Image 1: The muscles of the deltoids (red) on the

front (left) and back (right) of the body and the

rotator cuff (violett), the group of muscles

and tendons that stabilize the shoulder.

the anterior, lateral and posterior part of the m. deltoideus, also known as the pars clavicularis , which attaches to the clavicle , the pars acromialis attaching to the acromion and the pars spinalis that is directly attached to the spina scapulae ,

also known as the , which attaches to the , the attaching to the acromion and the that is directly attached to the , the rotator cuffs, which comprise the m. infraspinatus, which arises from beneith the scapula at the fossa infraspinata scapulae and facilitates internal rotation, the m. supraspinatus, which is situated right above the former and is involved in the lateral adduction of the arm, and the m. teres minor, which is attached laterally to the scapula at the margo lateralis scapulae and figures in the abduction of the arm; the m subscapalaris, which completes this commonly overlooked muscular quartet attaches to the inner part of the scapula and facilitates internal rotation, abduction and adduction of the shoulder.

Image 2: Turns out the injury-prone neck

press is the most versatile delt-exercise as

it hits both the anterior, as well as the lateral

part of the delts about as hard

(image from sportkrachtfitness.nl)

for the lateral part...



Lateral raise - DB, internal rotation (view) Reverse fly - machine, ext. rotation Neck press - BB, seated for the posterior part...



Reverse fly - machine, int. rotation (view) Reverse fly - DB, internal rotation for the anterior part...



Military press - BB, seated Neck press - BB, seated Lateral raise - DB, internal rotation Bench press - BB Front raise - DB, external rotation

* BB = barbell; DB = dumbbell

Figure 1: EMG activity of anterior, lateral and posterior part of the m. deltoideus during selected exercises relative to the military press (anterior), the DB lateral raise (lateral) and the DB reverse fly (posterior); calculated based on data from from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies (2000)

Image 3: With its naturally arched

movement, the DB shoulder press

may be a viable, if not preferable

alternative to the BB military and

BB neck press (image everkineti.com) Exercise tip : While the respective EMG values for dumbbell exercises have not been measured in the study, it is very likely that exercises such as the DB overhead press provide an extra stimulus over their barbell equivalent that is related to the more natural arch of motion, where you get a good stretch at the bottom and can really squeeze the muscles in the contracted position, when the dumbbells approach (they do not cling!) each other at the top of the movement.



That being said, the DB overhead press is also a viable alternative for the BB neck press as the position center of gravity is more in line with your head throughout the movement. It may thus be assumed that the the stimulus shifts away from the front and towards the lateral deltoid, as it is the case with the neck vs. the military press. While the respective EMG values for dumbbell exercises have not been measured in the study, it isthat is related to the more natural arch of motion, where you get a good stretch at the bottom and can really squeeze the muscles in the contracted position, when the dumbbells approach (they do not cling!) each other at the top of the movement.That being said, theas the position center of gravity is more in line with your head throughout the movement. It may thus be assumed that the the stimulus shifts away from the front and towards the lateral deltoid, as it is the case with thevs. the

Figure 2: Reduction in EMG activity of selected variants of the DB lateral raise and the reverse fly relative to lateral raises with external rotation, DB raises with 90° arm/torso angle and internally rotated machine reverse flys; calculated based on data from from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies (2000)

internally rotated

-16%

VERY simple mechanical model and does not consider factors such as increased load per square area of muscle fiber in the stretched position, effects of static or complete contraction etc... Notwithstanding, if you like the following part of this write-up, please spread the word (via Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and let me know (in the comment section or the Note: The following analysis is based on aand does not consider factors such as increased load per square area of muscle fiber in the stretched position, effects of static or complete contraction etc... Notwithstanding,(in the comment section or the SuppVersity Facebook page) that it would be worth the effort to do similar and even more depth analysis in the future!

externally

Flexing the elbow too much (often up to 90°) and thus reducing the lever? Or, Not raising the dumbbells to shoulder height, i.e. keeping the angle between arm and torso <<90° (often <<70°)

always

Figure 3: Effects of arm/torso angle and elbow flexion on torque during the DB lateral raise

(data calculated based on a very basic physical model)

active

One of my pro hockey players, Jim McKenzie, improved his 14-inch, close-grip bench by 51 pounds in 12 weeks, from 280 to 331 pounds, by focusing on rotator cuff strength.

rotator cuff strength should be about 9.8 percent of what you can lift in the bench press [for] pain free bench pressing"

