If you’re like me you’re saying, “yeah right, you can’t possibly build deltoids lying on your back. Maybe chest but not shoulders. It defies the law of physics.”
I thought so too until the other day I stumbled on something that changed my mind completely. I was doing supine barbell kickbacks to finish off my tricep routine.
Tricep kickbacks are a strange exercise … in that … you have to hold the barbell extended away from the head in order to work the triceps. It always seemed a little awkward because it took so much effort just to hold the barbell out there at arms length.
But that’s where the magic is … It just never dawned on me what was happening or what muscle was holding the arms out there. Then one day I got up off the bench after torching through a series of tricep kickbacks and I glanced at my deltoids in the mirror. My outside deltoid head was so full of blood it was casting a shadow on the biceps.
Frankly, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I had never seen that kind of pump on my shoulders before, even from doing side lateral raises. And it was right out there where I wanted it most.
Now that I think of it, it just made sense. The exercise felt awkward because it required something besides the triceps to hold the weight out there and the muscle that was doing the holding was … my shoulders.
At the time I wasn’t thinking this at all. I just knew something wonderful was happening and I wanted more of it.
I jumped right in and started playing around. I soon found the exercise was even better when I switched to dumbbells. I could twist the wrists so that even more emphasis went to my shoulders. I knew I had a colossal breakthrough because I have since played around with it even more and it keeps getting better.
Even now as I sit here writing this, I wish it was deltoid night and I was cruising through those wonderful Supine DB Palm Twisting Kick Backs.
Here’s How To Do The Exercise
Grasp the dumbbells so the thumb side of the palm is tight up against the plates. Lay down on the bench and let the dumbbells go back over your head until the upper arms are parallel with the floor. Extend the dumbbells out to arms length, at the same time twist the palms so the back of the hands are facing the floor.
Continue doing reps in this fashion all the time twisting the palms as far as possible when the dumbbells reach the extended position.
There you got it. If you love cannon ball deltoids and the rounded cap on the end, you are going to love this exercise.
Have Fun.