Muscular-Fitness

There are a number of exercises for training the side deltoids but many of these exercises also train the front deltoids and triceps as well. However, there are only a handful of ways that are effective for isolating the side deltoids and building thickness in the shoulders. Generally training the side deltoids is what I do at the beginning of my shoulder workout but isolating the side deltoids is how I finish training my shoulders on any given deltoid workout.

The shoulder press with either a barbell, dumbbells, smith machine or shoulder press machine is one of the best mass building exercises for training the side deltoids and working the front deltoids as well. Although when you perform any pressing movements using the arms you will indirectly target the triceps as well so effectively the triceps take some of the resistance away from the side deltoids when performing the shoulder press.

Isolating the side deltoids is best done by raising the arms with your palms facing downwards and therefore you will not be pressing in any way and using your triceps to help lift the weight. The number one exercise for isolating the side deltoids is the dumbbell side lateral raise. Side lateral raises are performed either standing or sitting. Start by holding your arms straight and by your side with your palms facing inwards. As you lift each arm holding the dumbbell you need to bring your arms out sideways always keeping your palms facing downwards. Bring the dumbbells up till your arms are parallel to the ground with your elbows just slightly bent. It is very easy to know if you are performing this exercise correctly since you should feel the resistance of the weights in your side deltoids and ever so slightly in your wrists and upper forearms.

To really blast and isolate the side deltoids at the same time I like to perform super sets of side lateral raises. Start by choosing a set of dumbbells that you can just complete 10 full reps before failure and then quickly drop the weight and pick up another set of slightly lighter dumbbells and perform another set of 10 reps and then drop these weights and take a third set of slightly lighter dumbbells again and perform another set of 10 reps. Your side delts should be well and truly pumped after a triple set or superset of side lateral raises. If you are up for it you could even try 3 triple sets to fully fatigue the side delts and stimulate growth within the shoulders.

If you begin to feel the resistance in your traps when you are isolating the side deltoids when doing side lateral raises you might need to decrease the weight a little bit and keep your shoulders down, you should never shrug the shoulders upwards when performing side lateral raises or the traps will start to do some of the work.

The same thing goes if you start to feel any pressure in the front deltoids, you need to keep bringing up the dumbbells by your sides only, never raise the weights by bringing the arms up in front of your body unless you want to place an emphasis on the front delts. Effectively isolating the side deltoids means keeping your arms out by you sides and raising your arms to the point where you are in the crucifix position.

One more highly effective way of isolating the side deltoids is to hold the dumbbells at the top of the side lateral movement for 2-3 seconds. This might sound easy but holding the weight at the top of the movement in the static position keeps all the resistance on the side delts and fatigues the muscles in the most intense way possible. This iso tension or holding the weights in the static position is another sure fire way to stimulate incredible growth in the side deltoids.