[Music] well-developed shoulders are the key to completing a balanced physique and getting that broad shoulder look everyone is striving for however the biggest mistake people make when it comes to shoulder training is neglecting a focus on all three heads of the deltoid muscle this is detrimental in the long run since proper development of all three portions is what gives them that three-dimensional look to better understand this let's take a look at their anatomy the deltoid muscle is divided into three main parts the anterior lateral and posterior heads also commonly referred to as the front middle
and rear delt and although all three heads will be activated to an extent during all shoulder exercises as made evident in the literature each head can be emphasized through the use of specific exercises and the way you perform them so in this video I'm going to show you guys a shoulder workout optimized based on current scientific literature and our anatomical understanding of the delts and although it's important to consider all three portions of the shoulder keep in mind that the front delt already gets sufficient indirect work through several pressing movements and is shown in these
two studies by trebs and laverre its involvement in pressing movements increases significantly as the level of incline increases what this means is that since you're likely performing a lot of flat and incline pressing movements involving the anterior deltoids it's better to focus more on the development of the lateral and posterior heads which are often more neglected in a routine this not only helps balance your shoulder aesthetically but as shown in this study by the Journal of clinical biomechanics strengthening the posterior head of the deltoid is desirous for ensuring shoulder joint integrity and reducing injury potential
therefore in this routine we're going to put more emphasis on the lateral and posterior heads of the shoulder also keep in mind that the four rotator cuffs are important muscles that shouldn't be neglected as they help stabilize the shoulder but I'll make a separate video for them the shoulder press is an essential compound movement when it comes to shoulder training due to the ability to easily overload it with weights in addition the standing overhead press will also put more emphasis on the core musculature and serratus anterior muscle although there are several variations of this action
sighs which I will discuss they all mainly target the anterior deltoid with some involvement of the lateral and posterior heads and since this exercise has been shown in studies like this one by Baron and bus keys to be the best exercise for the anterior deltoid and was even shown to outperform dumbbell front raises by 41 percent I'd argue it's the only exercise you need to include in your regimen that emphasizes the front delt now as for which variation is most effective you basically have four options standing overhead press with a barbell standing overhead press with
dumbbells seated shoulder press with a barbell and seated shoulder press with dumbbells this study from the Journal of strength and conditioning research compared the four variations they found that the standing dumbbell press elicited higher anterior lateral and posterior deltoid activation than any of the other conditions when although research might suggest this variation to be best I think realistically it's a very difficult exercise to overload especially once you get to very heavy weight so for this reason I'd offered the barbell overhead press instead since it wasn't very far behind the standing dumbbell press in terms of
overall shoulder activation and it outperformed the seated variations but keep in mind that the other variations are still very effective exercises and can be cycled through your program as needed for example if you stall on the standing overhead press or get bored of the movement after a couple mounts feel free to swap it for the seated dumbbell press or seated barbell press this next exercise is commonly performed in the gym and is one I highly recommend for lateral shoulder development it's going to mainly target the lateral deltoid with moderate involvement of the other two heads
and the upper traps this exercise was shown in this study by Baron and bus keys to elicit the highest activation of the mid delt when compared to other common shoulder exercises however given that this exercise is so popular I want to go into more depth regarding proper form and how to maximize shoulder activation while minimizing stress at the shoulder joint when you lift the weight to your side the activation of each head of the delt depends on the extent to which it's in a direct line of force opposing gravity so without any shoulder rotation you
can see that the lateral deltoid as well as the anterior deltoid are in a direct line of force opposing gravity meaning they will both be sufficiently activated now when we internally rotate our shoulder think about as if you were pouring water from a pitcher this takes the anterior deltoids out of the equation and makes the lateral deltoid in the most direct line of force which is the one we want to target and this is why you'll see bodybuilders and just people in general internally rotate their shoulder as they perform this movement however this is a
