The Case For Training Your Front Delts (And The Best Front Delt Exercises)

“Bodybuilders don’t need any front delt work! If you are chest pressing and shoulder pressing, your front delts get all the work they need!”

 

Anyone that is seriously into bodybuilding has heard some version of the above. I used to believe it. And I also have come to vociferously disagree.

 

The irony to these kinds of statements is that in the same breathe, you will be told that “overhead pressing is not necessary for shoulder development”, that “flat bench pressing probably isn’t the healthiest movement long term” and that “you need to find what works for you”.

You’ll also be told to “work all the angles”, “take care of your shoulders”, and “at a certain point in your career, it’s not about the weight you are lifting, it’s HOW you lift the weight”.

Contradict yourself much? Now, I’m not attacking any one person. I’ll take apart ideas, not people. I myself used to avoid all manner of isolation work for shoulders, and did the same with my clients. My clients are 99% general population.

The irony to this though:

-My shoulder joints, which have always been prone to aggravation, were always feeling grindy and gravelly from pressing

-A lot of my clients simply couldn’t do overhead presses, or could do them with only very light weight

So on one hand I have myself, with two AC separations, weak as hell rotator cuffs, and on the other I have clients who are not going to be barbell push presses any time soon.

Maybe I need to rethink some things.

Over a few years, I divorced myself from the bodybuilding dogma. By my estimation, bodybuilders were more often “posterior delt deficient” than they were “anterior delt dominant”.

At the same time, I observed many bodybuilders, and even powerlifters, who had successfully used a steady stream of isolation work to build their shoulders, and credited this with keeping their shoulders HEALTHY.

So maybe front delt work had its place then.

Applying that to my clients (and myself) I discovered something else

The Piece by Piece Approach

I’ve trained A LOT of women. The majority of whom were not going to be taking the 50s for a ride on the on the high incline any time soon. The majority of whom had never pressed ANYTHING overhead in their life. They had ZERO shoulder muscle. Combined with less than optimal thoracic posture (kyphosis), an overall lack of upper body muscle, and a general reticence at lifting weights, “just pressing” was not going to work.

So I realized I could use a piece by piece approach. By having someone perform many months of anterior, lateral, and posterior delt exercises, I could essentially develop their shoulders and upper body “piece by piece” and work them up to doing compound pressing movements with far greater ease and effectiveness than if I had started them out with them from the outset.

Now, this is not an all or nothing approach. I often used a hybrid of

-isolate

-isolate

-isolate

-integrate (compound movement done LAST after innervation and pump have been achieved)

This worked, and it worked very very well. You can also use to with all manner of muscle groups.

Whats Old School is New School once more

John Meadows widely popularized the training the posterior aspect of the shoulder some years back. Since that time, everyone’s rear delts have been far more developed.

I would add, I think Meadows also revitalized an old school concept that had been forgotten.

Training the “shoulder girdle” not just the shoulders.

You don’t hear the term shoulder girdle used too much anymore. But if you read literature from the 1940-1970s, it’s much more common.

The Shoulder girdle encompasses not only the delts, but the all delts and upper back; deltoids, traps, teres major and minor, scapular muscles.

If you view the shoulder as a UNIT, and not just a set of muscles, then training it for strength, size, and healthy functionality becomes a lot more objective. It also makes sense then to perform isolation movements as necessary to accomplish the above.

When to Train Your Front Delts

Id lay out three approaches to train the front delts. This is one area that doesn’t need to be overcomplicated

1. Isolate, Integrate-Basically pre-exhausting. You do your isolation movements for deltoids first, and then you do your shoulder pressing last. Lee Haney notably trained this way for his shoulders.

2. Heavy stuff first, light stuff after-You could call this a powerlifting model, but essentially it is prioritizing the meat and potato’s movement that you can apply progressive overload too, and saving the smaller exercises for after as follow up. This how most people train, and it does work.

3. Isolate only-For the people who figured out that heavy pressing overhead just doesn’t work for them. In this case, putting shoulder work after chest work often works the best. Or you could pair shoulders with arm (biceps and or triceps)

How often to train front delts? If your shoulders are lacking, twice week is always effective. If not, once a week. Priority principle on this one.

How much volume? I don’t know if anyone has ever explored the upper limits of front delt work. Per my training experience, I don’t think I’ve ever done more than 10 working sets a week for front delts with anyone. This depends on the approach you are using. If you are doing just one movement for front delts, the working volume could be as little as 2 sets. If you are using more of an isolation approach, volume will likely be in the 4-10 range. Ive never doubled up on front delt exercises. I have my clients do ONE movement, and the working sets is what goes up and down. If shoulders are being targeted twice weekly, and 5 working sets are done each time we train for front delts, then 10 ends up being the limit.

Apply this as you will. I could also make a case for not bothering to count volume from front delt work, but at that point Im going to be confusing people.

Operative point-if our front delts are lacking, TRAIN THEM.

