posted Thu, 05/14/2026 - 12:05
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Best Exercises for Side Delt Growth?
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What’s up guys. Looking for some advice on side delt training.
Right now I mainly do cable lateral raises and dumbbell lateral raises, but honestly I’m not seeing much progress in my side delts. Starting to think I’m doing something wrong.
How do you guys train side delts for growth? Frequency, reps, exercises, form cues, intensity techniques, whatever helped you actually bring them up.
Would appreciate any tips. --
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unseen423This thread is a perfect example of why I love this forum. So much good information here to implement.
Adding this to my Eroids notebook. I keep have a section for gear info, recipes, and training advice.
Well said. I’m happy to have found this forum as well.
Jrihard89Start with a side raise, put all the umph you got and energy to start the workout focused on a side delt exercise!
Dont ego lift like a douche. Tired of the idiot broccoli heads thinking they’re cool trying to curl 45s and side raise 40s. Take the ego away.
Do 2-3 variations of side raises. Some think they’re all the same but they ain’t. I do a dumbbell and a cable. Cable has great tension!
Behind the body cable raises and a dumbbell raise. And for front a press a dumbbell raise or Ez bar raise.
After all my workout is done sometimes I’ll end with a long 50 set machine side raise. It’s by the front door and I do it heavy enough I can usually get 25 reps the first go. Then I’ll stop to catch my breath and go another 15 and die. Then come back to life and do 10 more. I love it. Just forcing blood in right before I dip out.
Thanks brother. Great insight.
Brother, first thing IMO is properly adjusting your split and understanding that delts usually respond VERY well to both frequency and quality volume.
Pete explained it perfectly honestly…
A lot of people just spam a few lazy lateral raises at the end of a workout and wonder why their shoulders never become 3D.
For me personally what works best is:
high intensity
higher frequency
moderate/high volume
lots of mechanical tension and consistently training close to failure
And honestly… I fully agree with @Petecastiglione
about isolating all 3 heads.
People love saying:
“front delts get enough from pressing”
Sure… they get stimulated.
That doesn’t mean they’re maximally developed from a bodybuilding perspective.
Same logic applies to biceps during rows like Pete said.
Bodybuilding is about targeted hypertrophy, not just “muscle activation.”
To really build those cannonball/3D shoulders:
heavy presses, front delt work, side delt work, rear delt work and different angles/cable resistance profiles…Progressive overload and enough frequency/recovery
all matter.
One thing that also helped me a LOT:
stop treating lateral raises like a lightweight ego exercise.
Controlled eccentrics, stable torso, good scapular positioning, partials at the end, lengthened tension… all that stuff adds up over time.
Keep smashing them consistently to the point your body has no option BUT to adapt
Thanks brother. Great insight. Thanks for taking the time to write that.
Jrihard89All of this!
Also to add in, train side delts first if that’s your weak head! Smash them first when you have all the umph! My rear delts are strong as shit in terms of shape so in train them last and focus on other heads!
Do not start with OHP. Do those last. Pretty much hit every lateral raise variation, primarily dumbbells but also machines/cables. Hit front delts too don’t listen to the fools that “wellll ackhuallyyyyy they get hit plenty during presses” yea with that logic so does biceps with any row. They get hit but bodybuilding you need to have very targeted hypertrophy for every muscle or it will not be fully developed, I don’t care what anyone says, everything needs to be isolated. If ur happy with a body part without isolating it, GREAT, but I promise it can be more developed.
Thanks! I haven’t done isolated front delts in years lol. I’ll start them again!
My current coach is a bodybuilder… hardly any of my program involves compound moments. All isolated and supersets everywhere. I hit current PRs on both flat bench and back squat last week (then my back went out but that’s another story lmao). I am losing inches and getting stronger. It’s amazing how that works.
Big difference in power and bodybuilding. Power adds overall mass....bodybuilding can isolate weak areas. Both matter.....
Yes they do. I’m going to start throwing in some of my 5/3/1 splits here and there to really shake things up.
Hella!!! Fun shit!
