Front Delt Exercise Selection Guide
Stick to stable exercises with lots of ROM, that are limited by the target muscle group and that you can load properly. For front delt growth, seated overhead pressing is probably going to be your bread and butter. Read on to find out why.
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What do the front delts do?
For our goals, the front delts have two functions that are worth training; shoulder flexion (like a front raise) and shoulder transverse flexion (like a chest fly). Because the latter is already covered by chest training, that leaves only shoulder flexion.
Seated Overhead Pressing
Seated Overhead Pressing is probably your best bet for compound front delt training. Seated is likely better than standing as it requires less stabilization by your core, thus reducing how much fatigue you experience while maintaining the front delt stimulus. My personal favourite is the seated smith machine overhead press. The reason for this is that it is easy to set up safeties (for injury prevention) and because you can start the lift at the top. In contrast, most other overhead pressing variations have you start the set at the bottom, which can be hard with heavy loads due to the lack of stretch reflex. Other good options include the seated dumbbell overhead press, the seated barbell overhead press and a seated machine overhead press.
Benching, push-ups and dips
To be very clear; these exercises are considerably worse at growing your front delts than seated overhead pressing. This is because they don’t train your front delts through a full ROM; usually, you’re training them through about half of their full ROM, or more depending on the incline angle of the bench. However, one thing these exercises do have going for them is that they take the front delts through the half of their ROM where they are more lengthened. In a deep dip, push-up or bench press, your front delts are likely quite lengthened. It’s worth keeping in mind that these exercises involve the front delts as this will reduce how much overhead pressing volume you will need/benefit from. Finally, if your primary goal is to grow the front delts, benching, push-ups and dips are unlikely to be your best bet – instead, consider doing more seated overhead pressing.
What NOT to do
Excessive amounts of front raises
While front raises do a good job of isolating the front delts, they usually place little to no tension on the front delts when they are lengthened. If you are going to do them, I would them as an adjunct to overhead pressing and I would prioritize cable front raises over the free weight version – which allows you to get more ROM under tension.
That wraps up the front delts.
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