The ONLY 2 Exercises You Need For Wide Shoulders

With so many shoulder exercises out there, it's hard to know which ones actually work. But the truth is you're probably doing too many and focusing on the wrong areas. In fact, after cutting out all the fluff and focusing on just two science backed exercises, my shoulders grew bigger and wider than they've ever been. And with the right form, the same will happen for you. But here's the thing. What makes shoulders look wide and gives you that classic V taper? Isn't every part of the shoulder the it's actually mostly down to just one main region, the side delts. But here's the problem. Most people's training doesn't reflect this priority. For example, when researchers analyze exercises and volume studies, they count every chest pressing set as one set for your chest, but also one set for your front delts because of how heavily involved they are. Now add in shoulder pressing, which targets the front delts even more, and you're left with way more weekly volume for your front delts than your side delts. Whether you plan to or not. Do this for long enough and your shoulders will become overdeveloped in the front but lack the width that truly makes them stand out. But here's the good news. Fixing this imbalance is actually quite simple. It just requires a shift in focus. If wider shoulders are your priority, I'd even recommend ditching shoulder presses altogether if they're not helping towards your goal. That's personally what I did. I haven't shoulder press in over a year. Instead I. I shifted that time and effort to focus on my side delts. And that's when I really started seeing my shoulders widen. As for what exercises to focus on, the best option is lateral raises. But here's the thing. Not all lateral raises are created equal. Take dumbbell lateral races, for example. They're convenient and easy to perform, but they come with a key limitation. They challenge your delts most at the top. And ironically, this is where your delts are the weakest. As a result, you're forced to use lighter weights than they can really handle. But that's not the only downside. There's growing evidence that exercises providing a greater stretch and challenging your muscles in that stretch position may lead to better growth. Dumbbell lateral raises don't do either of those very well. So how do we fix this? Well, this brings us to exercise one. First, lock your elbow into your side and rotate your arm outward. Where your arm naturally stops is called your scapular plane. This is the optimal arm path for lateral raises, as it maximizes tension in your side delts and provides the biggest stretch at the bottom of the movement. Which means the best lateral raise is one where your arm can move behind your body to maximize the stretch. Cables are the perfect tool for this, and by setting the cable at a slightly raised position rather than at the very bottom, you can immediately shift the challenge to the beginning of the movement when where your side delts are more stretched and you can do the single arm or double arm, depending on your preference. That said, I do want to be upfront with you. While I've personally seen incredible results with this exercise, the science is still catching up. For example, I recently connected with my friend and researcher Dr. Milo Wolf, who conducted a study comparing cable lateral raises to dumbbell lateral raises.

So, in our study, during eight weeks, we took 25 participants who all had a training experience of around five years on average and had them do one of two exercises using one AR to do one exercise and the other to do the opposite exercise. With one arm, they exclusively performed cable ladder raises. With the other arm, they exclusively performed dumbbell side raises. We measured hypertrophy of the side delt using ultrasound at two sites, one more proximal and one more distal. Now, if you look closely at the results, at one site hypertrophy was effectively the same between dumbbell and cable side raises, whereas at the other side, if anything, there was a slight benefit like around 30 or 40% relative difference in favor of the cable side raise. My interpretation of this study effectively is that dumbbell side raises and cable side raises are both effective for going the side delts, but if you kind of look a bit closer and interpret it in light with the overall research, I would say you're probably still better off doing cable side raises. It may just not be a huge difference.

But there's a catch. The cable raises in that study were performed with the arm in front of the body instead of behind the body, which doesn't provide quite as much stretch on the side delta. Additionally, the study was relatively short and it used ultrasound measurements, which is tough to accurately measure thin muscles like the side delts. That's why I'm currently running a highly controlled study using custom machines and MRI for measurement to determine if challenging your delts in the stretch position actually offers a significant advantage. In the meantime, I'd still highly recommend giving this variation a try. If anything, there might be a novelty effect where challenging your muscles in a new way could help you break through a plateau. At least, that's exactly what it did for me. That said, if you're A beginner, this exercise might feel a bit tricky to master, especially the double arm version. In fact, I tried to show this to Kevin, our head engineer at Built with Science, and let's just say he wasn't a fan.