Figure 4: EMG activity of the major muscles of the rotator cuff during selected exercises relative to the DB external rotations done lying sideways on the floor; calculated based on data from from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies (2000)

Image 4: DB lateral raise with

arms 30° horiz. adducted for the

m. supraspinatus (Jobe. 1986) Isolating the m. supraspinatus with lateral raises: According to Jobe & Moynes (DB lateral raises performed with a 30° horizontal adduction of the arms fully isolates the m. supraspinatus if you rotate your shoulders so that your palms are facing the floor (the good old "emptying the bottle" technique). Doing 1-2 sets of lateral raises this way certainly is a time efficient way of incorporating a strengthening exercise for the upper part of the rotator cuff into your routine. You will have to use much lighter weights than on regular lateral raises, though. with: According to Jobe & Moynes ( 1986 ) theperformed with a 30° horizontal adduction of the arms fully isolates theif you rotate your shoulders so that your palms are facing the floor (the good old "emptying the bottle" technique). Doing 1-2 sets of lateral raises this way certainly is away of incorporating a strengthening exercise for the upper part of the rotator cuff into your routine. You will have tothan on regular lateral raises, though.

Image 5: You can rotate in some

Arnold Presses, if you feel you did

not hammer your front delts heavy

enough with the military press

Military Press - BB or DB seated, 6-8 reps Lateral raise - DB elbow-flexion <15°(!), 10-12 reps Reverse fly - machine or DB, internal rotation, 10-12 reps External DB rotations - lying on the floor, 12-15 reps

