WIDER SHOULDERS: 4 Mistakes Keeping You Small

If you’re having a hard time getting your shoulders wider and thicker (i.e., big delts), it often comes down to 4 reasons. In this video, I’ll show you how to (finally) get big shoulders by explaining what part of the shoulder you need to focus your efforts on developing to build huge shoulders, and then show you the 4 reasons why people fail to develop this area, along with easy to follow tips to correct them. Apply all 4 of the solutions I’ll go through into your next workout for the shoulders, and I guarantee you’ll feel your shoulders working like never before, plus see a massive increase in shoulders size.

The shoulders can be divided into 3 regions; the front, side, and rear. The front delt is heavily involved in many pressing movements like the bench press and shoulder press, and often becomes overdeveloped as a result. The rear delt is important for rounding out the back of the shoulder but won’t be the focus of the video. The side delts are what you need to focus on to build huge shoulders. As for the best exercise to build up this region, research shows that the dumbbell lateral raise comes up on top. But there are 4 major flaws people overlook with this exercise and their side delt training in general that slows down growth and likelihood of injury.

First reason you’re struggling to get big delts. In the case of the side delts, most unknowingly use just 1 resistance profile by relying on the traditional lateral raise. But to stimulate more growth, you’ll want to also perform an exercise that has the opposite resistance profile, where it’s most difficult at the bottom and easiest at the top. If you have the equipment handy, one way to do this is by grabbing a cable, set up the height so that it’s at the level of your wrist, and perform a one handed lateral raise. But if you only have dumbbells, there are 2 exercises you can that’ll achieve the same effect. The first exercise accomplishes this by manipulating your body position. The second exercise changes the resistance profile by using momentum.

But, when it comes to how to get big shoulders, these exercises will only be effective if you apply the next tip, which has to do with technique. There are 3 mistakes in total. The first is that your arms shouldn’t actually be directly out to your sides. Instead, you should move into what’s known as the scapular plane. A slight lean forward as you do this will help boost side delt activation even more. The second mistake has to do with your hands. Instead of turning your hands inward so that your pinkies end up higher than your thumbs at the end position, keep your hand flat with or with your thumbs just slightly higher than your pinkies at the top position. The last mistake has to do with how you think about the raise. Rather than thinking about raising the weight up, think about pushing your hands out to the sides, towards the walls.

So you’ve now got the right exercises and the right technique, but even with all that you may be compromising your ability to build huge shoulders in the way you progress the exercise as you get stronger. With the lateral raises, you should be sticking with the same weight and focus on doing more reps instead, only increasing to the next heaviest pair of dumbbells once you can do about 20-30 reps in a set with good form. When you do eventually make that jump though, expect the number of reps you’ll be able to do with the heavier weight to decrease by about half. Instead of cheating or getting discouraged when this happens, realize that it’s completely normal and just focus on slowly building it up again and repeating the process.

The last reason has to do with how often you’re training your side delts. Most people aren’t training them enough, often just performing a workout for the shoulders once a week. But the side delts recover quickly, and with the right programming, can be trained 2-3 times a week to stimulate more growth. What I’d recommend is start by picking out 2 days in your routine to train them. As long as there’s at least 1 day of rest between the 2 days. Then for each of the days you train them, add in 3 sets of the standard lateral raise and 3 sets of one of the variations I showed earlier to vary the resistance profile. This can be used as a starting point.

Implement these 4 things and you’ll quickly start to notice the difference in your shoulder development. But, chances are you’re making subtle mistakes with the rest of your training as well. To avoid letting these mistakes hold you back, take the free 30 second quiz to find out which of my step by step programs would be best to help you transform your body just like thousands of our members have done below:

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[JeremyEthier]

Thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what other muscle groups you're struggling with and I'll start making videos for them! Have a great day!

Update: Those who have been asking about why I recommended the "lean away" lateral raise in past videos, and the difference between that and the "lean in" lateral raise I'm showing here. To clear things up, BOTH are great exercises, they just work the shoulders slightly differently. The lean away raise is similar to the standard lateral raise such that it's easiest at the bottom yet hardest at the top. The lean in raise (the one I showed in this video) has the opposite resistance profile (hardest at bottom yet easiest at top). Which means that these two exercises complement each other. It's not "one or the other", use both! Hope this helps!

