Excessive front delt development

[Bipolar]

Sup all,
I have been DCing for quite awhile now. I have dominant shoulders and have always been a shoulder bench presser. I always feel a significant pump in my front delts after an upper day and I feel they pull forward on my physique as well.

Removing flat bench has helped somewhat. I also practice good bench technique with shoulder blades pinned back and down.

Any ideas?

My chest exercises are incline bench, decline bench and hammer strength flat.
My shoulder exercises are dumbell press, smythe press and hammer press.

[a-bomb83]

weighted dips, perhaps? are your incline/decline db or bb? if bb, i'd switch to db for a while.

[Crull]

you need more retraction exercises if your shoulders are coming forward, you should try to do as much rowing movements as possible and after your upper days do face pulls and/or scapula depressions and/or incline shrugs

[overman]

you need more retraction exercises if your shoulders are coming forward, you should try to do as much rowing movements as possible and after your upper days do face pulls and/or scapula depressions and/or incline shrugs

interesting.. i have the same problem. can anyone attest to this?

[Crull]

your shoulders get pulled forward because your lower and mid fibers of the traps get weaker than the chest and front delt and thus can't hold your shoulders back, a cause of this is lack of chest and trap development and overdeveloped delts

[Macho Man]

use a tennis/la crosse ball to beat the shit out of your chest and front delts, and do the stick stretch. Do prone cobras and IYTW raises on off days concentrating on using your traps to raise the weights. Be constantly aware of your posture.

As far as chest, why would you do an incline movement when your delts are dominant? I would do decl db bench, hammer bench, and weighted dips trying to look at your feet.

For shoulders, why not take a break from them for a while? If you use them as much as you say you do, they are already getting worked during your chest exercises. Better to take some time off now, learn how to use your chest more, then add them back in when you are ready. If you had a giant ass and no hamstrings, would you keep doing housewife kickbacks, or would you just stick to hammie exercises?

[Bipolar]

Thanks for the replies,
I do incline and decline bb...
I do incline bb because I have an underdeveloped upper chest, and its the only movement I feel that hits it...
Weighted dips are a great idea... I've always been very weak with them so I've stayed away, however, I hear alot of people on this board find them great for chest development..
I will try some of those movements that were mentioned to develop my traps..

[Andre Gregoire]

For me besides stretching I found my upper traps were too strong compared to lower traps so stopped doing shrugs and started doing lat dips plus stretching chest, delts with the broomstick.

[Caz84]

I'm working around a similar problem. The thing that had the most immediate effect on me was stretching the **** out of my chest day in day out to make sure that I had the flexibility to hold my shoulders back. I'm constantly aware of my posture now and its helped not having a tight chest to prevent me from holding it correctly.

In the long run though I just aim to correct the muscle imbalance between my front and back, taking some time of from chest and shoulders to do so.

Pretty much just reiterating what the guys above me have said. Great advice so far!

[Saraigh]

One thing that helped me (had a similar issue), was once or twice a week for about a month after hitting chest was lay on a flat bench and do an unweighted stretch for 5-7 minutes, just holding your arms like at the bottom of a fly.

Went to a different massage therapist than my usual and he mentioned I should do it, and it worked surprisingly well for me.

[grandfunkhickle]

Use an upright row variation for a shoulder exercise, pressing exercises have the tendency to hit the front delts the hardest while upright rowing hit the side delts more significantly.

Safety is a concern with these.

Wide grip cable upright rows are very safe and dc friendly.
I have had success with high-pulls as well, it is an exercise that teaches the powerclean, it is basically an upright row where you use your legs for explosions and you can use much higher weights.

[brineal]

OP can you put up some pics of what youre talking about so we can see the issue youre having with your delts? more often than not these kind of problems are just your mind messing with you

[dunhill225]

you need more retraction exercises if your shoulders are coming forward, you should try to do as much rowing movements as possible and after your upper days do face pulls and/or scapula depressions and/or incline shrugs

Correct..... gold star to Crull!

[Chaps]

you need more retraction exercises if your shoulders are coming forward, you should try to do as much rowing movements as possible and after your upper days do face pulls and/or scapula depressions and/or incline shrugs

Excellent advice, i'd had to that scapula stabilization exercises: Y's T's W's you could also do overhead shrugs.

[Crull]

thanks, that you guys find my advice good and helpfull