Shoulder the load: don't let your delts take a back seat. Cap off your v-taper with this well-rounded routine

Muscle & Fitness, July, 2009 by David Sandler

THE GREATEST THING about training delts is that you'll never run out of exercises. Being a ball-and-socket joint, the shoulder moves across multiple planes and initiates such exercises as front raises, lateral raises, bent-over lateral raises, upright rows and overhead presses. Multiply that by all the lifting equipment available-barbells, dumbbells, cables, plate-loaded machines and more-and the possibilities are plentiful. Yet somehow there are tone of guys whose delts are still unbalanced. Whether it's the front delts overpowering the rear delts or the middle delts hogging all the attention, a change is in order.

With this workout, you won't have to worry about any of your deltoid heads getting the shaft. You'll start with a standard overhead barbell press to add mass to the middle and front heads. The reps are on the low end of the hypertrophy range (8-12) and rest periods are a bit lengthy (two minutes),so go as heavy as you can while still maintaining proper form. Use a spotter both for safety and to help you get a forced rep or two on your last couple of sets.

After presses you'll move on to a triset of raises, one for each delt head. Go right from one exercise to the next, resting only as long as it takes to walk to the next piece of equipment; rest two minutes between each tri-set. Your finishing move is the Arnold press, for the front and middle delts.

If you can't life your arms as you leave the gym, that's a good thing. Don't worry, your delts will recover.

DELT DEMOLITION

EXERCISE                       SETS  REPS   REST

Seated Overhead Barbell press   3      8    2 min.

Tri-Set:

Seated Dumbbell Front Raise    3-4    12    2 min. (1)

One-Arm Cable Lateral Raise    3-4    12

Bent-Over Lateral Raise        3-4    12

Arnold press                    2     10   90 sec.

(1) between each tri-set

BY DAVID SANDLER, MS, CSCS