Everybody wants Steve Reeves' shoulders. In all honesty, his deltoid development wasn't exceptionally impressive, but he was blessed with god-like shoulder width in his skeletal frame which more than made up for any flatness in his deltoid muscles.

For us mere mortals, however, we have to work our shoulders to obtain some kind of width. I, myself, have narrow shoulders, so I've always paid special attention to my lateral delts.

As you can probably guess, this article is about creating the illusion of width in your shoulders. We should, however, examine the differences between the 3 heads that comprise the deltoid muscle group.

The Lateral Head

This is the head that you want to focus on to create the illusion of width in your shoulders. You want to develop the bulbous look of this head, so that you have some separation between it and your biceps and triceps. If your lateral is flat, not only do you lose the illusion of wide shoulders but your arms also look fat if you have large biceps and triceps.

To develop the lateral head, you should use a wide variety of reps, but focus on the Type IIa and Type I fibers. In other words, you should complete a higher number of reps with little or no rest. This is why set extension techniques such as trisets and descending sets work particularly well for the lateral head.

The Posterior Head

This is the least developed deltoid in bodybuilders. Although many bodybuilders perform bent-over lateral raises, this exercise is actually a poor choice for developing the posterior deltoid. With bent-over laterals, there is a tendency to cheat and swing the weights up with the help of the upper back muscles, the trapezius, and the legs.

To develop the rear deltoids, I prefer the exercise known as "lying reverse flys." This is simply an exercise where you lie on your side and perform rear delt raises one arm at a time. The lying reverse fly is a superior exercise, because it allows for a greater stretch of the posterior deltoid when the dumbbell passes across the chest and comes close to the floor.

The Anterior Head

This is the head you need to worry about the least. Most bodybuilders perform plenty of bench presses, incline presses, and military presses to develop this deltoid. Even when it comes to standing lateral raises, the anterior head will activate if you use poor form (which most people do). Unless you're lacking in anterior head development, I would skip front delt training altogether. Since they're mostly made up of fast-twitch fibers, heavy pressing (from any angle) will activate the anterior heads.

Techniques for Increasing Lateral Deltoid Size

Lean Away Laterals (Descending Sets): In order to stimulate growth in my side delts, I developed this brutal method for my workouts. It's the best technique I've come across. Here's what you do: Perform 3 sets of lean away dumbbell lateral raises. Each set is comprised of 4 descending sets. Rest 90 seconds between each arm. Here's a sample workout:

Lean away dumbbell laterals (10-12 reps at 25 lbs.) Use left arm. Followed immediately by

(8-10 reps at 20 lbs.) followed immediately by

(6-8 reps at 15 lbs.) followed immediately by

(6-8 reps at 10 lbs.)

Rest for 90 seconds, then repeat the entire process for the right arm

Switch back and forth between the right and left arm 2 more times