[DrSwole]

Solid advice. Side delts are the key to the v-taper and x-frame that a lot of naturals miss out on

[bangscutter]

I found that increasing the weights even by a small increment drastically reduced the reps. I didn't know it was normal and that even elite lifters experience it too. Thanks for letting us know that it's normal and that there is no shame in staying with the same weight and just increasing reps rather than going heavier.

[RigoVids]

I don’t think people will quite appreciate how well you edited this video. In particular the tracking on the skin for the lateral raises is fairly impressive. Good work man.

[sulezraz]

0:44 DB Lateral Raises - has highest muscle activation.
Also add exercises that have the opposite resistance profiles to DB Lateral Raises.
2:04 One-Handed Lateral Raise
2:29 DB Lean in Lateral Raises
2:44 Momentum Lateral Raises
4:00 Move in scapular plane (moving arms ~30° in front of you) and slight lean forward to increase delt activation.
4:22 Keep pinky below the thumb at top position. Don’t turn hands inward.
4:48 Think about pushing the arms out to the sides rather than just up. Don’t let traps take over.
5:15 Increase no. of reps up to 20-30 instead of increasing weight.

[alexcosta]

dude i just wanna play, do not change the style of your videos. they are so clean, direct, visually appealing, and just the right amount of info. no fluff, no heavy drama opinion emotions, just straight heres how to do it and heres why. no articles to go through. good stuff. Keep it up

[elikane]

the 20-30 reps before increasing is what my physical therapist has me doing for my shoulder rehab following rotator cuff surgery (30 reps actually). amazingly after 8 months of solid work my shoulder is back or very close to being same size as my other shoulder.amazing because I am soon 69 years old and have been on chemotherapy non stop for 5.5 years.thank you sir for your very informative videos 🙏

[DaKosi]

If you do lean-in lateral raises as shown in 2:41, keep your head in line with your spine. NEVER go to heavy on this and use low weights. It is so easy to cramp and get a tense neck if you push too hard and go too heavy. I can tell from experience.

[nathan]

Lean in lateral 2:41
Momentum lat raise 3:00
Normal lat raise
Think about pushing hands out towards walls
Train side delt 2-3 times a week
Each day trained, add 3 sets of standard lateral raise and 3 sets of variation

[kratty]

I will never forget how humbling cable lateral raises were when I started out

[huytrinhquang]

How. Is. This. Fucking. Channel. Free? You’re everyone’s hero, Mr. Ethier

[linkswords]

I've combed through dozens of shoulder videos from different channels, and I can say that this video really showed me actual new information. Not only is it just one new insight but at least three. It's really amazing to me.

[SriOrshu]

Bro you literally make the best fitness program. Excellent info, animations, humor, professionality, chill vibe. Nobody does it like you man.

[Dima_Sen_]

Jeremy is one of the rare Youtubers who manages to be entertaining and inventive with his content without clickbaiting, self promoting, being obnoxious or begging to get all the likes and subs. Keep up the awesome content! 🍪🙌

[gabrielbecklourenco]

by far the best gym tips on yt. not just telling you how to perform a movement but also tells you long term how to progress your muscle. love the vids jeremy

[patrickross]

Once again you’ve given just the information I need and none that I don’t. Perfectly succinct. Thank you, Jeremy!

[teddyburrr]

I started lifting and working out this past year and I’ve made mistakes but I recently found your channel and as of this post, was the first time I applied this science to my shoulder work out and it is the first time I actually felt my mid shoulder burn, so thank you!

[codeisawesome]

It’s incredible that such advanced advice is being made available for free! Thanks Jeremy.

[ineni]

Probably the only natural bodybuilder who is actually natural

[markcarson]

The production quality of this video is amazing. Not only the animations, but you recorded footage of you doing the right thing, the wrong thing, the wrong thing in a different way, a way that gets you hurt, and so many more. I can't begin to imagine how your roadmap for each video must look but regardless, it's earned a sub, like, and notifications on...