I don't know about you, but somehow I feel sad that this is already the last installment of the SuppVersity EMG Series . While it certainly was a hell lot of work to compile all the information, I am very pleased that (a few exceptions aside) you, the 'students' of the SuppVersity; appreciate and put into practice some of the information, I am putting out here. That being said, it is actually quite fitting that the series ends on a body part, even bodybuilders hardly ever stop fine-tuning: the complex musculature of the shoulder,Of the two muscle groups the former, i.e. the "delts", is the one that will give your that broad-shouldered look, everyone is striving for, while the latter constitute a necessary yet commonly overlooked prerequisite to build it. EventuallyIt is vitally important to keep this synergism in mind, when designing a routine - and if the risk of shoulder injuries due to underdeveloped stabilizer muscles does not shock you, maybe the information that a strong foundation in form of properly trained rotator cuff muscles will help you with "increasing your bench", so that the next time a bro asks youyou may well impress him with a new personal best (in case that is what you're training for ;-)But enough of the mourning and mocking, let's get some meat on your shoulders, or rather,- the SuppVersity proudly presents: The most effective exercises, as measured by electromyography (10 male resistance-trained subjects, mean age 22y, mean body-fat 13%; data from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000 ) for building massive delts and a powerful rotator cuff...I probably will never get tired of telling you that- not even if you use one of those fancy new devices, the name of which would suggest that they would facilitate exactly that ;-) In the real world (and, believe it or not, the gym is part of it) yourto move the weight from point A to point B. It is however very well possible to influence which muscle group and even which individual muscle takes the lion's share of the workload by selecting the right exercises and / or manipulating the way you perform a given exercise.Always remember this, when you take a look at the following list of the "most effective exercises" (correctly I should say the exercises with the highest EMG activity).The EMG data in figure 1 confirms what trainers all over the world have been propagating for decades.. Another common wisdom, which says thatwere among the most effective exercises for the anterior deltoid, on the other hand, gets busted. Even done with your ams externally rotated, the. A possible reason (and major drawback of all EMG data) for the "inferior" activation of front delt by theare significantly lighter loads compared to the. If the subjects had used 120lbs for the, but only 25pounds per DB for, for example, the muscle activity per pound of weight for thewould in fact have been roughly tree times higher - 929µV/120lbs=7.71 for thevs. 548µV/25lbs=21.92 for the. That being said it stands out of question that, within a volume program, there certainly is a place for an isolation exercise such as the, even if it is not a classic "mass building" exercise, the outstanding characteristic of which is maximal muscular overload, after all.Form, I cannot emphasize that enough, becomes more and more important with lighter weights, and as your shoulder is peculiarly prone to injury and generally much weaker than your legs, for example,. That being said, the previously cited example of theshows that lighter weights do not equal inferior muscle stimulation, as - done properly - respective isolation exercises generate way more torque per pound of weight you are handling than their mass building counterparts.Form does yet not only determine overall intensity, the way you are doing your shoulder exercises also has a profound influence on the degree to which the three parts of your deltoids are activated.In the case of thethe use of an arm to torso angle of 45°, instead of 90°, reduces the load on the lateral part of the deltoids by -29% and gripping the handles of thefrom the out- instead of the inside (external vs. internal rotation of the arm), takes away -20% of the stimulus (cf. figure 2).If you make good use of what you have learned at the end of the previous paragraph, you can- I know, the big weights are more impressive, but after all what's the use of using the biggest weights, if you are not making progress, both strength- and size-wise, because of improper form? I mean, it is one thing to cheat on the last 1-2 reps of a set in order to squeeze out the very last drops of gasoline from your muscular tanks, it is however something completely different to compromise form, just to be "the guy who lifts the heavy weights". There is hardly any movement, where this becomes so obvious as with the. If you do not do it yourself, you certainly know someone who grabs the 50lbs dumbbells, holds them vertically before his groin and then powers, or I should say, "rips" them up to his sides, lets them bang down and starts all over again until, after he eventually racked the weights, he grabs his shoulder or wrist in agony, yet not without the pride of having used a heavier weight than the guy next to him.You already know from the previous paragraphs and the EMG data in figure 2, that, i.e. to pretend you were trying tofrom the dumbbell at the top of the movement, if you do not want to lose 16% of the muscle tension in the first place... Well, but what about the aforementioned guy who does not even get the chance to think about pouring out any liquid other than that in his shaker bottle, when he is performing his ballistic weight exercises? Which of his mistakes, do you think compromises the effectiveness of themost?Well, from a physical perspective, whichprovides a very selective and (over-)simplified view of reality, the answer would be "1. flexing the elbow too much". Surprised?While raising the dumbbells to 75°, takes away less than 5% of the torque (cf. figure 3),! Think about that, when you look at the guy with the 50lbs dumbbells the next time you are at the gym. Chances are that you, with your 30lbs DBs are way stronger than he is, as long as you do not give in and reduce your elbow flexion more than those 15% that relieve some of the stress on the joint, but only minimally reduce the torque on the muscle.I hope that, over all that you have learned about delt-training by now, you did not forget, what I mentioned at the very beginning of this installment of the SuppVersity EMG Series: Rotator cuff training equals. While most trainees do not even feel them working, the muscles of theare crucial for the stability of the most flexible and volatile joint in your whole body, your shoulder. It is imperative for these largely overlooked and often undertrained muscles to hold the ligaments and bones of your shoulder in position so that your other muscles such as theor thecan do their job. To build a strongand, is thus also the foundation of building a "bigger bench" to impress your bros at the gym. If you don't believe that, you may listen to strength coach Charles Poliquin, who has the following anecdote to tell:And though I doubt the universality of Poliquin's "research", as far as the non-athletic regular gym-goer is concerned, it is certainly noteworthy that his years of experience in working with athletes have told him that ". That means, if you are benching 200lbs you should not wonder if your shoulder begins to hurt, if you are not able to use 20lbs dumbbells when doinglying on a mat on the floor ...A pros posas the data in figure 4 goes to show this is by far the best isolation exercise for the muscles of the rotator cuff. In essence, it does not really matter if you want to do them with a dumbbell standing, lying on the floor or with an elbow on a bench, or if you prefer doing them using a cable pulley. The- so you better do an exercise you like with light weights and feel the muscle working than an exercise that has been shown in study XYZ to be the most effective with a weight you can hardly handle and where you do not feel the target muscles working. This, by the way applies to the static doorway pushback, which is basically an "inverted pectoral stretch" where you push with the backside of your arm (angle arms/torso 90°) backwards against an immobile object like a doorway, as well. If you do not feel like this static exercise is working for you chose a different one.An imperative prerequisite for building impressiveand thus broad, rounded shoulders is a stable foundation in form of strong, if you neglect the latter you will either plateau or - even worse - injure yourself sooner or later. That being said, especially, it is thus neither really necessary nor advisable to do more than one (if any) "isolation" exercise in the form of a compound movement like the barbell or dumbbell, a movement, which by the way will also greatly help to bring up "the upper chest" many bodybuilders feel they are lacking. If you complement this basic "mass builder" with someand, the one and only thing that is really left to do on "delt day" is aexercise of your choice and you are ready for some highly anabolic rest and recovery ;-)There is of course a myriad of ways of combining the individual exercises, my personal recommendation for overalldevelopment andstrength (based on EMG measures) would yet be as follows...You may notice that I do not make volume (i.e. set) recommendations. This is due to the fact that I found that everyone has toin terms of optimal volume, training frequency and body part splits. This may also change over time / according to lifestyle factors / nutrition and supplementation.