In the past few newsletters, I’ve had a few eye-opening quotes from hypertrophy researcher Chris Beardsley on the middle-delt heads…
To summarize, he said that while it’s common to divide the deltoid into three heads, it’s really seven divisions. He followed that up by saying that exercise variety is needed for full, complete development.
So while the one-arm cable lateral with pulley set at just below waist height is the ideal, you can get better and no doubt faster development with a few add-on moves…
I like one-arm cable high pulls and one-arm behind-the-back cable laterals.
I had photos and a description of how to do the one-arm cable high pulls in the previous training newsletter. It’s an arms-overhead contracted-position exercise…
Here’s Ron Harris doing the one-arm behind-the-back cable lateral, a good stretch move…
As Ron is showing, you should pull from your glute up to the one o’clock position, slightly out in front of your torso. Notice how his arm is coming forward in the second pic. That minimizes upper-trap involvement and for me feels better on my bum shoulder joint, a.k.a. stupid, aching right rotator cuff.
Set the pulley a few notches lower than what you use on the one-arm cable laterals. That provides the middle delt with a slightly altered line of pull.
So an excellent variation-in-fiber-recruitment workout to maximize your middle-head mass is…
- One-arm cable laterals (pulley set at just below waist height)
- One-arm behind-the-back cable laterals (pulley set at knee height)
- One-arm cable high pulls (pulley set at knee height)
One set of each of those is all you need. Maybe two on the first exercise, which is the ideal…
Oh, and use an ankle cuff on our wrist instead of a cable handle if you can. The cuff will take your grip out of the equation, giving you more delt focus. You can stay hooked up and just move the pulley down after your one-arm cable laterals because you should train all sets of each exercise for one side, 20 seconds of rest between sets.
After those three or four sets, get some water, and check your skin-stretching delt pump in the mirror. Then do all sets for your opposite side…
You can train both delts in less than eight minutes. That’s efficiency-of-effort training for half-melon seam-stretching shoulders.
Note: For an efficient ideal-exercise-emphasized shoulder workout using only dumbbells and a bench, see Old Man, Young Muscle.
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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