Do you prefer training front delts on or away from chest days?

u_e_s_i

u_e_s_i

Well-known member
Awards
3
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
I’ve shifted to training 3/4 days a week and split my front, side and rear delts between push, pull and leg days but I’m not sure which day I should train which part of my delts on. I’ve heard some people say that pre-fatiguing is the way to go (e.g. do isolated front delt exercises on push days) but I’ve also heard others say they prefer training each part while they’re as fresh as possible (e.g. don’t do isolated front delt exercises on push days).

Which school of thought do you guys subscribe to and are there any caveats to keep in mind?
 
DinnerTable

DinnerTable

New member
Awards
0
Ive always done supersets of lateral and front raises on my upper body/horizontal movement day, after my main movements.
 

Jeremyk1

Well-known member
Awards
4
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
  • RockStar
Just gonna depend on you, my man. If you do shoulders first, you could compromise your other pressing movements. If you’re trying to prioritize shoulders, that’s fine, but it could compromise chest and triceps development. If you really want to focus on shoulders, I’d give them their own day. You’re going to get some stimulation from any pressing movement already. For me personally, I do small muscle groups separate from when they would be used with larger ones. I wouldn’t train rear delts with back or front with chest. Maybe do opposite. You can do your presses, then throw in some sets for the rear delts, so they’re relatively fresh still and won’t affect your pressing.
 
Smont

Smont

Legend
Awards
5
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
I don't train front delts. I feel like mine are already over developed in comparison to other body parts from all the heavy pressing. I usually train side delts with my pressing movements or on a push day and hit rear delts on the days that I do rows and pull Downs
 

BBiceps

Well-known member
Awards
4
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
  • RockStar
I honestly don't know a lot of people that directly train their front delts
If you push as you should it’s really no reason to do front delts, rare delts is way more important and should be incorporated a lot more.
 

Jeremyk1

Well-known member
Awards
4
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
  • RockStar
If you push as you should it’s really no reason to do front delts, rare delts is way more important and should be incorporated a lot more.
Yeah I’ve always thought direct isolation work for front delts was overrated. Rear delt training seems to be underrated though.
 

panico.pt

New member
Awards
0
Front and side training on pushing day and trapeze and hindquarters on pulling day.
 

Resolve10

Well-known member
Awards
4
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
  • RockStar
There is no real right or wrong answer here and it is going to depend specifically on your goals, preferences, and potentially a bunch of other variables.

Some things to keep in mind.

I'd probably start with just kind of agreeing with all the people in here saying you probably don't need to worry about specific front delt work. If you do a decent amount of pressing already and they aren't lagging behind I probably wouldn't focus on adding anything specifically targeting them. They tend to recover moderately well for most people, but no need to push it too far and then have it negatively effect other exercises/parts of your training.

The middle delt usually performs a lot of its work in conjunction with other muscle groups (but that can probably be said for all shoulder stuff). Pressing above shoulder level is going to have a mix of front and side work (although anecdotally I'd say mine grew most when I got strongest and improved most on overhead pressing variations and handstand pressing variations). Various lateral raises that don't rise above shoulder level theoretically should target them the best, as long as your technique is adequate and you don't let other groups overtake the movement (and again anecdotally my favorite isolation for these are leaning lateral raises where you hold onto something like a rack with one arm and do the raises with the other). They also tend to recover the slowest for most so be careful with overdoing frequency in your program.

Rear delts tend to lag with a lot of people, but this is probably a mix of exercise choice and just the fact non mirror muscles tend to have more issues of connection for a lot of people. That said the rear delts also tend to recover the best so they are probably one that are theoretically more likely to benefit from a higher frequency approach and there have been times when I literally hit them nearly every workout. Various facepulls, pull a parts, and other angled pulling approaches can all be viable as long as you bias the actual delt itself if that is the goal (and anecdotally for these higher reps and just pumping them full of blood works for me).

With all those keep in mind the shoulders/delts could potentially be even more subdivided, so if you do want to see improvement pressing and movements from various angles should be addressed.

If looking more from a performance perspective I'd probably side step isolating any in more bodybuilding like ways and go with more movements that just generally benefit shoulder health. Doing various stability work to keep my shoulders healthy and allowing them to get stronger on overhead movements, jerks, snatches, and other presses benefitted "me" more than any isolation work, but YMMV.

Finally, if you do end up wanting to do things in a more shoulder targeted approach look up some of John Meadows videos on exercises, I've known more people to actually get shoulder pumps and feel soreness from his stuff than any other traditional methods if they were in a slump.

Again that is just to add to what everyone above has already kind of said, just keep in mind how much the shoulders do in various other exercises and try to fit it into your approach to the best fit for you and vary it up over time to see what treats you best.
 

Foxx13

Member
Awards
2
  • First Up Vote
  • Established
Front delta get hit with all my pressing, side delt. Isolation gets hit 2-3x/week, rear delts isolation get hit 2-4x/week. I work in my rear and side delts on lower body days and I have found it not to really affect my upper body days the next day or with 1 day of rest between.

I find my rear delts and back in general I can hit 3x a week. Not really get sore and can just hammer on it. Pressing exercises on the other hand are usually 2x a week unless I add a third day but at much lower weight or cut reps in half.
 
Rocket3015

Rocket3015

Legend
Awards
5
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
I train front delt's with shoulders, 4 days after chest.
 
Rocket3015

Rocket3015

Legend
Awards
5
  • RockStar
  • Legend!
  • Established
  • First Up Vote
  • Best Answer
Dick-Hertz

Dick-Hertz

Member
Awards
0
I don't train front delts. I feel like mine are already over developed in comparison to other body parts from all the heavy pressing. I usually train side delts with my pressing movements or on a push day and hit rear delts on the days that I do rows and pull Downs
Same. I do love rear-delts (reverse flyes) and press behind neck.
Also side delts. But front, I never train them. Tons of stimulus from benching and like Smont, mine are a bit over-developed.
 

Similar threads


Top