Are Lateral Raises "Enough" to Grow Your Shoulders? 

Marc Hector went on Fouad Abiad's podcast and said that in prep for this season of competition he only did cuff laterals for his shoulders (I'm assuming he did rear delt movements too) and you could see Fouad's shock- especially since Marc's delts were particularly good even by IFBB standards. That really was the final confirmation for something I'd almost fully believed for a while now. I admire overheard strength and I think it's a good mobility tool as well but this insistence on OHP for muscle gain is rooted in fear of missing out without ever finding out if anything is truly being missed out on.

absolutely agree. I spent a long time trying to press heavier and heavier overhead, and I didn't see any growth and improvement in the 3D effect of my shoulders, but there were some annoying ligament pains. I took the shoulder day out of my routine, and started doing high volume lateral raises on the push day, and lots of facepulls on the pull day. Now I can say that I have good shoulders

agreed. ohp is optional for side delts. Lateral raise + upright rows generally givs more stimulus for your time investment. possibly extra credit if u them w cables for more tension at the lengthen position (something something stretch-mediated hypertrophy)

Agreed. Since I've added 20-30 sets of lateral Raises / week my delts blew the fuck up. The thing is that you really have to have perfect form, that's what I learned from experience. I did unilateral db raises with 13 and even 15kg and guess what, my delts didn't grew like at all. Then I let my ego at the door and started doing them while seated, started at 5-6kg, control the negative and they grew in 2 months more than when I had shit form in 8 months. And I know they grew because I started at 5 kg for 20 reps or so and now I'm at 8,5kg for 16 perfect reps and it's really rewarding to see that. As for OHP, I added it again in my program because I like pushing heavy shit over my head and it helps my db bench. When I dropped any kind of overhead pressing every chest movement went down. When I added it again and started progressing weekly, my chest exercises started seeing quick progress too

My shoulders have gotten bigger doing heavy overhead presses. My goal is a 300 lb overhead press. I'm at 225 now. Heavy overhead presses create a really powerful girdle. It's like bench press for the shoulders, traps, and that whole girdle region.

I'm in the unique camp seemingly. I tried doing just laterals and rears for my shoulders for a year and the looked weird. There was no cool connection to my upper chest and shoulders, also the lack of pop at the front made the overall shoulder look smaller

I’ve been doing 4-5 sets of laterals every other day and my delts are finally growing again after 14 years of lifting

Great video! Highly insightful and super helpful. Thanks for all the amazing work! 🙌

I rarely do ohp now, not for any injury/injury risk reason but just cause I don’t enjoy the exercise. I’ve built my shoulders up with a raise movements and all my pressing whether it’s flat or incline presses.

i think overdeveloped front delts look great! i've loved my shoulders since overhead pressing

Thank you for the consistent Input Berto!

I’ve been enjoying DB laterals lately more than cables. And Lu raises. Starting upright rows again after years I’d being scared off them

I do barbell overhead press once a week for shoulder health, when I take it out, my shoulders start to feel less pliable and I will even get pec tendon issues on occasion. I've honestly never noticed much of a difference in hypertrophy. Finding lateral raise variations I can consistently progress and push hard has been far and away the biggest factor in my shoulders filling out.

I like your philosophy Berto, your a good bloke!

Good stuff. Always appreciate your insight and wisdom, Berto

From now on, i'm gonna start to program "lateral flicks"

You didn't mention *rear* delts. Are they also automatically getting a sufficient stimulus due to all the pulling, or do they require some extra work?

Excellent vid berto!

That was a good one...thank you

This is an interesting subject, and I would've been aligned with your point of view, because it SEEMS right when focusing on certain crucial factors without focusing on all. However I disagree, and would even go as far as to say that vertical pressing, as long as there's no back support turning it into an incline press, is actually slightly more important for shoulders, even the side head. I'm not trying to tear people down just to be negative, but for one, your shoulders do not look to be of an intermediate level or greater from a front view. The thing is that lateral raises DO allow for more direct activation of that one head, while still allowing for decent activation for the front, which is why it might SEEM and feel like it's enough, along with benching if we only account for pure activation. The issue is that lateral raises are not an exercise that has room for a significant amount of progress at all, which makes them only useful as a means to add in additional volume after fatiguing the front and side delts from compound lifts which actually can be progressed on, such as overhead pressing. Overhead pressing seated or standing may be front delt dominant, but it's not all front delts, since there is still abduction of the humorous against gravity, because you are lifting in the scapular plain, and even discounting that, the side head also functions as to synergistically lift the humorous above head. Overhead pressing is only all front delt and no side when seated with back support because the bench makes you arch back even more turning it into an inferior incline press and the bar path changes almost completely. With that said, the side delts are still not the prime mover while being slow twitch, meaning that they can still handle additional volume more than the front after overhead pressing, and THAT is why lateral raises in particular are useful. The point is that overhead pressing still adds some volume while not being enough, and that while volume is still important, it's not everything. Progressive overload is equally as important. This is why the key to big shoulders is NOT just lateral raises, but progression with overhead pressing, and isolation work to finish things off.

I have thoracic outlet syndrome (unable to do any OHP work), however my delts are somewhat decent through a lootttt of lateral raises

Thank you.

Show us how you lateral raise!

Haven't done anything else other than spam lateral raise variations since 2016. Not even rear delt/OHP. Shoulders still got developed from all angles lol

I’m one of those people who has lagging front delts even tho I do overhead pressing and horizontal pressing so I do front raises to add additional volume for them

How about the upright row as a movement for the side delts? Good enough or not really?

OHP not needed? Look buddy if you want to fight me just come out and say it. Lol

If you want to do OHP for muscle growth, you might do it wide grip because it adds abduction at the shoulders and thus more side delts involvement but not worth like a lateral raises or upright row.

The side lateral raise is my most frustrating movement. I cannot for the life of me feel my delts no matter the movement pattern.

🕺

I agree, lat raises are superior to OHP overall. I think for me it is more risk/reward analysis

Nice ❤❤❤❤

OHP, Lateral Raises, Rear Delts. Do them all. It’s not OR but AND.

Laterals alone yes but add in ohp for real gainz

For the algorithm

CLEAN UP!!

👍

Yes they're enough

?

Middle/side delt, not medial delt. Medial delt is the front delt. Sorry for being a pain in the ass :P