The Cure for Narrow Shoulders and Flat Delts

Q: Broad shoulders get girls’ attention, but mine are narrow. Plus, my delts are flat. Should I do more presses to round them out? I notice in 3D Muscle Building [the Positions-of-Flexion manual] that you use presses as a front-delt midrange exercise.  Aren’t they good for side delts too? By the way, I love the 4X mass method and am using it almost exclusively.

A: Overhead presses primarily train the front-delt heads, although there is side-head involvement. The bad news is that they can impinge the shoulder capsule if performed incorrectly. That’s why I now do them at the end of my delt routine. Here’s a good Positions-of-Flexion full-range shoulder hit, 4X style on every move:

Midrange: dumbbell upright rows 4 x 10

Stretch: One-arm cable laterals 3 x 10

Contracted: Standing laterals 4 x 12

Front-delt midrange: Dumbbell presses 3 x 10

In the 4X e-book, The 4X Mass Workout, presses are listed as the second exercise, after the dumbbell upright rows. That’s okay for some trainees, but I’ve had shoulder problems in the past, so I opt to do them at the back end. That means less weight to stress my shoulder capsules.

As I mentioned, presses do train the side, or medial, head secondarily. They also train the side head in the high-contracted position, which is important—something you don’t get with upright rows or laterals. And if you do your presses starting at about ear level, you will get continuous tension on your front and side heads, something also missing from most lateral raises unless you do them on a machine. With dumbbells, the resistance is zero at the bottom of the stroke.

Recently I’ve been doing my seated and standing laterals moving through just the top end—that is, from where the arms are just below parallel to the floor up to level with the top of my head. That keeps wicked tension on the medial head for serious sarcoplasmic expansion—more mass via energy fluid proliferation. The continuous tension is no doubt what you’re missing in your efforts to build new shoulder size.

An exercise I like in place of dumbbell upright rows in the above routine is one I learned from famous Hollywood trainer Vince Gironda. It’s called a high upright row. You take a shoulder-width grip on a bar and row it up and out until it’s about a foot away from your face and even with your forehead. You’ll get major cramping in your side-delt heads, right where you want it for more width. Use 4X, and you’ll pump up like crazy on that very first delt move—but be aware that the poundage you’ll be able to handle will be very light.

As you know, 4X is taking a weight with which you can get 15 reps but only doing 10; rest 35 seconds, then do it again. Continue for four sets, and on the fourth do as many as you can. If you get 10, add a little weight at your next workout.

Those tips should get you some new girl-grabbing shoulder size.