How to train your shoulders:

The deltoid is a large triangular muscle with three heads; the anterior (or front) deltoid, the lateral (or side) deltoid, and the posterior (or rear) deltoid. All three heads play a pivotal role in upper body strength, function, and aesthetics. 

Function of the deltoids and how to train them:

The anterior delt:

This muscle plays an important role in shoulder flexion (raising your arm straight upwards in front of you), internal rotation (imagine you’re emptying a bottle of water), and horizontal adduction (bringing your arm across as if you’re giving yourself a hug).

The front delts will be hit best using a combination of push-focused compound exercises such as incline and overhead presses, and isolation exercises that involve shoulder flexion such as front raises.

The lateral delt:

This muscle is primarily responsible for shoulder abduction (moving your arm away from the body's midline) but also plays a role in shoulder flexion and shoulder extension (moving your arm backward behind your body).

The side delts receive the best stimulus when prioritizing isolation accessories that abduct the shoulder such as cable, dumbbell, or machine lateral raise variations and upright rows.

The posterior delt:

The main functions of this muscle are shoulder extension, shoulder external rotation (turning your palm away from your body), and horizontal abduction.

To smash your rear delts, make sure to include a variety of pull-focused compound movements such as pull-ups and rows, and isolation movements involving horizontal abduction of the shoulder such as rear delt raises or rear delt flyes.

Organizing your training split:

Luckily enough, the front delts respond very well to pushing exercises, and the rear delts get a great stimulus from pulling movements which you are probably already doing for your chest and back anyway. 4-6 sets of isolation work per week for these muscles and you’ll be getting more than enough volume to see significant growth. 

The side delts, however, will require more sets of specific isolation work throughout the week to receive a similar level of growth, due to being less active in your compound lifts. For best results aim for 8 hard sets of isolation work per week.

Conclusion:

By learning the key roles and functions of the anterior, lateral, and posterior delts, you now understand how to effectively train these muscle groups in a way that contributes to shoulder strength, function, and aesthetics. Following the advice in this blog post and employing progressive overload over an extended period of time will give way to all of the shoulder gains you could ever need. If you’re looking for smart programming that removes the guesswork from training while keeping it fun and engaging, claim your free trial of our community coaching today!