If you’re hoping to strengthen and grow your anterior delts, then you’re probably wondering which exercises are the most effective and how often you should be including them in your program.
The 11 of the best anterior delt exercises are:
- Smith Machine High Incline Press
- Smith Machine Incline Bench Press
- Barbell Shoulder Press
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Arnold Press
- Cable Shoulder Press
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
- Cable Front Raise
- Cable Crossbody Front Raise
- Dumbbell Front Raise
- Barbell Front Raise
To help you maximize your anterior delt training, I’ll walk you through each of these exercises, teach you how to program these movements based on your goals, and share an anterior delt workout that you can start implementing today.
If you want to build bigger, stronger, and more defined shoulders, let Fitbod help. On average, a new Fitbod user who trains 3 times a week for about 45 minutes will see a 34% strength increase after 3 months. Try Fitbod for free.
Anatomy Of Deltoid Muscles
The deltoids (delts) are located on the shoulders and are composed of three different sets of muscle fibers.
The anterior deltoid muscle fibers (front delt) are located on the front of the shoulder to assist in pressing loads overhead and in front of the body. They also work to lift the arms in front of the body or pull them into the body while they are extended out (like a chest fly).
The lateral deltoid muscle fibers (middle delt) are located along the lateral aspect of the shoulder and provide much of the shape and size of the shoulders. These fibers work to press loads overhead as well as lift the arms outward laterally (to the side).
The posterior deltoid muscle fibers (rear delt) are located along the backside of the shoulders and work to pull the arms back when extended in front of the body. They also help stabilize the shoulder joint when doing pressing and pulling movements.
Compound vs Isolation Exercises for Anterior Delt Training
The anterior delts are trained during all pressing movements, but exercises that have you pressing at an incline (or fully upright rather than flat) produce more activation of the anterior delts.
Seeing that most lifters train the bench press, incline press, and shoulder press regularly, the need for additional anterior delt isolation training is low.
However, if you’re struggling to grow your anterior delts or you have hit a plateau in your pressing movements (and believe it to be due to your weak front delts), you could add more anterior delt isolation training.
Isolation exercises are helpful in this as you can place more emphasis on the anterior delts and prevent other muscles from taking over the movement.
This is not to say that you should remove all compound pressing movements from your program since those are also key for helping to develop more mass and strength.
Ideally, you would do most of your anterior delt training in the form of pressing (at incline and overhead angles) and add in some isolation movements as well, if needed.
Benefits Of Anterior Delt Exercises
Below are two main benefits of adding anterior delt exercise to your program.
Stronger Pressing
The front delts assist the shoulders and chest during pressing movements, and if they are weak or underdeveloped, they could be limiting how much you can press (in both the shoulder and bench press).
Adding pressing exercises like incline presses, overhead presses, and flat bench presses and anterior delt isolation movements like front raises will improve your overall pressing strength.
More Defined Shoulders
Chances are you want to target the anterior deltoids because they lack size. If you are already doing shoulder and chest pressing and are still waiting for the results you want, adding in anterior delt isolation movements can bring up the front delts and add more size and shape to the shoulders. The bigger the shoulders are, the more noticeable your V-taper will be.
Related Article: How to Grow a V-Taper Physique
11 Best Anterior Delt Exercises
Below are the 11 best anterior delt exercises to build bigger front delts.
Most of these are pressing (shoulder and chest) exercises, as the anterior delts are active in these movements, but there are front delt isolation exercises as well because you should include both types of movements in your training.
1. Smith Machine High Incline Press
The Smith machine high incline press is a pressing movement that is performed with the bench set at a 75-degree angle (not quite fully upright like a shoulder press).
By setting up at a high incline, you are pressing the bar out in front of your shoulders at the top, which will keep tension on the front details rather than shifting to the shoulders, traps, and upper back at the top.
How To Do It
- Place an incline bench inside of a smith machine, with the bench set at a 75-degree upright angle.
- Sit down and grab the bar with a slightly wider than (2-3 inches) shoulder-width grip, and bring the bar down to the top of the shoulders.
- You may need to move the bench back or forward to line it up just right.
