In May 2025, Hypertrophy scientists Dr. Milo Wolf and Dr. Mike Israetel ranked shoulder exercises based on biomechanics, efficiency, fatigue management, and accessibility.
Best Shoulder Exercises
- Front Delts: Bench dips
- Rear Delts: Cross-body cable reverse flyes with neutral grip
- Side Delts: Behind-the-back cable laterals
The Science Behind Exercise Selection
The stimulus-to-fatigue ratio, biomechanical efficacy, and data are key considerations when choosing exercises. For example, standing barbell overhead presses may provide a high overall stimulus but can be extremely fatiguing, negatively impacting recovery and progress.
Compound exercises may be great for strength, but many studies prove that isolation exercises can be as good, or better, for hypertrophy. Tension curves could play an important role, as several studies show greater muscle growth from exercises involving high tension in the fully stretched position. (1)(2)
Front Delts — Dips & Incline Front Raises
Dr. Israetel champions dips and incline front raises as the top front delt hypertrophy exercises because they offer the highest tension in the stretch.
Seated dumbbell overhead presses ranked highly, if using a full range of motion. Why not standing or seated barbell overhead presses? “It’s a cultural artifact,” Dr. Israetel said, and the returns aren’t worth the fatigue.
Side Delts — Behind the Back Cable Laterals
While dumbbell lateral raises are the most accessible lateral delt movement, Dr. Israetel prefers the constant tension and force curve of cable lateral raises. In a recent study, however, both produced similar muscle gains when performed standardly. (3)
Dr. Israetel suggested alternating in front of and behind the body, or crossing the cables to train both sides. Machines work, too, but most are suboptimal compared to cables.
Cable lateral set up properly to have tension and a stretch… S tier, it checks every single box; they’re infinitely better.
—Dr. Mike Israetel
The effectiveness of mechanical drop sets combines dumbbell raise styles and upright rows to maximize stimuli with minimal setup.
Rear Delts — Dual Cable Reverse Flyes
Cross-body cable rear delt flyes get first mention and rightly so. Unlike reverse pec deck flyes, cables allow for a deep stretch with both arms simultaneously, are more challenging at the top, and minimize back involvement. Alternatively, perform flyes sitting sideways on a pec deck.
Rear delt flyes, bent over rows, and face pulls all share suboptimal tension curves, and are hence low tier.
References
- Maeo S, Wu Y, Huang M, Sakurai H, Kusagawa Y, Sugiyama T, Kanehisa H, Isaka T. Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position. Eur J Sport Sci. 2023 Jul;23(7):1240-1250. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2022.2100279. Epub 2022 Aug 11. PMID: 35819335.
- Wakahara T, Fukutani A, Kawakami Y, Yanai T. Nonuniform muscle hypertrophy: its relation to muscle activation in training session. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Nov;45(11):2158-65. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3182995349. PMID: 23657165.
Featured image via Shutterstock/visuality art
