Why Your Delts Aren't Growing (ONE FIX!)

When it comes to shoulder workouts and shoulder exercises, the lateral raise has been shown time and time again to generally be the most effective side delts exercise to develop this area and give you wide delts. And in fact, most of you watching likely already do some form of a lateral raise in your routines. But the reason why you ‘can’t grow shoulders’ has to do with your execution of this seemingly simple movement. Aside from using too much momentum and swinging front back and side to side during the movement, one of the lesser known culprits that we don’t even realize is taking over is the upper traps. So, in this video, I’m going to show you how to get big shoulders by minimizing upper traps involvement when executing exercises for middle delts.
How does the upper traps take over though? Well, it can be traced back to the fact that many of us already have overactive upper traps from being in this hunched over position most of the day. Also, the upper traps function to elevate the shoulder. Whereas the side delts function to raise the arm out to the side. So what a lot of us will do during the lateral raise, especially during that initial and very last part of the rep, is we’ll shrug our traps up to assist the weaker side delts with raising that weight up. And the problem is that many of us now just do this subconsciously and overtime have developed this pattern of automatically firing the upper traps whenever we raise our arms out to the side. So, how can we minimize the involvement of the upper traps during the exercise?
The first step toward wide delts is to use a mindful exercise that’ll help teach your body to get out of the habit of recruiting the upper traps whenever you raise your arms to the side. To perform it, take a seat and hold a 5lb dumbbell in one hand or even just use no weight at all to start out. Place your other hand on your upper trap. All I want you to do now is very slowly raise the weight up at about a 45-degree angle in front of you. But as you do so, feel your upper traps to make sure they remain soft and relaxed and don’t tense up. As soon as they start to tense up, get back to the starting position and try again. So as you raise, think about actively pushing your shoulder down and depressing your traps as you raise the weight up. The main goal of this exercise is to be able to do a full rep up to parallel successfully without tensing up the upper traps.
Now, in addition to this, there are other lateral raise variations that you can experiment with that manipulate your body position to help minimize the involvement of the traps. In turn, eliminating the issue that you can’t grow shoulders. The first one is something I’ve showed in past videos and is an inclined lateral raise, where you lay on an incline bench and raise your arms up at about a 45 degree angle. The bench helps provide you with a little more stability and the resulting body position you’re in puts the upper traps in a less favorable position, which both result in more side delts involvement and less upper traps. The second exercise you can try out is the lying cable lateral raise. By performing this lateral raise lying down with cables, we’re able to favour the side delts a little more while providing a constant resistance through the whole range of motion of the side delts.
To sum this all up into an action plan for you, what I’d suggest is start with the first mindful exercise that we did and replace your lateral raises in your routine with that drill for the time being. Master that while increasing the load very gradually overtime, and then once you’re ready you can transition to the standard lateral raise given that you’re able to successfully perform your reps with minimal compensation of the upper traps. Then from here, you can experiment with some of the other exercises for middle delts I mentioned and take a look at some of my other delts videos to implement some more variation and volume for your delts once you’re ready to do so.
And that’s it-you know how to get big shoulders. But all in all, you need to realize that if you’re struggling to grow certain muscle groups, then odds are it’s a result of the various compensations that you’re unknowingly making whenever you attempt to train that muscle. And for a step-by-step program that addresses this by using science to not only show you what to workout week after week, but then shows you exactly how to perform each and every exercise for maximal activation and growth while pairing this with a nutrition plan to support your recovery, then simply take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below:
builtwithscience.com/bws-free...
Filmed by: Bruno Martin Del Campo
MUSIC:
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[@JeremyEthier]

Hope you enjoyed this one! What other exercises or muscle groups are you struggling with? Comment below and I’ll start catering some of my content towards that. Cheers!

[@vinayjadhav2711]

Back pain near glutes during leg workout using resistance band... Please make video workout using band🙏

[@TomPlayzEpicMC]

Lower traps!

