Middle delts in Gymnasticbodies

[Victor A MOUCLIER]

Hi Gymnasticbodies,

I just compilate 2 post written by two of the most knowledgeable people of this forum about the middle delts, wich will lead to 2 questions

1. Coach Allessandro Mainente wrote : "usually in my gym when I have personal training session for bodybuilders I NEVER insert lateral raises if you cannot perform a barbell shoulder press with almost bodyweigth. The reason it is simply that if you do not have very strong front and lateral delt all the effort it taken by the upper traps and supraspinatus,"

   Can someone elaborate how heavy shoulder pressing is supposed to modify your biomechanic of shoulder abduction in order to prioritize the middle deltoid instead of the supraspinatus and upper traps ? Also is there any other way to activate your middle deltoid beside beign able pressing your entire bodyweight ?

2. Joshua Naterman wrote : "[Midddle delts] are a different kind of muscle belly than anterior and posterior delts, they are pennate instead of fusiform. This means that they have a shorter ROM but produce much more force in their ROM. Perhaps now you can see why these are not easily worked with bodyweight at first"

Can someone recommend an exercice variations that target this specific ROM of the middle delts ? 

Thank you in advance for reading my questions

Wish everybody a good and healthy training !

 

[Alessandro Mainente]

3 hours ago, Victor A MOUCLIER said:

Hi Gymnasticbodies,

I just compilate 2 post written by two of the most knowledgeable people of this forum about the middle delts, wich will lead to 2 questions

1. Coach Allessandro Mainente wrote : "usually in my gym when I have personal training session for bodybuilders I NEVER insert lateral raises if you cannot perform a barbell shoulder press with almost bodyweigth. The reason it is simply that if you do not have very strong front and lateral delt all the effort it taken by the upper traps and supraspinatus,"

   Can someone elaborate how heavy shoulder pressing is supposed to modify your biomechanic of shoulder abduction in order to prioritize the middle deltoid instead of the supraspinatus and upper traps ? Also is there any other way to activate your middle deltoid beside beign able pressing your entire bodyweight ?

2. Joshua Naterman wrote : "[Midddle delts] are a different kind of muscle belly than anterior and posterior delts, they are pennate instead of fusiform. This means that they have a shorter ROM but produce much more force in their ROM. Perhaps now you can see why these are not easily worked with bodyweight at first"

Can someone recommend an exercice variations that target this specific ROM of the middle delts ? 

Thank you in advance for reading my questions

Wish everybody a good and healthy training !

 

Hi Victor, i do not know when i've said this think probably not in 2020+.

probably i would decrease this weigth oh the shoulder press down to half  of the bw or something more. and probably i would add the isolated movement early in some program for some students. 

said that, the fact that 99% of people do the lateral raises wrongly is basically TRUE. i can go tomorrow (not in my gym...they are done pretty well) and touch  traps of 10 people and feel them squeezed 100% in all the cases. Taking the work with the traps is a technical problem, nothing to do with basic strength of the deltoids.

Said that there are 3 exercises that targets middle deltoids, i will talka bout 2, the last one it is something i've invented and i share it only with my clients:

1) side plank on the elbow.. lean a bit until the shoulder drops after the elbow and hold like if you want to do a lateral raises

2) handstand pushup with full range of motion and on the scapular plane.