How to Get Wider Shoulders (THIS REALLY WORKS!)

Want to know how to get wider shoulders with just dumbbells and a single shoulder workout? Watch this video and perform the shoulder workout included to do exactly that. The key to building wider delts is not just to focus on the middle delts entirely, but to build all three heads while making sure

So, you want to get wider delts? Good  because I’m going to show you how to do it with just this and this and have it work  for you better than it ever has before. What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx. com  So bigger, wider delts are what you’re after, the good news is, you can’t do it with  just dumbbells.

As a matter of fact, I’m going to prove it to you today by giving you a  full workout at the end of this video to make sure that it happens. On the same note, pursuing those  wider delts by focusing mainly on the middle head may not be giving you the results that you want,  and here’s why. If I don’t take out that plastic cap again and draw your front delt, your middle  delt, and your rear delt and put it right here on your shoulder, you can see the part that’s most  responsible for the width is that red portion that you can see. But the geometry of a circle demands  that you actually be more well-rounded, literally. Because if I were to take out this circle and  diminish the size of the front and rear delts, well, look what just happened to the roundedness  of the middle delt.

It gets flattened out because when you re trying to create something round,  it can’t just be round on one side, it has to be round no matter what angle it’s looked at. So, what this means is the path to the widest delt is going to be the one that’s also developed  through the front delt, yes, that middle delt, but also that rear delt too. But when you’re really  starting to think about building big shoulders, you really have to start thinking beyond just  shoulders or push day. As a matter of fact, there’s plenty of opportunity to work them again  on back or pull day. And when you’re looking to build those wider shoulders, the volume is going  to add up to help you to get them.

So of course, on a push day, those non direct shoulder exercises  like bench press, pushups and dips that you’re doing for your chest are going to have a heavy  overlap in terms of helping that front delt of yours to grow. So, some of the onus for that  direct front delt work is removed, however, not completely, which is why you’re going to  still want to make sure you include it when you’re training your shoulders directly. But it’s here that we have the greatest opportunity to increase the size of our shoulders  by not overlooking that second chance to increase the volume of the most underdeveloped two heads  of your shoulders right now, the middle and rear delts. So, exercises like the Chest Supported  Row that allow for the elbows to be flared out to the sides to work more of the upper back or  in this case, heavily load the rear delts is something you’re not going to want to miss. The High Pull is one of the best ways to safely overload the middle delts and again sneak it in  under the guise of being a generic pull exercise, but again, with heavy focus on building up  those middle and rear delts.

And of course, one of the most powerful rear delt exercises  of all time, the Seated Cable Row is one that you have a great opportunity to make sure you’re  including in your back or pull day workouts. And just like there’s no skipping leg day, there’s  no skipping Face Pulls on leg day as yet another great opportunity to bring up that rear delt to  viewers to make sure that you’re looking round no matter where someone looks at you from. But it’s on the dedicated shoulder day that the real gains are possible because if you’re not  devoting at least some portion of your effort to be focused on developing all three heads of the  delts, you’re not going to develop them fully. So, we like to kick this off with a Dumbbell Standing  Overhead Press. Now, if you’re doing a push day, then you already got this covered on that day.

But  if you have shoulders split apart on their own, then I recommend starting with a Basic  Dumbbell Standing Press. And the reason why I like the standing variation here is  because it’s the safest for your shoulders, it’s uninterrupted by the back of the bench in  terms of normal shoulder biomechanics. It gives you a great option for handling some heavy weight  here and of course progressively overloading it in future workouts. And of course, it also gives  you the ability to incorporate your legs if you want to make this a little bit more explosive  via a Push Press. The bottom line is it’s a good way to kick off your workout and we just  do two or three sets with a weight that will cause you to fail in the 8 to 10 rep range.

Next, I want you to move right into that focused front delt work. I mentioned before, it doesn’t  have to be a lot, but you really need to do it right. Because all the other compound lifts  that you’re doing that are incorporating your front delts are doing so in a non-specific  way. In other words, they’re being called to the task but not directly being responsible for  lifting the weight that you’re lifting. Well, here we can make that happen by doing a Dumbbell  ISO Alternating Front Raise.

And there’s a couple of key points here. The ISO portion here  is talking about isolation, trying to initiate the first 20 to 30 degrees of that front raise with  just the front delts, the tendency to swing back or extend at the low back or lift with the traps  is far too common. If you just isolate the front delt to do that initial lift, you can then power  the dumbbell up the rest of the way, but you’re guaranteeing that you’re engaging in recruiting  the front delt to the task. That s a good way to start the exercise and a good way to ensure that  you’re getting the maximum development on that front delt in the roundness and all we need is one  to two really good hard sets with a weight that will cause failure in the 10 to 12 rep range. But now this is where I want you to turn your attention to those two more underserved heads of  the delts, we’re talking about the middle and rear delt.

And we start with something very similar  in terms of concept, the Upper Limit Lateral. We sit down on the floor with a lighter pair of  dumbbells, much lighter than usual, and all we have to do is start with those dumbbells one inch  off the ground and then lift them up out to the sides. Do not let the traps take over, do not lean  back, do not sway, do not swing. Initiate with a focus contraction. This alone is going to feel  unique to a lot of you.

When you get to the top, give that little extra squeeze and then lower  back down. But don’t let the dumbbells touch the floor. This constant tension will light up  your middle delts and it will teach you most of all how to engage them. And once you know how  to do that, you can grow them. This is a great way to do it.

We do it with three sets of a weight  that causes failure and about the 12 to 15 range, again, going a little bit lighter here. Next, we stick with the metal delts, but we take an entirely different approach with them. There’s a saying in sports that what you slow down, you must speed up in training. Well, here  what we do light, we can also do heavy, and we can also do explosively. That’s why I like to do  another lateral raise, but this time the Dumbbell Cheat Lateral Raise.

And instantly I can grab  a heavier dumbbell here and I’m not so focused on the isolation. Because here I know that if I  can apply heavier loads and a more overloaded, eccentric portion of the exercise, thinking about  how you could actually fight or stop the dumbbell on the way down, knowing of course that the  heavy weight is not going to allow you to, then I’m getting a different stimulus for  growth. Remember, it’s the intention that applies the tension to the muscle you’re trying  t