Wide Appeal

The perfect V-taper starts at the top, with thick and impressively wide delts. Build yours with this five-pronged workout, designed to maximize your shoulder size from all angles.

Photos by Peter Lueders // Model: James Ellis

Shoulder Training Tips

  • Warm Up. An especially vulnerable joint to injury (because of its extreme range of motion, and the fact that the muscles of the shoulder are relatively small), you don’t want to engage in heavy lifting until the area is filled with blood. In addition to the light-weight 15-rep set of the first exercise in the accompanying workout, consider adding 2-3 light sets of raises and presses.
  • Press for Success. Raises and upright rows are helpful and necessary for optimal gains, but the one key attribute any delt routine must include is a press. Pressing is multifunctional in that it engages the entire deltoid muscle, and it’s the only way to challenge the muscle with significant resistance. Without presses, you won’t reach the level of development you’re capable of genetically.
  • Run the Rack. One top intensity technique for delts is running the rack during lateral raises. Basically, it’s an extended set in which you do a set of reps (say, 10), then immediately grab the next-lightest pair of dumbbells and do another 10 repetitions. Continue this pattern, “running down the rack” of dumbbells until the burn is so intense you can’t go on while maintaining good form.
  • Experiment. The body is very adaptable, in that it will adjust to repeated activity — if you ask it to do the same workout time after time, it will change to meet that challenge but then stop. You need to push yourself to new levels of strength, switch exercises and the order in which you do them, plus tweak your set and rep schemes, all in an effort to keep your body wondering what’s next.

 

*To maximize the long-term value of this workout, substitute seated dumbbell and barbell presses, as well as machine presses, from time to time in this leadoff position.