Hey
Here’s some of my favourite tips for bigger guns.
I need more shoulder width. What should I do?
Start by prioritising mass building exercises to build a basic foundation.
I find compound movements, which work multiple muscle groups at the same time, most effective because they make it easier to hit all three heads of the shoulder and overload the muscle with more weight. I recommend seated dumbbell shoulder presses, overhead barbell press and plate-loaded or machine shoulder press.After focusing on mass, you can target the three separate parts of the shoulder. As you’re looking for width, you should prioritise the lateral head, which will build the shoulder caps that give a wider look. I find the best exercise to achieve this is side lateral raises using dumbbells.
You can do them standing or seated. Standing allows you to use heavier weights that overload the muscles much quicker but I see too many guys throwing their body into the exercise to get the weight up. Go heavy, but focus on form and work in the 8-12 rep range.The seated version is much stricter, which prevents you from just chucking weights around. Go lighter on this exercise and focus on squeezing the lateral delt and slowly lowering the weight.
Work in the 8-12 rep range or alternatively include them in a superset and go even lighter and aim for 15-20reps. This will create a ridiculous burn from the build-up of lactic acid and a great pump. Unilateral-raises, which are done one arm at a time, are another option for side delts. This exercise allows for greater emphasis on each delt, which is particularly useful if one of your shoulders is lagging.
I again like to do these in the 8-12rep range in a controlled manner while holding on to a bench with the arm that isn’t lifting the weight.You can vary it by using the cables and grabbing hold of the machine with your other arm for support.
Cables area brilliant alternative to dumbbells because they create constant tension throughout the movement.
