As one of the relatively small muscle groups, the shoulders are considered a staple in aesthetic physical development, as they are one of the components of your musculature, which may make you or break you.
So, imagine, you work your butt off over the years of resistance training, developing a thick bicep, triceps, a wide back and a puffy chest, but for some reason, your shoulders are literally flat- This would totally ruin the look of your physique and make you pretty narrow.
This is why it is very important to focus on the overall development of your deltoids, which will give you a fuller and wider look.
Of course, you cannot change the length of your bones, in order to get a wider shoulder line, but you can surely smash the living hell out of your side deltoids, which therefore will grow and make you look wider.
In this workout, we are going to show you a refined system of exercises, which will help you develop those thick, round deltoids, which are a difficulty for many people.
The Workout
Exercise map
Smith machine shoulder press
This exercise is a variation of the basic shoulder movement called “Shoulder press”, which can be done with dumbbells, a barbell, machine or a smith machine, as in this case. The smith machine allows for a fixed vertical movement, which will grant constant tension on the deltoids, leading to a better contraction and hence, better mind-muscle connection and development of the working muscles.
Execution
- Sit down and rest your head on the backrest, while looking up
- Grab the bar slightly wider than shoulder width and un-rack it
- Have the bar at chin level as starting point, so that your upper arms are pretty much parallel to the ground
- Push the bar up with a moderate pace, contracting the deltoids
- Let the bar go down slowly, until it reaches the initial position at chin level
Dumbbell Arnold press
This next exercise is another variation of the shoulder pressing movement. However, this one is done with dumbbells, which allow for more stabilizing muscles to be activated during the movement, due to the fact it is a free weight exercise that requires more stabilization, unlike the fixed-point smith machine. To further engage the deltoids, we add a twist at the end of the negative (lower) portion of the exercise.
Execution
- Grab the dumbbells and sit down
- Rest your head and keep the dumbbells in front of you as illustrated (wrist supinated)
- Pronating your wrist (spinning the dumbbells), push them up and above your head
- Let the dumbbells go down until your arms are at a 90-degree angle and supinate the wrist to get back to the initial position
Dumbbell one arm lying lateral raise
This next exercise, done on an incline bench, primarily targets the side deltoids, which are responsible for that wide and round look of the shoulders. And as we said, this is the one muscle group that makes or breaks your physique.
Execution
- Set the bench to an incline, 45-degree angle
- Grab the dumbbell and lie down on one side, keeping the dumbbell with a straight arm on the opposite side
- Looking forward, raise the dumbbell laterally and contract the deltoid
- After briefly holding the contraction, let the dumbbell go down to the initial position
- Complete the whole set and proceed to the opposite side
Disk front raise
This last exercise, expressed with a higher number of repetitions will give you a last, final blood-flush (pump) of the deltoids, which is a perfect finisher for the workout.
Execution
- Grab a disk with both hands on the sides and step with your feet at shoulder width, stably
- Keeping the disk in front of you and your back straight, lift the weight up slowly, contracting the deltoids
- Hold the contraction briefly and let the weight return to its initial position
- Keep a moderate pace throughout the whole movement and try feeling every muscle fiber working and contracting
As a conclusion we can say that this is a fairly balanced workout that focuses on every part of the deltoids, instead of primarily focusing on one lacking part. This workout is perfect if you already have a foundation but are looking to increase the size of your deltoids.
If you have already built a solid amount of muscle mass, but feel like you need to round up those shoulders more, take a look at our Lateral-Focused Shoulder Workout.