[@MarkWillmore]

Legs. Oh no, i just don't have enough willpower to do them 😅

[@SomeKidFromBritain]

Dont become the new Athlean X Dont just go over the same stuff over and over again, there is no honour in that. Also do a heart health/strength cardio video

[@nahulseyon54]

How to increase the size of my biceps, triceps, shoulders, upper biceps, triceps, back muscles and plz tell me how to become extremely strong and I have a nerd neck. I am a teenager. Plz tell me how to become overall buffer. Plz tell me ways to reduce soreness and hand trembling after workout. How to still grow in height while doing daily workouts? How to induce 3 cut features (I don't know what they are called) on my chest? Plz reply because your top fan needs your help to become as strong as you.

[@StandUpForCanada1867]

How can anyone NOT like this guy? His language is precise and always "to the point". Jeremy if you're reading this keep up the great content!

[@beam3932]

He made a slip up a couple months ago. Coach Greg made a vid about it. I still like him though, some of the information he posts are still scientifically accurate.

[@StandUpForCanada1867]

@@beam3932 yeah but the important thing is he corrected himself with a subsequent vid. No one is perfect. Not a big fan of Greg to be honest. He's always acting like the police of the fitness industry.

[@moaazalnaggary4536]

@3 name changes allowed every 90 days. He posted a video were he misinterpreted the research he deleted the video after Greg called out the mistakes and Jeremy apologized don't really remember what was the video called but he re-uploaded it corrected I think it was related to cardio affecting your weight loss

[@DreymaComposer]

@@StandUpForCanada1867 I don't get how people find that Greg guy funny. His fake voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me, cant stand it. Whereas Jeremy and his videos are chill as f*. To the point, clear and precise. Yes he might make mistakes, but everybody does. Nobody's perfect. He makes very few mistakes

[@StandUpForCanada1867]

@@DreymaComposer exactly, bang on. Greg Doucette is loud and obnoxious. He makes Trump sound like an angel HAHA

[@TimothyLeeMSOTCPT]

I think Jeremy mentioned this briefly, but thinking about raising the dumbbells OUTWARD instead of only upward has really helped me focus on my side delts better while minimizing trapz use. Try it while doing Step 1 in this video! I'm interested to see if it helped others or not.

[@andregehre6840]

I tried right after reading your comment and it really helps me focusing on the delt activation. Thx, I think this is a easy to implement detail and hopefully usefull.

[@Morpheah]

Hey mate, how do you mean? Like, sort of in a circular motion during abduction?

[@arshadpakkali]

@@Morpheah just think about pushing the weight sideways away from you so on pushing your hands will go up due to it

[@alainkaizer7769]

Also think of it as raising your elbows up, that then pushing the dumbbells outward make me feel the side delts being activated the most, practice it with no weight first then 10lbs then progress.

[@TimothyLeeMSOTCPT]

@@Morpheah it's basically what mohamed and alain said! Thanks for clarifying!

[@DrSwole]

1:00 Jeremy calling out your posture when you least expect it 😂

[@roymustang.595]

Natural hypertrophy weds mama swole 😂

[@rjs8466]

Saket Gokhale

[@AD-ui6sk]

Me: sits up straight fastly after being caught

[@DrSwole]

A D lmao

[@jays2551]

literally right as I was thinking about cutting my rest day into a delt day, it's like a sign from above

[@Shennnnnnnnnnn]

Well, yeah... That’s because the world revolves around you!

[@jays2551]

@@Shennnnnnnnnnn i already knew that but thanks

[@Elennmin]

Did you go to the gym?

[@shathaan1763]

Don't rest :)

[@daviddadon8114]

Law of attraction

[@rafaelbalaguer9342]

Wow. I just discovered this channel and I'm blown away. I've never understood something about fitness so clearly. Beautiful graphics and editing on top of a super knowledgeable teacher. This is the gold standard of fitness content on KZbin. Thanks so much, Jeremy. Excited to dig into your channel.

[@tranmikey7355]

I love how amidst the “fake weights” and exposed coaches/personal trainer/fitness youtubers trends, my man Jeremy is keeping up with them informative videos as well as bravely admitting his mistakes in the past and fixing it with additional researches. Massive respect for this man. One of the few fitness trainers on YT I actually follow and subscribed for tips on gaining muscles while losing them stubborn belly fats.

