#5. LEANING DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE
Stand next to a fixed bar grabbing it with one of your hands. Take the dumbbell in your other hand. Holding your feet together lean to the side holding your dumbbell until the arm holding the fixed bar is fully extended. Once in this position start raising the dumbbell up in the same manner as the dumbbell side raise.
This is a multi-joint exercise and we recommend doing it at the end of your workout. Stick to 8-12 reps per set. By isolating the side deltoid, this exercise involves a much wider range of motion compared with the lateral dumbbell raise.
#6. SINGLE-ARM CABLE KICK-BACK
Although many people think that the kick-backs primarily target the triceps, this is only true when you bend your elbow.
On the contrary, keeping your arm straight will allow a greater transfer of the strain to rear deltoids. Stand in a bent position and grab the pulley. Start pulling backwards, but remember not to bend your arm in the elbow. The key factor of this exercise is maintaining a strict from. If you twist your body in order to get the weight go further then you are not recruiting your shoulders to their fullest.
We recommend performing this exercise as a finisher, because you don’t need heavy weights for working the rear deltoids.
#7. BENT-OVER DUMBBELL FLY
Although many people choose to do the bent-over dumbbell flyes with cables, research has shown that this is not optimal for isolating the rear deltoids. The reason for this is that when you use the cables, you have to grip them in a neutral way.
If you really want to hit the deltoids we recommend using dumbbells with offset grip.
Once again it’s crucial that you maintain your form and avoid swinging the weights. This will only reduce the strain you put on the deltoids. This exercise is ideal finisher for the back days.
Conclusion
Shoulders are one of the most difficult body parts for targeting. As they participate in many of the exercises you perform for the other muscle groups, you need a good plan when you want to isolate them in your training.
Including these 7 exercises will greatly help you in the process. Although they are not very complicated and can be performed with the equipment found in any gym, not many people choose to ignore them.
Don’t be one of them. They can be fantastic addition, or even a substitute for your current shoulder isolation exercises.
By targeting your shoulders from different and new angles, they prompt their growth, providing them with sharp look.
Just keep in mind that the heavier, compound exercises should be performed first, because they are the ones that rally make your muscle grow. The isolation exercises should always be used as finishers at the end of your exercise.
Relying solely on isolation movements will get you nowhere.
It’s also crucial that you keep on experimenting and exploring. Mix things up, add some diversity and find out which exercises are most efficient for you. While our selection of seven has worked for us, some of you may find them hard and unproductive.
And remember that even the most effective exercises should be substituted with another movement after a while.
Although at first they may provide you with fast muscle growth, our bodies are known to adapt making the exercise less effective in the long run.
As a final advice, we recommend that you constantly add weight. Without progressive overload of your muscles the progress will elude you, no matter how hard you apply yourself.