR - change rep ranges with weight changes, and increase volume.

 

[maxx the dogg]

I read somewhere an opinion that you can do lateral raises just about as often as you want, I think the reasoning was that the muscle doesn't get stretched like some other exercises/body parts do so they don't get torn down as much and can recover faster...something to that effect. I've improved my shoulders a lot just doing tons of lateral raises and rear delt raises using both dumbbells and cables (and with a little help from tren) :^ ) Drop down sets are good too.
Don't go by my profile pic, that's almost a year old and I'm around 15 lbs heavier now at about the same bf level.

 

[Logan44551]

I've been doing some really heavy side laterals partials I seen john meadows doing. I do sets of 20 super set with front lateral and shrugs. The idea of the heavy side partials is you have more power in the bottom of the movement, upping the reps to 20 gives me a crazy burn. I would also keep the lighter full range in there.

 

[MisterSuperGod]

Upright rows. i love them and hate them, but they get the job done for me.

 

[juicy122]

Thanks guys everything here will be noted and tried hope I have some new luck with these.

 

[Jestopherson]

I'd incorporate a exercise or 2 for shoulders onto another body parts Day. Get the extra volume in. If it's lagging give it more to bring it up.

 

[Logan44551]

I should also add I do a lot of incline and shoulder pressing. Usually shoulder day I start on
smith machine 70° incline 10 reps 3 heavy sets
90° lighter weight reps of 15-20 3 sets
upright rows on smith machine 3 sets

Then I do the laterals I was talking about and shrugs. Maybe some Y raises, and some reverse flys on the peck deck

 

[Ferenor]

3-4 second eccentric, lateral raises (dumbbell, cables), upright row (dumbbell, barbell, ez bar, cable), high frequency, train them first... oh weekly volume progression and then after 5-6 weeks hit the last set with an intensity technique.

 

[bob357sig]

What helped me tremendously was when I put a lot more into my rear delt training. My side delt was always flat no matter how much effort I put into doing side delt work, intil I got away from just doing lightweight machine and cable work for rear delt and started doing heavy dumbell bent over rear lateral raises superseted with lighter weight higher rep face pulls or reverse pec deck machine. I took a note from Seth Ferocci : if you want to build mass in rear delt then train it like any other muscle- don’t be afraid to go heavy with it. When I got my rear delt growing- it made my side delt start to cap finally. Rear was my missing link.

 

[MFAAS]

Arnold presses ftw

Landmine presses are awesome too

Focus on SINGLE arm lifts rather than double. Single arm lateral raise, single arm db shoulder press. The only bilateral shoulder exercise I do is the arnold press (not counting reverse fly on pull days). Otherwise it is all single arm. Single just allows you to focus and isolate the target muscle better.

My program cosists of arnold press then single arm lateral raise on push day 1. Then landmine press and single arm upright rows on push day 2 (I do a custom PPLPPL rest program).

High volume. Moderate weight high rep to form breakdown. Target reps of 10-15 for growth.

 

[malfeasance]

I have grown my delts to the point that an objective eye has told me overshadows some of my other muscles, like chest (my previous best body part).

I did it like this.

Moving a heavy pressing movement to last and starting with isolation work.

I start with rear delts on a machine. Warmup and two working sets only. Then rear dumbbell flies, facing forward on a low incline bench, as heavy as possible with good form in the range of 8-15 reps. Again, only two working sets. Then I do dumb bell lateral raises. Warmups starting with 5s or 10s and go up to my working db weight (40s or 45s right now). 4-5 sets. I try to get 15 reps for all 4-5 sets before moving up in weight. Then I move to a heavy pressing shoulder machine and load it up (after appropriate warmups) as heavy as fucking possible but never dropping below 8 reps. I may only do 1 set of these heavy presses. I might do 2 or 3. If I get one good heavy set (after working up to the heaviest weight), then I can call it a day, but sometimes do another set or 2.

That's it.

I tried all the other stuff others have posted above, but what I have written works best for me.

Experiment and see what works for you. This was all trial and error, and this works for me, so I keep doing it this way for now.

 

[juicy122]

I have grown my delts to the point that an objective eye has told me overshadows some of my other muscles, like chest (my previous best body part).

I did it like this.

Moving a heavy pressing movement to last and starting with isolation work.

I start with rear delts on a machine. Warmup and two working sets only. Then rear dumbbell flies, facing forward on a low incline bench, as heavy as possible with good form in the range of 8-15 reps. Again, only two working sets. Then I do dumb bell lateral raises. Warmups starting with 5s or 10s and go up to my working db weight (40s or 45s right now). 4-5 sets. I try to get 15 reps for all 4-5 sets before moving up in weight. Then I move to a heavy pressing shoulder machine and load it up (after appropriate warmups) as heavy as fucking possible but never dropping below 8 reps. I may only do 1 set of these heavy presses. I might do 2 or 3. If I get one good heavy set (after working up to the heaviest weight), then I can call it a day, but sometimes do another set or 2.

That's it.

I tried all the other stuff others have posted above, but what I have written works best for me.

Experiment and see what works for you. This was all trial and error, and this works for me, so I keep doing it this way for now.

very interesting , yeah maybe if i start with these i can lift much heavier and get more out of my shoulders for the lacking parts. Because i have been starting with heavy presses for a while now and clearly that didnt do much. Also my dumbass neglected rear delts when i first started weightlifting for a while till i started doing them. So i think i will focus alot on these first and then do the press in the end. thanks for the input i will def try that as it seems most likly my problem. Today i also did heavy partials as others stated and did drop sets and man i had a great shoulder pump. I think now if i stick with this stuff im optimistic for better shoulders!

 

[RoidRage420]

For me personally I find shoulders need a fuckton of volume. Make them mafakkas buuuuurn. Multiple drop sets, super sets, and ropes. If your shoulders aren't burning too much to lift your arms when you leave, keep fuckin going. I made huuuuge gains in the delts when I started to beat on them like a red headed stepchild. Heavy lifts just made them strong as all fuck and a bit of a pump but no real size gains

 

[yattydaddy]

4 sets of higher reps and light/moderate weight works very well for me. I have pretty big shoulders. But, it still comes to genetics at the end of the day.

 

[Suprachica79]

I found higher frequency training on shoulders to be helpful. Rather than do one big shoulder day per week, I’d put 2 working sets of each exercise that hits each head of the delt 3 times a week. I’ll also second that medial/middle delt work is super important visually. Less weight-slinging and more moving weight with intention. If you can’t hold the weight in the shortened position, drop the amount.
Also, check out butterfly raises. They look like a sissy move, but they will kick your ass.

 

[Jet Labs]

Side/front delts on arm day, finish them with 30 minutes of brutal/minimal rest cable work. Pyramid the weight.

Rear delts on back day, finish them with reverse pec dec, flat/incline reverse fly and laying flat BB rear delt raise(Keep bar parallel with shoulders). Pyramid the weight.

The last few lighter weight sets go to COMPLETE failure even if that means doing 30-40 reps/puking/death

 

[Test_Subject]

I can’t believe that nobody has said it but OHP.

Rather than going super heavy and using it as a main movement, do it for 4-5 sets later on in the workout. Start off aiming for sets of 12 at ~RPE 9 , then, when you can’t hit 8 reps, drop the weight for the next set to keep your reps up. Shoulders respond very well to volume.

That and alternating between seated, banded and standing lateral raises every workout is how I built my shoulders. Add in facepulls and rear delt flies on your back/pull days and you’re golden.

 

[tgrusso78]

This guy's got delts


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