[@pointchamberlain4782]

Nobody cares if the weight real we care if the info is accurate

[@Alessandro_3840]

That is INSANE, Jeremy. I just tried to do a single rep WITHOUT any weight, forcing to keep my traps down, and it's been so painful, I just discovered my delts are so weaker than I thought.. incredible difference, thank you for that

[@firefoxuser2557]

my rear delts went crazy after 6 reps no weights.

[@GreyBush_Gaming82]

Imagine waking up getting ready to work out, and working delts and seeing this video confirming your doing it wrong lmao🤦🏽‍♂️🤭

[@mastervule1844]

It's best time to correct yourself then! :D

[@RevivePerformance]

You having a delt only workout is the main problem here

[@GreyBush_Gaming82]

@@RevivePerformance never said it was ONLY lmao, it was the main focus because they are lacking. But guess you know my workouts lol

[@GreyBush_Gaming82]

@@mastervule1844 well I was wondering why they wasn't growing and I totally use too much of my traps so I knew why they weren't getting the workout they needed. So that small correction I'm sure is going to help the results now! Loli

[@lorenzorusso5375]

@@GreyBush_Gaming82 do you see any difference in your delts now man?

[@shloyogoldstein7043]

This is legit freakin genius, I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, but now that I naturally did lateral raises, this is def what I was doing wrong. THANKS JEREMY!!!

[@Sawrattan]

Your videos just 'flow' better than most. I never feel I have to skip through anything, thank you!

[@ly776]

That was about the clearest exercise video I have seen on YT. Well done!

[@damianmatras8568]

The video is straight to the point, I found what I wanted in the first 2 minutes. But I watched till the end to get more info. Fantastic explanation Jeremy! 😃 Great work!

[@norbikallai4844]

Man u have just fixed my shoulders. Thanks mate! I was suffering from this problem for years now! Have a great day!

[@akshaysatish8482]

I smile when I see your videos on my recommendation. It's a nice feeling :)

[@FitStem]

Same here! Fitness videos are always the best 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

[@KiLLaBushWooKiE]

Damn this is something i kind of knew. A dude at gym once told me lower the weight ur shoulders ain't as strong as u think and push ur shoulders down when doin any fly/raise/pull type exercises. 💯 👍

[@RobertAtkinson]

Took your advice at the gym this morning and what a difference! Thanks for the great advice Jeremy

[@jackscott4829]

This guy should get an Emmy or something. Seriously best fitness content on KZbin or TV.

[@irudesan1650]

This channel is a blessing

[@AayushKumar-ds2pb]

thank you so much man you have helped me so much during my quarantine workouts and this tip especially helped activate my side delts so much more that my traps.

[@joseg.1185]

Thanks for the video man! I’m really bad on my left side of the shoulder. My trap is always kicking in making me feel some soreness and making no shoulder gains. Finally I found a very explicit video to help improve my workout👍🏼

[@vibez8978]

Jeremy is constantly improving very great🔥

[@phillhart2990]

This was really helpful and I've studied a lot and never had this advice before. Looking forward to more. I'll certainly be taking this on board in my routines.

[@vonderingvakeelvlogsrito]

Now I realise I was involving my upper traps more than the lateral delts. Thanks for this pro tip. 🙏🇮🇳

[@brianbarajas2948]

Ive been following your stuff bro. Ive always been wide shouldered but didn't have that "tapered" look and needed to grow the delts. Already am seeing great change to the shape of my shoulders and getting the look im wanting. Good stuff!!!

[@mcmjr405]

Awesome information!! In all my years this has never been presented to me in such an informed and easy to repeat manner. My lateral and rear delts have been lagging seriously! I look forward to getting back into the gym to reverse that! Going forward, can you do a video on anterior pelvic tilt and one side of the torso rotated.

[@amandatkids854]

Thank you! You have a great way of explaining it all and just finished my delts hopefully WITHOUT utilizing my upper traps! It’s as though you have been watching me lift and caught me doing exactly that! Thank you! 🙋‍♀️ 🏋️‍♀️

[@eastongee8039]

I found your vids and it's giving me confidence to work out again. Great examples and explanations!

