5 Side Delt Exercises to Grow Wider Shoulders

Learn the 5 best side delt exercises to grow your shoulders. Get to know deltoid anatomy with targeted shoulder workouts.

Victoria Petrella

April 24, 2024

9 min read

Trivia question: What’s the difference between your lateral deltoids, medial deltoids and side deltoids?

Answer: Nothing, they’re all the same thing! Although a few terms are floating around on what to call them, growing your side delts is the best way to look wider on top.

Side delt exercises that target these muscles can help you create volume in your muscles for a more aesthetic physique.

Looking to get a wider frame to increase your confidence or simply build up your strength? Training your side delts can do wonders for you, fulfilling these promises and more.

Let’s walk through side deltoid function and anatomy. Next, we’ll cover some benefits of training the side delts. And finally, we’ll give you a list of simple side delt exercises with how-to guides.

You can add these moves to your toolkit, scaling them up or down in intensity as you wish!

What Are the Deltoids?

Okay, first off, it’s important to understand the deltoids as a complete muscle group.

You have three deltoid muscles in your shoulders:

Anterior deltoids (aka front delts)
Medial or lateral deltoids (aka side delts)
Posterior deltoids (aka rear delts)

The deltoids, along with your rotator cuff muscles, are the main muscles that round out your shoulders. Take a look at them here:

The middle figure indicates the “deltoid, lateral or medial,” meaning your side delts.

They cap your shoulders, sitting between your front delts and rear delts. The deltoids are superficial shoulder muscles. That means they sit close to the surface of your skin.

These muscles have an upside-down triangular shape. They cover the glenohumeral joint of your shoulders. The shoulder joint is the most mobile in your whole body.

More on deltoid anatomy here: Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Deltoid Muscle.

What Do the Side Deltoids Do?

The delts as a whole muscle group are key shoulder stabilizers.

Deltoids help you prevent shoulder injuries too. Because your glenohumeral (shoulder) joints are so mobile, they’re also highly at risk of injuries. The muscles around these joints need to work hard to protect them. Your deltoids do just that!

If you’ve ever torn a rotator cuff, lucky for you! (not literally). Your deltoids help to compensate for weak shoulder muscles caused by rotator tears.

In shoulder abduction (pulling the arm away from your body), your deltoids can help to compensate for torn rotator cuffs by up to 108.1%.

Read more and investigate the Relationship Between Deltoid and Rotator Cuff Muscles.

Side delts, specifically, help you to abduct your shoulders. This means pulling your arms away from the center line of your body, moving from the shoulder joints. Side delts also help with some internal rotation of your shoulder joints.

Why Should I Train My Side Delts?

Shoulder Strength

Weak deltoids make the little things feel tough. Even basic activities, like lifting things up to put on a shelf or opening a jar of pasta sauce can feel tough with weak deltoids.

Side delts are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting strong shoulders. But the deltoids work together as a group.

They also tag team it with your rotator cuffs. So if one piece of the equation (like your side delts) simply isn’t performing, you’re likely to see strength loss in the whole area.

Balance your training so you’re doing moves that hit your side delts, front delts, and rear delts separately. Some exercises like the Arnold press actually hit all three deltoid muscles at once. This can be useful if you want to save time or focus on training your delts as a group.

Regardless, you should make sure the side delts get some focused TLC too!

Protection of the Shoulder Joint

Your shoulders are easier to throw out than you think! This is especially true for athletes.

If you practice sports with any kind of overhead motion, like swimming, baseball or weightlifting, you may be at more risk of subacromial impingement. This is where your soft tissues or tendons become trapped or pinched between your shoulder bones.

Your rotator cuff muscles and deltoids need to work together to balance and strengthen the shoulders. Imbalances in the deltoids or rotators can cause too much compression, leading to impingement and other injuries.

To learn more, read about Shoulder Muscle Imbalance and Subacromial Impingement.