Strongest pound for pound I’ve ever been was when I started following Jim Wendler religiously when I was in college. I cut weight from 280 to 220s. Had a 340+ bench, 450ish squat, and 450ish deadlift. I wish I had learned better squat mechanics at that time but was traditionally a high bar guy.
Upright rows with cable and str8 bar. Keep bar away from body
I do a ton of lateral & front raises... I feel like they are both necessary to build the area into a bowling ball. As mentioned, volume is your friend. Heavy weight, full range of motion... pinky up, palms up, thumbs up... heavy partials are game changers too. Once the weight reaches a certain height, your neck & surrounding muscles start to really take over.
I have had some compliments on my shoulders in real life. I’ve never done a cable side raise it’s what’s everyone is doing now and I don’t see any nice side delts being built
My go to is SEATED side raises takes the momentum out…. Slow up , when at top turn your PINKY up like your pouring tea HOLD then slowly with tension lower the dumbell. Do not go all the way down -KEEP TENSION ON the delt the whole time , raise again. You see soo many people throw the weight up then let it hang down then momentum up.
You can feel the moment on the way down where you lose tension. Try it with no weight and you can feel it
Trenbolone or anadrol and lots of lat raises
More volume.
Boom
^^^ 100% lots and lots and lots of reps.
This is always my answer to this type of question. You mentioned Meadows below. He did a ton of volume. Rick Del Hagen? Volume when he’s really focused on something. Old school body builders? Retarded amount of volume down to the point where 5lb dumbbells became heavy for them.
I feel like my shoulders only grow when I'm hitting them constantly with 25-40 rep sets. I feel like in terms of heavy, lower rep work my shoulders get plenty of indirect stimulus from benching, bent over rows, supported rows etc...
So i just fit in huge sets of lat specific work 3-4 days a week.
Can't wait to bump into you in a random gay bar one day. Then we both notice that we are both browsing eroids..
That meeting will happen. It was foretold in part of the eroids prophecy.
One arm cable lateral raises
Focus on posture, breathing, ultimate form. Lighten the weight, raise the handle higher than you think & hold. Keep the pinkie high and really focus on negative, get a nice stretch at the bottom.
Hope this helps.
I always do dumbbell laterals, and sometime machine. Always lead with your elbows throughout the movement and hands should never go past parallel with your shoulders.
Make sure your mind muscle connection is strong throughout the movement, it should feel like your delts are doing the work and your not forcing the weight up by sacrificing your joints, or using momentum and swinging. So if you have to lower the weight to do these things then lower the weight. You’re trying to grow the muscle so you want a good contraction.
I do my sets on my shoulders in the 12-20 rep range, and I rep it until I can barely even budge the weight up at all anymore. For extra intensity do a drop set and even a double drop set. 30’s, 25’s, 20’s, I typically keep the drop sets until the end of my workout to get a crazy pump and the delts screaming, and I only ever do around 8-12 sets total a week for side delts.
Awesome thanks brother
Check out John Meadows shoulders on YouTube. Youre welcome.
RIP mountain dog
Thanks. Already started watching lol.
unseen423RIP....Love the Mountain Dog.
I'm really enjoying how Cris Edmonds is still carrying John's legacy on. I just purchased and am doing his Scorpion program for my bulk. It's the first program they have put out since John's passing. It's a real kick in the dick, but I'm loving it.
As to side delts- I love high volume on the Panatta Multi Flight at my gym. Just keep banging out set after set.
RIP to a legend. I’ve taken lots of tips from his content. Over my life I have mostly connected to Mentzer’s philosophy, but I love looking at different styles especially that both proved effective. Mountain dog Meadows lots of high volume hypertrophy training. Mentzer was low volume as low as once a week and crazy high intensity. I think there is a middle ground personally, but man the results are undeniable looking at either of them. Meadows had a back so grainy it looked alien, and Mentzer arguably had the best triceps of his era.
One amazing thing about the internet is having the knowledge from these guys who ruled past generations at our fingertips. Truly eternal.
Yes sir. I fall asleep to meadows training videos quite a bit. Seemed like such a great guy. His shoulder workouts specifically are money in my opinion. High weight, half reps and super high rep lat raises cant be beat. Dude was gone way too soon.