[@carlossubero1687]

Great tips Jeremy 💪🏻 I’m gonna implement those in my daily routines 💪🏻💯

[@unknownuser7222]

Literally just tried with a band and i can already tell the difference lol didn't even know i was shrugging when i was doing them. Thanks !!

[@raulabarca1513]

Thanks again , everything has been awesome , great having you as a mentor ... thanks

[@FitStem]

Jeremy inspired us to make our own fitness channel! Thank you Jeremy 💪🏾

[@surrealistidealist]

This was extremely helpful! Thank you!

[@Close2silent]

Clean, simple, straight to the point information. Thank you

[@SuperMoppii]

Brilliant, informative, helpful. Jeremy is the real deal

[@mattbynum5603]

As always, extremely helpful!! Thank you!

[@monakloudy3616]

This video is a real piece of jewel 🥺 You are saving my life and my shoulder as well 🤗🤍

[@dipunkumarpalia9106]

This video will give you complete information of the deltoid mistakes I have been doing till date🙂,thanks Jeremy,the information you give is why I admire you so much

[@joeysung311]

I also really like pausing at the top for a second, really helps me feel those delts better

[@devfree4117]

My delts have always sucked, tren time!!!

[@immersiveparadox]

Tren haaad

[@AD-ui6sk]

Dose harder then last time always

[@zmirburger]

tren hard, eat clen

[@jumerlaguilar8150]

Anavar give up

[@Adiarby13]

never forget to Test your limits

[@victorizer1984]

Great video! I have been having this problem and now I know what to do! THANK YOU! ✊🔥

[@bobbygum1177]

had this kinda problem for a while this video helped me out

[@antawnuy]

Thanks Jeremy. Your explanation are very clear compares to some fitness youtubers that I know. Thank you again, from one of your thousand subscribers in the Philippines.

[@mrah2423]

I just tried this test and I definitely fall into this category. Awesome video!

[@robert8690]

I've been lifting weights for 25 years, but have never been able to achieve much side delt soreness or growth. Thanks to this video, I went down to 10 pound dumbbells from 25 or 30 I used before, tried to keep my traps loose and shoulders down. For the first time in at least 5 years, I actually am sore in the muscle belly of my side delt. My side delta are pumped, and I have no shoulder pain either. Thank You very much. It's unbelievable that these little changes in technique make such a difference.

[@luisatinoco6636]

Love love love all your videos !!! So helpful ! Much appreciated 😊

[@EriqKoontz]

OK, this is another really helpful video from Jeremy. Great ideas to help connect the mind to the body.

[@beninglis8097]

This is some good advice. I have started to notice I have huge traps and no side delts. I have gone down to almost half of what I was lifting... but I really feel this in the side now.

Thanks for your detailed explanations!

[@5ivestarLiving5Star]

Just what I needed great video as always 🎯

[@Eht333]

I've been having this problem for so long.... did shoulders today and omg the pump I got just from 1 tip from you was great!!!! Thankyou

[@immersiveparadox]

Thanks for this video. I think we really needed it.

[@azrouhicham5263]

Best workout KZbin Channel so simple and effective

[@xfwwatching7530]

Thanks for making this video ❤ I highly appreciate you

[@karlomiguelperez4450]

Clearest explanation on how to properly engage the side delts

[@wasabinguyen]

Very good tip. Thank you!

[@papicoco5069]

Great content as always!

[@mwolf768]

Great stuff Jeremy. That have to be the best tip ( avoid using traps ) I have had heard in a long time. 👍

[@yellowfr3ak]

Thank you! Practicing now ^^

[@stevel8980]

Excellent information as usual. Thanks so much

[@Armando_Lara]

Thank you. I needed this.

[@gymmonkeyphysique7092]

Thank you for your advice, it helps alot

[@offthechainfitness]

Excellent video, thank you, i will keep everything in mind here on out.

[@DEEPAK-re3lo]

Fun fact :- you all getting this knowledge for free

[@nemesisk4788]

i saw ad dude

[@abaddonssentinel8605]

@@nemesisk4788 Are you paying for ads?

