Is military press good enough for side delts?

[Eric]

During a HIT routine, are just military presses and bent over raises good enough for shoulders? I always thought even during a HIT routine you had to do lateral raises to hit your medial delts as well know what i mean? thanks guys!

[HIT is best]

Eric,

It is a common misconception that variations of the press in front of the neck do not hit all three heads of the deltiod. They do, believe me, so long at they are done in good form.

During a HIT routine, your efforts should always be focused on improving the poundages in your compound exercises. Since HIT cannot be spread over numerous exercises for each bodypart, compound exercises should be the cornerstones of your workouts as they are the builders. If you never did another lateral raise again, and 'only' did military presses for your shoulders concentrating on increasing the weight used progressively, your shoulders would still grow all round despite having 'negleted' the lateral raise, front raise etc.

Do not get caught up in the trap of specialisation exercises and go wasting precious effort by focusing it in all the wrong places. Remember High Intensity cannot be spread out over numerous exercises at one time thus it is logical to apply it to the exercises whilch actually induce strength and size increases - multi joint movements.


Peace

[The Iron Lord]

Agree 100%. If you ever reach a point where you're doing military presses with 315, your shoulders will look like boulders. Focus on the big compound movements, and don't waste recovery ability on isolation stuff. You can "detail" yourself with diet and cardio.

[Ice Man]

I think Mil press can get both front and side delts although the focus is more on the front. It doesn't, in my opinion, work rear delts...

[The Iron Lord]

That's probably pretty true. However, if your routine includes deadlifts and pullups (as any good routine does) you will be giving your rear delts more than enough growth producing stimulation.

[Ice Man]

You think that deads get rear delts too? Do you pull back before you lift?

[The Iron Lord]

No, I begin my drive with my hams, glutes, and quads. However, I kind of shrug the weight when I reach the top portion of the movement. I'm presently doing sets of 8 with 415 lbs. The day after, my back is sore from the base of my neck to my *******.....rear delts are quite sore, and intuitively that tells me they're being worked!

[Ice Man]

Makes sense t o me... Thats pretty heavy. I only use 365 and I shrug at the top too. I would like to use more but I really can't hold it. I have some nerve probs in my hand so I end up focusing more on my grip and not the lift...

[The Iron Lord]

The HITers will kill me for saying this, but I highly recommend using straps. Why let the weak link (your grip and arms) keep you from blasting your back? I worry about grip separately. When deadlifting, I want the maximum poundage I can use without rounding my back, and I refuse to let my hand strength prevent me from using said weight.

[Ice Man]

I'll have to give it a try... I wanted to get my grip stronger so I haven't used them since I was deading 225. I use them next time. Got some free ones from bb.com anyway.

[Nayl]

If you want to really hit all heads, use a DB shoulder press. If you want to work your core muscles at the same time, use a 1-arm DB shoulder press while seated with the opposite foot off of the ground. If you want to kill your core, drop the weight a little and do this seated on a swiss ball. And finally, if you want to increase the weight to maximize load, use a DB push press.

DB press ownz joo.