He sucks.

It sucks. What's the most fun? Race exercises. But don't worry, you do have other options. One option is to first do a normal set of dumbbell lateral raises. Then immediately after you can't do any more full reps, grab a pair of five pound heavier dumbbells and perform partial reps just in that bottom range. This ensures your delts are actually worked to their limit, especially in that all important bottom position. Another option is to try the lean in dumbbell lateral raise. By leaning into the movement, you shift the challenge to the bottom of the range, targeting the stretch position more effectively. Now, while the first exercise focuses on the main part of your side delta, there's actually more to your shoulders than meets the eye. Believe it or not, muscle activation research suggests that your shoulders might have up to seven different heads, all of which can be independently activated by your nervous system. Now, this doesn't mean that you need seven different exercises to target each head, but it does mean that small adjustments to your lateral raise technique can work areas of your side delts that you've probably never hit before. One area in particular is the rear portion of the side delt. I know, I know, it sounds weird and super specific, but developing this area not only adds width to your shoulders, but it also gives them a more complete, beefy look in the back. An area that's often underdeveloped. So how do you target it? Let me show you with cables first, and then I'll show you a dumbbell alternative. So, for cables, start by setting the cable at wrist height like we did with the first exercise. But this time, rather than grabbing the cable behind your body, grab the cable in front and rotate your body about 45 degrees towards the cable. This slight adjustment lines up the tension perfectly more towards the rear part of your side delt. From here, raise your arm in a straight line away from the cable. Your arm should move slightly back behind your torso as you lift. Now, you might not be able to raise your arm quite as high as you would in a standard lateral raise before it feels like your shoulder gets stuck. And that's fine. Don't force it past that point. Simply focus on keeping the tension on the muscle. Now, as for the dumbbell version, first set up a bench at a slight incline, just one notch down from vertical. Support your chest against the bench, Let your arms hang straight down in front of you and then raise them out to your sides. You're also not going to be able to go very heavy with these, so focus on form rather than weight. While this variation doesn't provide quite as much stretch or challenge in the bottom position, it's still an excellent option that targets the same area. But before you jump into these two exercises, there's one key princip need to apply. See, the tricky thing about lateral raises is you're not lifting nearly as heavy compared to other exercises. Which means a small increase, like five pounds on dumbbells or moving one pin down on the cables can be the equivalent to adding 40 pounds to your bench press in one jump. So what often happens is you think you're ready to increase the weights, but as soon as you do, your form completely breaks down, leaving you stuck doing the same weights forever. But here's the good news. Research shows you can build muscle either by adding more weight or by doing more reps. This opens up a smarter way to progress. And here's what I do. I stick to a broad rep range of 10 to 20 reps. Once I can perform at least 15 controlled reps across all my sets, that's when I'll bump up the weight. But when I'm using cables where even one pin heavier can be too much, I'll use a simple hack. Grabbing a 5 pound or even a 2.5 plate and and sticking the pin through it to make much smaller jumps. This small adjustment allows me to keep progressing without sacrificing my form. But here's the thing, guys. You also need to program these two exercises into your routine with the right balance of volume and recovery for your specific body. And that is why I am super excited to share that In January, I'm launching something my team and I have been working on for years. A brand new product designed to take care of your entire entire fitness journey. Coaching you every single week with both your workouts and your nutrition. Just as if you were working with me personally. I'm going to share more details soon, so stay tuned. But for now, if you want a done for you science back plan that takes care of all the guesswork for you, just head over to builtwithscience.com and take the quiz to find the best program for you and your body. And if you're looking to pair your wider shoulders with a bigger chest, then check out this video next for the two exercises that finally helped me grow my stubborn chest. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.