Side Delt Exercises

Many exercises get some side-delt action. But are you really targeting these muscles for optimal isolation and growth?

If you want to send your delts screaming into overdrive, check out five moves you can use to build your side deltoids. These side delt exercises are a great way to enhance your shoulders for a wider frame.

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Lateral raises often called “lat raises” are one of the most useful exercises to crush your side delts directly.

For the mid deltoids, these are some of the top shoulder exercises that affect deltoid activation for people who resistance train. Let’s get to know the lateral raise.

Set-Up: Sit on a bench with your feet flat on the floor. You can also do this move standing up, feet shoulder-width apart. Face your palms in towards each other, holding a light dumbbell in each hand. Roll your shoulders back to stand with your chest proud. Engage your core.

Raise: Lift your arms straight out to the sides at the same time. Stop when your arms hit shoulder height. Your body should be making a “T” or cross shape here. Hold for a moment.

Reverse: Slowly lower your weights with control to bring your hands back to your sides.

Reps: 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Pike Push-Ups

You don’t need to load up the weights to challenge your side delts. Pike push-ups are a bodyweight-only move that hits your delts hard.

This is a great inversion exercise that you can do to challenge yourself.

Set-Up: Start from a high plank position, with your body forming a straight line from head to heels. Hinge from your hips and start to hike them up into the air. Walk your feet towards your hands to shorten your stance.

Push-Up: Bend your elbows to lower your head down so it hovers just above the ground.

Reverse: From the bottom of this movement, drive down into the floor with your hands and push yourself back up to the starting position.

Reps: Start with 3 sets of 8 reps at full range of motion. Increase as needed.

Pro-Tip: If you want to work on a decline push-up variation from here, simply elevate your feet. You can use a box, bench, or even your couch if you’re at home. Make sure to keep your legs straight in this push-up version.

Note that pike push-ups are an advanced variation. If you’re not feeling ready just yet, try to master your traditional push-ups first. You can even perform kneeling or wall push-ups for a beginner variation. These push-up variations don’t work your lateral delts efficiently. So focus instead on training the weighted exercises from this list and practicing push-ups separately if you’re a beginner.

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To learn more about push-ups and their alternatives, check out:

Monkey Row

You almost never see people doing these in the gym. It’s a little bit of an awkward motion that can feel weird at first.

Monkey rows, aka armpit rows, are an alternative to the upright row. Some people consider them less painful for your shoulders.

So if you tend to skip the upright row due to shoulder pain, monkey around a bit and test out this alternative.

Set-Up: Grab a dumbbell of comfortable weight in each hand. Hold them with your palms facing toward your body.

Row: Flare your elbows out to the sides as you peel your hands up your body along the sides of your waist and ribcage. Keep rowing until your dumbbells sit just under your armpits.

Reverse: Lower your weights back to your sides slowly and with control.

Reps: Continue for 3 sets of 10 reps.

Standing Shoulder Press

These are a tried-and-true stalwart of upper body building activities and can pack a serious punch for your side delts!

Shoulder pressing and its variations are a great side delt exercise to put on muscle. Not only this, they’re good for your shoulder mobility too.

If you sit at a desk typing all day, there’s a good chance you suffer from still shoulders. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. This move can help you test your shoulder mobility. Introducing mobility work into your life will help ensure you’re not cramping up in the middle of your workday.

Set-Up: Load a comfortable weight onto your barbell. You can use a pre-loaded barbell if you want. Rest it across your collarbones and the tops of your shoulders.

Body Position: Keep a solid grip on the barbell. Your palms should be facing away from you (overhand grip). Bend your elbows to support the barbell. Separate your feet so that they are hip-width apart. Bring your feet slightly wider than this if it’s comfortable. You can also point your toes out at a 15-45-degree angle if it feels best.

Press: Engage your core and drive the barbell upward. Use your shoulder and upper body strength to bring it to an overhead position. Straighten your arms, but don’t lock your elbows out.

