You want big delts. We all do.
It not only looks aesthetic to have strong delts but it also protects your shoulder and your rotator cuff.
Strengthening all the meat around your joints can and will make you unstoppable.
I see athletes who have complete tears in their rotator cuff but it doesn't matter because their deltoid now carries the load of the shoulder and it works out great for them.
Today we're gonna squash the delt bug and scratch the surface of what you need to be doing.
There's simply no reason (beyond injury) you shouldn't be pressing. Period.
Any and all presses. Bench, over head, arnold, floor. P R E S S.
Now, you can't just train 'delts' without knowing what a delt is.
The three heads of the deltoids:
Anterior Deltoid
Lateral Deltoid
Posterior Deltoid
You need to train all three and many people fail to properly hit lat/post delt. This is why you don't have big definition.
Your deltoids and pecs work together to do pretty much anything with your arms so in order to have balance you need to train pec major accordingly as well.
What’s way more common than weak front delts, especially for late-beginner to intermediates, is overactive front delts. This means the front delts are taking over exercises like flat bench press, causing them to feel like they are tiring out before the pecs.
If you're worried about that, try a wide grip bench with lower weight. If it feels extremely hard you know you most likely have an imbalance.
Moreover, overactive front delts will lead to hunched posture (rounded shoulders/noodle neck syndrome) due to tightness. This causes an array of problems, such as chronic rotator cuff pain or injury risk.
If you have overactive front delts, you should:
Do more back exercises and rear delt work (as well as the middle delts)
Try myofascial release of your anterior delts before workouts that involve chest exercises.
Focus on good form and try different variations of bench press.
Stop doing front delt isolation exercises for a while (just stick with the big compound pressing movements).
Still lost on how to even train delts?
PRESS.
Any and all presses. Bench press, over head press, arnold press, floor press, you get it.
If it has the word press in it, it's most likely using delts.
Front raises, dips, pushups, and rows can also hit your delts very effectively.
The anterior deltoids are made up of an even ratio of slow and fast twitch muscle fibers. Good news for you, that means they will respond to both heavy low rep and light high rep training.
Remember to STRETCH your delts and pecs out as well. This is very very important so you don't get that internal rotate/noodle neck.
If you need some daily stretches go here.