- Now, push the bar upwards, with it out in front of you (you are sort of pressing the barbell up and away from you).
- Lower the bar to the shoulders, and repeat.
Pro Tip
If the Smith machine you’re using has the bar on an angled track, move the bar away from you as you press. If your bar goes up and down (on a straight path), you should be fine with the normal setup.
2. Smith Machine Incline Bench Press
The Smith machine incline bench press targets the upper chest and anterior shoulders and is performed at a 45-degree angle of incline.
This is also a movement where you can use more weight to expose the anterior delts to heavier loads that force them to adapt to keep up with demands.
How To Do It
- Set an incline bench at a 45-degree angle and sit with the bar on your upper chest.
- With a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip (2-3 inches outside the shoulders), press the bar upwards.
- Lower the bar down to your upper chest, and repeat.
Pro Tip
If you want to isolate the front delts even more, you could perform ¾ reps; meaning that instead of coming all the way back down to your chest, you stop the movement ¾ of the way down. By not bringing the bar back to the chest, you will keep the focus on the front delts rather than the pecs (chest).
3. Barbell Shoulder Press
The barbell shoulder press is a staple shoulder-building exercise that challenges the anterior and lateral heads of the deltoids.
This exercise allows you to train with heavier loads and minimize the involvement of the upper chest (placing more emphasis on the shoulders).
How To Do It
- Place a barbell in a squat rack at shoulder height, and grab the bar with a shoulder-width, double overhand grip.
- Push your elbows up underneath the barbell so they are under your wrists and your forearms are vertical.
- With the bar resting on the front of your shoulders, push the bar up overhead, making sure it lines up over your traps at the top (moves back).
- Lower the bar back to the start position and repeat.
Pro Tip
The bar should not be in front of you. If you struggle to get the bar up and back, think about reaching as high as you can, allowing your shoulder blades to spread apart (protraction) as your hands reach overhead.
4. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
The dumbbell shoulder press is similar to the barbell shoulder press, but it allows you to attack each anterior deltoid separately.
This shoulder press variation helps to ensure that there are no size or strength differences between the right and left shoulders.
How To Do It
- Sit down on a bench with two dumbbells, one in each hand, resting on the top of the shoulders.
- Keep your elbows underneath your wrists to ensure your forearms are vertical.
- Push the weights up overhead, keeping your palms facing you the entire time.
- Lower the weights to the front of the shoulders and repeat.
Pro Tip
Think about keeping your elbows in front of you and the palms facing one another. This will take some of the lateral delts out of the movement and put more emphasis on the front delts. If however, you want to hit the lateral and anterior delts, you can rotate your palms forward as you press.
5. Arnold Press
The Arnold press is a shoulder exercise that targets all three heads of the shoulders. While it does not fully isolate the anterior delts, it does require the front delts to take on a good amount of the loading to support the weights between reps.
This is a good option if you want to hit all three heads of the delts in one movement to free up more time later in your workout to do more isolated movements for the anterior delts (workout efficiency).
How To Do It
- Sit down on a bench with dumbbells in each hand, with the palms facing you and the dumbbells at chin level.
- As you press upwards, move the elbows out to the sides until they are outside the shoulders, making sure to rotate your palms forward.
- Continue to press upward until the weights are overhead and the elbows are fully extended (straight).
- Then, reverse the movement, moving back into the starting position, and repeat.
Pro Tip
At the bottom of the press, you need to make sure that the weight is not resting on your upper chest or shoulders; your front delts should be engaged to prevent you from fully relaxing between reps. Your rear delts should also be engaged to prevent the shoulders from collapsing forward.
6. Cable Shoulder Press
The cable shoulder press allows you to train your left and right anterior delts at the same time and offers more control and stability than the dumbbell shoulder press, making it ideal for beginners.
You are also able to set it up so that you are pressing the hands slightly out in front of you (like a high-incline shoulder press). This will help you keep more of the tension on the anterior deltoids and prevent you from resting between reps.
How To Do It
- Stand between two cable pulleys set in a low position.
- Grab the handles and face the pulleys.