The Exercises

Having written a treatise for front delt training by this point, lets get to the exercises I promised in the title of this article. Following each exercise are suggested working sets and reps

1. Seated DB Front Raise-A classic movement that has been around for ages and always will be. On the setup for these, don’t slouch while sitting, or tuck your butt under you. Sit with a neutral pelvis, and pull your feet in closer to the body to do this. Maintain a neutral spine, and raise both DBs simultaneously, or alternate them. Experiment with going from from a neutral to pronated grip, or pronated to neutral.

2-4 sets of 8-15 reps

2. Front Raises with EZ Curl Bar-These are best done standing as a dropset. I love them for how effective they are while also being the epitome of bro bodybuilder ridiculous Take a conventional EZ Curl bar, and slide on however many 5lb, or even 2.5lb plates you want to each side. I suggest doing these with a bit of momentum of each rep. Grab the bar with an overhand grip, and do front raises to temporary failure. Slide a plate off each side, and do another set, keep doing this until you hit failure with just the barbell. A triple or quadruple dropset done once or twice is all you need for this one.

1-2 sets of 8-12 reps per 3-4 dropsets

3. Front Delt Cable Raise-These can be done alternating, or unilateral. I like the alternating version, as you can get into a rhythm, but the unilateral one is great also for getting an extended stretch on the front delt. Stagger stance your feet, lean forward, and work one side at a time, or do them bilateral.

2-3 sets of 8-12 reps

4. Cable Rope Raise-I picked this up from Christian Thibedeau. Id say this is a very “functional” movement if you set up properly for it. You set up as if you are doing a cable pullthrough with a pulley rope, but you lean farther forward, into an athletic “ready” position. With a neutral grip on the rope, you perform a front raise. I’ve found this work best in multiple sets, and not doing them to failure but letting the pump and fatigue accumulate. 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps work best, with minimum rest between sets.

3-5 sets of 8-12 reps

5. Pauline Nordin Shredder Raise-Credit to the Pauline who I picked these up from. These are an “ultimate” front raise, takeing the shoulder from almost full extension all the way to flexion. Set an adjustable bench to somewhere between 30-45 degrees. Lying back on the bench, you will let the arms drop. You can start the movement in either a pronated or neutral grip. Already the front delt will be in an extreme stretch. Raise the arms all the way overhead, and back down again with control. This movement will be contraindicated for some people, so be cautious trying it out. If it does work though, HOLY MOLY, your anterior delts will be on fire. The stretch on the delt and chest cavity also feels phenomenal. Go LIGHT with the loading, 5-10 lbs is all you’ll need.

2-3 sets of 8-12 reps

6. Front Raise Front Delt Press Combo-I randomly devised these last year while experimenting. These can alternate or be done simultaneous. Performa set of front fraises, then upon completion take a neutral grip, with the heel of the hand flush with the bottom of the handle, and go into a high rep set of overhead presses.

2-3 sets of 10-15 reps (per each movement)

7. Incline Pendulum Raise-These are done chest done on an incline bench. They are somewhat the inverse of the Pauline Raise. You the swing the arms back into extension, in line with the torso, and then swing them all the way forward into flexion. I call them a pendulum raise due to the momentum aspect

2-5 sets of 10-15 reps

8. Incline Horizontal Press-I learned these from John Meadows, these are a chest supported overhead press done horizontal. You are chest down on a bench set to a low angle incline. These work the entire shoulder, not only the anterior delt. Gravity does not work in your favor on these

2-3 sets of 8-12 reps

9. Banded Standing Front Raise-Simple but underused. Use a light or monster mini band, stand on top of it, grab with both hands with a pronated grip, and do some high rep sets of front raises done with a pronated grip.

2-3 sets of 10-20 reps

10. Bow and Arrow Raise-Hybrid Vince Gironda Movement of a front raise with an upright row. These are done with a pronated grip. One arm does a front raise, the other does an upright row. You “swing” through the transition, alternating side to side. Vince was very fond of this movement.

2-4 sets of 8-12 reps

11. Crucifix DB Front to Lateral Raise-A variation on an old school movement. The classic crucifix is a simple “hold your arms out to your sides for as long as possible”. This movement, you go from the transverse to sagittal plane/ you hold your arm out and go forward and to side with it. I’ve never seen the need for more than two sets with these.

2 sets of 30-60 seconds each

12. Meadows 6 Way Raises-Not a front delt exercise per se, but it does work the front delts, along with all the other heads of the deltoids. The 6 Way raise is a lateral raise to front raise to overhead raise lowered to front raise to lateral raise back down to the starting position. These you simply need to watch the video for.

2-3 sets of 6-10 reps

13. Carter Overhead Raise-Paul Carter popularized these, but Big Jim Williams was doing front plate raises back in the 1970s. These are a plate front raise, except you take it all the way overhead. I really favor these as they work not only the front delts, but the entire shoulder girdle, traps, rhomboids, teres major/minor, scapular muscles, the whole shebang

2-5 sets of 20 reps each

 

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