dangerous position for the glenohumeral joint to be in and will lead to wear and tear and shoulder impingement in the long run which can take months or even several years to happen to fix this what you want to do is externally rotate your shoulder when performing this exercise but you may notice the muscle in the direct line of force now is the front delt so to address this and put more emphasis on the mid delt you can do one of two options one say a lean forward so that your mid delt is now more in
the line of force or to perform that exercise on an inclined bench which is the same idea but in both cases you want to ensure that you're slightly externally rotating the shoulder now we are going to put more emphasis on the rear delts which as I mentioned earlier is essential for balanced development of the shoulder and long-term shoulder health this exercise is going to mainly emphasize the posterior deltoid but will involve various other secondary muscles as well studies like this one by Pinto and colleagues have shown that the reverse PEC deck elicits higher rear delt
activation than the seated row and lat pulldown meaning that including them in your routine is essential for optimal rear delt development as for which handle to use on this machine this study from the Journal of strength and conditioning research showed that the neutral grip where the palms face each other elicited higher posterior delt and infraspinatus activation than the other grip where the shoulders are internally rotated and the palms face down this indicates that the neutral grip might be the better option however it's important to note that there was a lot of variation in this study
with some subjects finding the other grip more effective so try out both and see which feels better for you this exercise is my personal favorite when it comes to really isolating the rear delts and there's something I highly recommend you try out although this variation will target similar muscles as the traditional standing face balls will it will lessen the involvement of the traps more specifically the upper traps this is because as shown in this study from the Journal of Sports Medicine the upper traps are more active during standing exercises since they work as a postural
muscle therefore laying on the ground eliminates the effect of gravity and can decrease excessive activation of the upper traps this is beneficial because most people tend to have overactive upper traps which will tend to overpower the rear delts in many movements so by performing this exercise lying down it enables the rear delts to be more involved by lessening the involvement of the upper traps however keep in mind that the traditional face poles still have their benefits when it comes to strengthening the rotator cuffs and postural muscles so I'd strongly advise that you still incorporate them
somewhere in your routine or do a few sets of each variation and one cue I'd like to mention is to think about pulling with your elbows as opposed to pulling with your hands which might sound weird at first but it's personally helped me use more of my rear delt in the movement as opposed to having my biceps or other muscles take over now as for fiber type the shoulders have been shown in numerous studies to be pretty much an even 50/50 split between type 1 and type 2 muscle fibers generally it's thought that high reps
with low weight maximize type 1 fiber growth and low reps with high weight maximized type 2 fiber growth some studies agree with this however others show that both fiber types will grow regardless of the rep range used but I think that research is still leaning towards including a mix of both low rep and high rep work for shoulders given their fiber type distribution so I think that would likely be the best option in terms of hypertrophy so to wrap this all up here's a sample workout you can do using the exercises previously discussed feel free
to swap or add exercises or split the workout in half if you're training shoulders more than once a week and keep in mind that this is just a recommendation and the optimal number of sets and reps will vary individually I just wanted to give you guys some sense of direction to take and I'll also leave a link in the description box down below where you can download a full 7 page of the workout that will also include exercise pictures and tips a progression scheme to use how to fit this workout in with various splits and
alternatives you can use for each exercise and this will all be 100% free so I highly suggest you check that out in the description box as I will show you how to properly and optimally perform each movement as well as how to apply them in your routine let me know if you found it useful and feel free to let me know if you have any questions regarding anything I've written thanks for watching guys no one took me a while to get my shoulders video done but I hope you guys enjoyed it and thank you all
for being so patient and as I previously mentioned my new website built with science comm is now up and on that site I'll be posting summaries and articles of all my science-based videos and I'll go more in depth regarding the studies and I'll also have some free pdf workouts there for you guys to use and I'm also working on getting my PE programs out there as soon as possible as well so stay tuned for that anyways as always if you guys found the video useful please don't forget to give it a like leave a comment
down below and also subscribe to my channel and turn notifications off for my channel as well as this all really helps me out you can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook as well where I'll be posting informative content on a more regular basis anyways thank you guys for all your support I really do appreciate it I'll see you next time [Music]
