A Strength Coach Says These Two Exercises Are All You Need to Build Stronger Shoulders

If you ask anyone on the gym floor how to grow a bigger set of shoulders, you’ll probably find that no two answers are the same. In between front raises, upright rows, machine presses and cable raises, shoulder day can quickly become a long list of exercises.

However, fitness creator and coach Eric Evans, also known on social media as Average to Jacked, thinks most lifters are overcomplicating things. He says that if he had to start from scratch after over a decade of training, he’d strip his shoulder workouts back to just two simple moves.

‘If I had to start over today, I’d build my shoulders with just two movements: a lateral raise and also a rear delt fly,’ he explains.

According to Evans, the reason for this isn’t because those exact exercises are magic, but because they work the correct movement pattern for the muscle.

‘Your body doesn’t know the name of the exercise you’re doing,’ he argues. ‘It really only knows the fundamental movement pattern you’re asking it to perform and also the amount of tension you’re placing on the muscle.’

So, you don’t have to perform cable lateral raises if your gym only has dumbbells, or use a reverse pec deck if you’d rather do bent-over rear delt flyes. As long as you’re training the same movement pattern and progressing the move with intensity or volume, you’ll achieve a similar result.

According to the coach, lateral raises deserve a place in your programme because they primarily target the side delts, helping create broader-looking shoulders and a more pronounced ‘V-taper’. Rear delt flyes train the back of the shoulders to create a rounder, more 3D physique.

‘I’m not including anything for the front delts, and that’s intentional,’ he says. ‘Your front delts are already heavily involved every time you do pressing exercises for your chest.’

For most lifters already bench pressing, incline pressing or overhead pressing regularly, he argues the side and rear delts are more likely to be the limiting factor.

‘I don’t think the front delts are what’s holding their shoulders back. I think it’s the side and rear delts,’ he adds.

He recommends focusing on controlling every rep, and avoiding using momentum to swing the weight. He also suggests working in the 8-15 rep range, adding reps until you reach the top of the range before increasing the load and repeating the process – also known as progressive overload.

‘You definitely don’t need to hit your shoulders from 10 different angles,’ he says. ‘You just need to consistently train these two movement patterns, push them hard and then gradually get stronger over time.’

The Bottom Line

Research suggests muscle growth is driven more by sufficient training volume, progressive overload and proximity to failure than by constantly changing exercises and programme hopping. In fact, that could hinder it. So if your shoulder workouts have become jam-packed with unnecessary variations, simplifying your approach may be exactly what helps you make more consistent progress in the long term.

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