Reverse: Hold for a short pause, then slowly, and with control, lower your barbell back to the collarbones.

Reps: 3-5 sets of 3-10 reps or as needed.

Press for success! Learn more about shoulder presses, variations and shoulder health:

Reverse Fly

A reverse fly is also called a “rear delt fly.” This is a slight misnomer since it works your side delts too.

Set-Up: You can perform this move seated, standing, or lying down. For the standing variation, grab two light to medium-weight dumbbells.

Body Position: Hold your weights by your sides and hinge from your hips to lean slightly forward, with a slight bend in your knees. Your weights should sit near your calves in this position.

Fly: Bend your elbows slightly and slowly raise your weights until your elbows line up with your shoulders. Don’t swing your weights. Instead, let your upper back and shoulder strength drive this movement.

Reverse: Slowly lower your weights back to the starting position with control.

Reps: 3 sets of 12 reps or as needed.

Pro-Tips:

Most gyms also have a reverse fly machine that you can use to target the same muscles. You may prefer to be in a more upright position. If holding yourself in a hip hinge causes you back or hip pain in the slight squat, try the machine variation.

Many people prefer dumbbells, but a cable or resistance band fly may be more effective to target your mid-delts. In research on Resistance Exercises with Elastic Resistance Bands vs. Free Weights, there is some evidence that using elastic resistance for reverse flys may promote more muscle activation in the medial deltoids. Test out both variations and see which you prefer.

FAQ

Q: What are other names for your side delts?

A: Phew, this is a long one!

Your side deltoids can also be called:

Lateral deltoids
Medial deltoids
Middle deltoids
Acromial deltoids

Q: Should I use heavy weight to train my side delts?

A: Generally, for side delt exercises, use medium or lighter weight, at least until you start to build your technique.

Why? Lifting too heavy, especially on the delts tends to cause “cheating.” Our bodies have a tendency to allow other muscles to compensate when a weight gets too tough for one muscle group.

This is true for your delts too. Any surrounding muscle from the upper back to even the torso, hips, or legs can help weak delts compensate.

Super Side Delts

So now you’ve gotten a snapshot of how to target your side deltoids directly, using bodyweight, weighted or machine exercise.

Training this muscle is a phenomenal way to enhance the appearance of your shoulders. If you have narrow clavicles or just find yourself looking a little “blah” on top, widening your shoulders can be a serious confidence booster!

Whether you call ‘em side delts, medial deltoids, lateral deltoids, or any other names, be sure to train these muscles in isolation.

Experiment with these moves to take your upper body harmony and strength to the next level.

References

Bergquist, R., Iversen, V. M., Mork, P. J., & Fimland, M. S. (2018). Muscle Activity in Upper-Body Single-Joint Resistance Exercises with Elastic Resistance Bands vs. Free Weights. Journal of human kinetics, 61, 5–13. https://doi.org/10.1515/hukin-2017-0137

Campos, Y. A. C., Vianna, J. M., Guimarães, M. P., Oliveira, J. L. D., Hernández-Mosqueira, C., da Silva, S. F., & Marchetti, P. H. (2020). Different Shoulder Exercises Affect the Activation of Deltoid Portions in Resistance-Trained Individuals. Journal of human kinetics, 75, 5–14. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2020-0033

Dyrna, F., Kumar, N. S., Obopilwe, E., Scheiderer, B., Comer, B., Nowak, M., Romeo, A. A., Mazzocca, A. D., & Beitzel, K. (2018). Relationship Between Deltoid and Rotator Cuff Muscles During Dynamic Shoulder Abduction: A Biomechanical Study of Rotator Cuff Tear Progression. The American journal of sports medicine, 46(8), 1919–1926. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546518768276

Elzanie A, Varacallo M. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Deltoid Muscle. [Updated 2024 Jan 30]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537056/

Page P. (2011). Shoulder muscle imbalance and subacromial impingement syndrome in overhead athletes. International journal of sports physical therapy, 6(1), 51–58.