- With your hands by your shoulders, push upwards and slightly in front of you (just a few inches out front).
- Slowly lower the handles back to the shoulders, and repeat.
Pro Tip
You can keep this movement light because it is a very isolated anterior delt exercise. Focus on your technique so that you aren’t letting your arms be pulled down in front of you as you raise them overhead.
Related Article: Best Cable Shoulder Exercises
7. Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
This is a dumbbell chest press variation that places a good amount of loading on the anterior deltoids.
If you want to add some anterior delt training but do not have a ton of time, and need to find an exercise that can work the chest and anterior delts, this is for you.
How To Do It
- Lie down on a flat bench holding dumbbells above your shoulders, with your palms facing one another.
- Bend at the elbows to lower the weights to the sides of your chest, keeping the elbows stacked underneath your wrists.
- Push the weights back up until your arms are straight, and then repeat.
Pro Tip
Keep your elbows about 45 degrees from your body. They should not be tucked too aggressively or flared too far outward, as this will place either too much emphasis on the triceps (tucked) or chest (flared). Being somewhere in the middle allows you to target all the muscles (anterior delts, triceps, and chest).
8. Cable Front Raise
The cable front raise is an isolation exercise that allows you to keep constant loading on the anterior delts.
Cables are great for anterior delt isolation because they keep the tension on the muscle at the bottom, unlike dumbbells that allow you to relax between reps.
How To Do It
- Stand 1-2’ in front of a cable pulley with the pulley set to the bottom.
- With a straight bar attached to the pulley, face the machine and grab the handle with a double overhand grip.
- With straight elbows, lift the arms upwards as high as you can, and then lower slowly to the starting position and repeat.
Pro Tip
You can do this with an overhand or underhand grip. Some lifters find that an overhand grip can be uncomfortable on the shoulder joint itself (pinching sensation in the shoulders), so experiment with both grips and see which one feels better.
9. Cable Crossbody Front Raise
The cable crossbody front raise is another anterior delt isolation exercise, but it allows you to train the shoulders individually to address any muscle imbalances.
It also allows you to train the front raise in a fuller range of motion, helping to get more out of the movement with less weight.
How To Do It
- Stand between two cable pulleys set at the low position.
- While facing away from the machine, grab the handles, one in each hand, and step back 2-3’.
- With the elbows straight and palms facing the floor, lift the arms and handles upwards on a diagonal toward the center.
- Lower the hands slowly to the starting position and repeat.
Pro Tip
Try not to swing the hips or let the traps take over to lift the weight; if you find yourself “cheating” the movement, then lower the weight.
10. Dumbbell Front Raise
The dumbbell front raise targets the anterior delts and can be performed from a standing or seated position.
While these are very popular and effective, I find they are not as good as cables because they do not maintain tension at the bottom of the movement. That said, if you don’t have access to a cable machine, then these would be the next best front raise variation.
How To Do It
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, and hands to your sides holding dumbbells.
- With your palms facing you, and elbows straight, lift your arms in front of you and rotate your palms so they face each other as you lift the elbows and dumbbells in front of your shoulders.
- Once the dumbbells get to shoulder height, slowly lower the hands to the starting position and repeat.
Pro Tip
I find that if I do this seated on a high incline bench (set at 75 degrees), I can keep more tension on the anterior delts at the bottom of the movement.
11. Barbell Front Raise
The barbell front raise is a good front raise option when wanting to add more loading and strength, as you do not need to worry about controlling the wrist positioning or each arm individually.
For many lifters, even an empty barbell will be too much weight, so if this is the case opt for cables or dumbbells instead.
How To Do It
- Grab a barbell with a slightly narrower (2-3 inches narrower) than shoulder-width grip, with your palm facing your thighs.
- With the barbel resting 1-2’ of your thighs, raise the arms up in front of you keeping the elbows straight.
- Once the barbell has been raised to shoulder level, slowly lower the bar to the starting position, and repeat.
Pro Tip
I like using a thumb over the bar grip, as this puts less pressure on my wrists. It also doesn’t allow me to use my forearms as much to aid in the movement. Think about placing your thumb over the top of the bar, and turning your wrist downwards (knuckles to the floor).
