The Best Way To Train Your Shoulders

Everyone has their favourite muscle group but one muscle group that stands out alot, even when fully clothed, are the shoulders. Given that you’ve got some muscle mass on them of course.

In this article we will cover the best way to work the shoulders.

First we will look at what muscles the deltoid is made up of.

The delts consists of:

The Anterior Deltoid (front)
The Lateral Deltoid (side)
The Posterial Deltoid (rear)

The Anterior Deltoids primary function is shoulder flexion.

The Lateral Deltoids primary function is shoulder abduction.

And the Posterial Deltoids primary function is horizontal shoulder abduction.

Research shows that the deltoid muscles are 50/50 made up of type 1 (slow twitch) and type 2 (fast twitch) muscle fibers. Which means that a combination of high reps and low reps is optimal for muscle growth.

Dumbbells or Barbells?

A study in 2013 compared four variations of the shoulder press with the help of EMG (Electromyography). This is a technique to evaluate and record the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles.

The variations were:

Standing Barbell press
Seated Barbell Press
Standing Dumbbell Press
Seated Dumbbell Press

Activation was found the highest in the standing and seated dumbbell press. Activation in the anterior delts (front) were also the highest with the two dumbbell pressing exercises.

The lateral deltoid (side) and posterial deltoid (rear) are much less activated with these excersies, the standing dumbbell press however was the best out of these four.

You can train the fronts delts optimally by just pressing exercises alone. Such as vertical and horizontal presses. According to research it is best to perform anterior shoulder exercises (front) with a higher incline. Preferably between 28 – 90 degrees angle. The higher the incline the more deltoid is involved.

Front raises show less activity in the anterior delts than dumbbell shoulder presses.

As you can see in the table below, from a thesis by Samantha Sweeney in 2014, the dumbbell shoulder press elicited the greatest muscle activation in the anterior delts.

Average EMG (%MVC) for the anterior deltoid.

Exercise	Average EMG
DB Shoulder Press	74 ± 15.9
DB Front Raise	57 ± 11.9*
Battling Ropes	49 ± 16.0*
Push-ups	48 ± 14.5*
Cable Diagonal Raise	46 ± 19.0*
Dips	41 ± 15.5*
BB Upright Row	33 ± 15.2*
Bent Arm Lateral Raise	32 ± 18.5*
45 Degree Incline Row	6 ± 4.0*
Seated Rear Lateral Raise	5 ± 4.1*

*Significantly different than DB shoulder press (< .05).
Values represent mean ± SD.

In this same thesis, the following three exercises showed the best muscle activation for the lateral deltoid.

The 45 degree incline row
Bent arm lateral raise
Cable diagonal raise

View the table below for the remaining exercises.

Average EMG (%MVC) for the middle deltoid.

Exercise	Average EMG
45 Degree Incline Row	84 ± 14.5
Bent Arm Lateral Raise	77 ± 16.1
Cable Diagonal Raise	74 ± 15.1*
BB Upright Row	73 ± 13.3*
Seated Rear Lateral Raise	70 ± 14.6*
DB Shoulder Press	62 ± 18.6*
Battling Ropes	37 ± 19.3*
DB Front Raise	36 ± 15.5*
Push-ups	13 ± 11.5*
Dips	7 ± 3.5*

*Significantly different than 45 degree incline row (< .05).
Values represent mean ± SD.

The three best exercises in this thesis for the posterior deltoid.

Seated rear lateral raise
45 Degree incline row
Battling ropes

And the remaining exercises for the rear delts can be seen in the table below.

Average EMG (%MVC) for the posterior deltoid.

Exercise	Average EMG
Seated Rear Lateral Raise	73 ± 9.9
45 Degree Incline Row	69 ± 14.0
Battling Ropes	38 ± 22.0*
Cable Diagonal Raise	35 ± 17.0*
Bent Arm Lateral Raise	33 ± 14.4*
BB Upright Row	31 ± 11.5*
Dips	26 ± 53.4*
DB Shoulder Press	10 ± 5.4*
DB Front Raise	9 ± 5.8*
Push-ups	6 ± 5.7 *

*Significantly different than seated rear lateral raise (< .05).
Values represent mean ± SD.

Click here to view the full thesis in PDF format.

Or read this 4-page PDF document.

They obviously didn’t include all possible exercises as there are plenty more to choose from.

The deltoid fly machine for example, has proven to be extremely effective for the rear delts. The position of your hands can make a difference in muscle activity, for some it might be better to have the palms facing eachother whereas having your hands in a horizontal position might produce a greater muscle activity for others.

For more detail on the most effective way to hit your shoulders, check out this great video full of useful information.