Deltoid Training with Calisthenics: A Guide For The Anterior, Lateral, and Posterior Delts

[lilly159]

@raykay Half the names you listed are on gear, which will give you great shoulders.

“Elite calisthenics athlete” is a funny way to spell gymnast. You’ll see most elite gymnasts have capped shoulders because
1. They don’t train body weight 24-7
2. They are on gear

 

[elnatk]

@lilly159 Which ones do you think are enhanced?

 

[lilly159]

@elnatk FitnessFAQ, Dunham, Saturno for sure.

Others may be natty. Though since they also make a living by looking good, wouldn’t be surprised if they were also on juice.

 

[elnatk]

@lilly159 I don't think FitnessFAQs is enhanced. He has video proof of his progression, and it is slow with no huge instant improvements.

 

[newsgurl]

@raykay The deltoid muscles are the largest upper body muscles! Not small and weak.

 

[big_sinner]

@newsgurl Pecs, lats, and traps would like to have a word with you.

Edit: https://nmbl.stanford.edu/publications/pdf/Holzbaur2007a.pdf

 

[brian7777]

@big_sinner https://medium.com/house-of-hypertr...human-body-weekly-infographics-4-6f13b147b5b0

 

[newsgurl]

@big_sinner Look it up. The shoulders are the biggest then traps. I didn't think so at first either

 

[big_sinner]

@newsgurl https://nmbl.stanford.edu/publications/pdf/Holzbaur2007a.pdf

Huh. I see delts and then triceps. But the point still stands. Only thing that bothers me about this study is the large standard deviations.

 

[raykay]

@newsgurl If you're talking about the scapula overall, those are groups of many different muscles. Also, still not true, the lats are the largest.

 

[newsgurl]

@raykay I'm talking deltoids. Idk maybe Google is lying when I search up largest upper body muscles by volume.

 

[jacojacojaco]

@raykay Why are you just asserting this when there is evidence to the contrary? You can't just deduce this based on your eyes. You have to consider the amount of muscular volume beneath the surface. I would also argue that shoulder isolation is unnecessary. With the right grip/form for pike pushups and rows, you can definitely make your shoulders the limiting factor. Deep wide pike pushups (chest to ground on top of say a stair case) get my lateral delts to go to failure.

That being said thanks for compiling so much information!

 

[raykay]

@jacojacojaco It's a cost to benefit ratio. Is the cost of training much higher volume on more taxing compound movements worth the benefit of gaining some additional shoulder development? That's up to you and your training goals.

This is just another option that involves less taxing exercises, so it would be applicable to other people's programming. Myself for example, I'm relatively heavy at around 220 lbs/100 kg. My shoulders get painful tendonitis from too high of pressing volume. So it's not feasible for me to train them to failure using just compound movements.

With rowing it is a similar story, there is a lot of load on my biceps and if I trained with the volume needed to fully fatigue the rear delts I'd get some nasty bicep tendonitis. Plus, that's additional fatigue to the back and forearms that is then taking away from other exercises like my deadlifts, and kettlebell swings/snatches.

There's more than one way to tackle the problem, if I sounded dogmatic it is only because I'm simplifying my ideas for Reddit.

 

[jacojacojaco]

@raykay I was saying the assertion about delts not being the largest was not based on evidence. Also, I weigh between 225 and 230 and I don't get tendinitis but I also focus a lot on heavy quality eccentrics. I also don't do a lot of volume between 10 and 12 sets a week for delts. Not trying to tell you what to do, but maybe you're just overtraining?

 

[raykay]

@jacojacojaco Oh! Apologies for confusion about the assertion. As far as I can tell, the claim that the deltoids are the largest by volume cites a 2007 study using MRI measurements. There's newer research using different models, but it is locked behind paywalls. I'm not certain what the conclusions of the more recent research are. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17241636/

As for the tendonitis, I just have poor connective tissue genetics plus a lot of mileage on my body from time as a college athlete and working some physically demanding jobs.

It's easy for my strength to outpace what my joints and tendons can tolerate. If I'm not careful I can get very achey. For this reason, I generally get much better results from dialing back a bit on my compound movements and incorporating more accessory work.