[@nemesisk4788]

@@abaddonssentinel8605 yes

[@Ronaldo-wg9hg]

Knowledge should be free

[@dante8478]

Internet is not free

[@sunilrp1356]

Really helpful. Thank you 😌

[@RenDorton]

Best freaking content out there, thanks bro ❤️

[@kristenmfclark1966]

Your videos have saved my shoulders! Thank you!

[@lishu25]

Those are such good advices! Thanks! 😊

[@jdsabe723]

Awesome video. A lot of information without being boring

[@nativ5311]

this is the best fitness channel on youtube..

[@nishachor]

Nice one for sure, thanks for sharing!

[@CathleenRehfeld]

great presentation! Thank you for the tips!

[@peterlockitt6771]

Thanks for the great videos. I really struggle to engage my chest when bench pressing; I feel it a lot in my shoulders but almost never on my chest.

[@MarkWillmore]

Lateral raises club here.

[@georgelee99]

i can do it with 6 kg. 3 set of 12 reps. i love this exercises.

[@georgelee99]

@Randomatics im a begginer lol

[@TheNeoShinji]

Federico Gränel Fausto keep it up with 5kg, don’t listen to Mr Coach wannabe. After you are comfortable with 5kg with good form and could do up to 10-12 reps. Then you could consider heavier weight. I suggest to increase it by 2.5kg. I start with 5kg, now I could raise 10kg.

[@h9peless]

Randomatics You’re the best fitness guy? Lmao

[@eyeoftruth4405]

@Ghandi Blyat Heavy dumbell lateral raise works great with half range of motion!

[@shomailfarooqui6920]

Thank you and good work sir.

[@paisun7033]

Thank you for this video! It is really difficult to explain to my husband how to "shoulder down" do a lot of exercises. Great video!

[@sams802]

That imagine you’re pushing the dumbbells side ways really helped! Thank you!

[@parthbhongade6531]

The content and the quality 💯💥

[@thedeeprot]

*BEST FITNESS CHANNEL!!!!*

[@simonh1349]

🥵🔥

[@unknownboi.]

💪

[@daniilgoldberg9666]

The most useful work out chanel !!!

[@clickbait9744]

Exactly what I needed to know

[@iwonder1216]

This is excellent. Best video on lateral delts on youtube.

[@gigipopescu]

Amazing video with fantastic explanation and presentation

[@stereodan7180]

Thank you, simply but helpful

[@balasaravanan500]

Thank you man, going to try it out

[@jonr4164]

I find Jeremy hilarious when making fun of gym culture, never stop. Thanks for the knowledge too.

[@troyhebert5837]

Another helpful tip from my trainer - do each arm independently, hold onto something very sturdy and lean out about 15 degrees. Then do the lateral raise. It will remove the traps.

[@bacs9967]

Lateral raises on a cable machine is a great way to do this

[@JunandKeshia]

Wow, I googled why my lat delts weren’t growing as well as other muscle groups and found this vid. Made me realize I’ve been doing them so wrong my whole life utilizing alot of traps. Thanks for this info

[@sawmasailo7785]

You really help me out👍🏻

[@Michoristo]

whoa, super helpful. thanks!

[@CrossFitSevenCities]

Great explanation man

[@JD.Knight]

Just tried it without weight. Felt it contract tighter than ever! Great advice!!!

[@theamericanmuscles8814]

Man, you are a absolutely genius , I appreciate you so freaking much 👌🏽🤟🏽

[@amlkfnew]

This was really helpfull thank you!

[@remi000simon]

That cable one lying down was good I try that this week for sure ,. Traps are a focus area for me

[@stevenopolis3155]

Quality content. So deserving of subs.

[@raymadani270]

helped me big time. Thanks

[@BheemNationalist]

Tbh this is the best workout tip I’ve ever received. It worked!!! Thanks a lot Jeremy…

[@kalarobinson8567]

Thanks for all of your helpful tips and I would love to see how to perform sumo deadlifts correctly, Thanks

[@HamzaDjeloud]

I bet he was amazing at referencing his essays