Related Article: Do You Have Tiny Shoulders? Try This Workout!
How To Grow & Strengthen Your Anterior Delt
Below are training recommendations for the anterior delts based on whether your primary goal is muscular strength, muscular hypertrophy, or muscular endurance.
Strengthen Your Anterior Delts (Strength)
When looking to increase our anterior delt strength, it is important to remember that they can be loaded more heavily with compound pressing movements like bench and overhead presses.
Therefore, the majority of your front delt strength work should involve heavier pressing movements rather than trying to go heavy on isolation exercises (as that can increase your risk of injury).
- Exercises Per Sessions: Do 1-2 compound pushing exercises and 0 isolation movements each session (2 sessions per week).
- Total Sets Per Exercise: 3-5 total sets per exercise.
- Rest: 2-4 minutes between sets.
- Total Sets Per Session: You should do at most 12 total sets per session.
- Loading: Choose a challenging load between 85-100% of your one rep max.
- Rep Range: 1-5 total reps for each set.
- Training Intensity: Leave 1-3 good reps in the tank at the end of every set.
Build Bigger Anterior Delts (Hypertrophy)
When training for size, you should choose both compound and isolation exercises as you will be able to move heavier loads with compound movements and add more direct work and volume with isolation exercises.
Rest periods can be shorter, as you want to create a muscle pump and “burn” to encourage growth. Loading is not as heavy, and your rep count is much higher to increase the amount of time under tension.
- Exercises Per Sessions: Do 2-3 compound pushing exercises and 1-2 isolation movements each session (2 sessions per week).
- Total Sets Per Exercise: 3-4 total sets per exercise.
- Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Total Sets Per Session: You should do at most 12 total sets per session.
- Loading: Choose a challenging load between 70-85% of your one rep max.
- Rep Range: 6-15 total reps each set.
- Training Intensity: Train as hard as you can without losing form, leaving 0-1 good reps in the tank.
Develop More Stamina in the Anterior Delts (Muscle Endurance)
When training for muscle endurance, the goal is to increase the amount of time under tension as much as possible with little rest between sets.
- Exercises Per Sessions: Do 1-2 compound pushing exercises and 1-2 isolation movements each session (2 sessions per week).
- Total Sets Per Exercise: 1-3 total sets per exercise.
- Rest: 30-60 seconds between sets.
- Total Sets Per Session: You should do at most 12 total sets per session.
- Loading: Choose a challenging load between 30-70% of your one rep max.
- Rep Range: 15-30 total reps each set.
- Training Intensity: Train as hard as you can without losing form, leaving 0-1 good reps in the tank.
Sample Anterior Delt Routine
The below workout program is an upper body pressing routine that trains the anterior delts as well as the shoulders and upper chest.
There is only one isolation movement for the front delts in this workout because doing more is unnecessary, as the anterior delts are very active in the compound pressing movements.
Note: The exercises below can be found in the Fitbod app; however, this exact workout is not available in the app. You can use this workout template to create your own anterior delt workout in the Fitbod app.
- High Incline Smith Machine Press: 4 sets of 6-8 reps, resting 2-3 minutes between sets.
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 4 sets of 12-15 reps, resting 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Cable Shoulder Press: 4 sets of 12-15 reps, resting 1-2 minutes between sets.
- Cable Crossbody Front Raise: 4 sets of 12-15 reps, after the last two sets, do a drop set (take 10% off and do more reps to failure).
Looking for a workout program? Try using the Fitbod App, which will design your program based on your logged training data and goals. The workouts will adapt automatically to your levels of recovery and rate of progress. With over 600 movements and exercises videos, you can be sure to perform the movements correctly for optimal results. Take the guesswork out of your workouts. Try Fitbod for free.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is The Most Effective Anterior Delt Exercise?
The most effective anterior delt exercises are front raises and overhead presses. The front raises challenge the anterior delts more directly, whereas the overhead press allows you to work them with heavier weights due to assistance from the chest and other shoulder muscles.
Is Bench Press Enough to Build the Anterior Delt?
Training bench presses, shoulder presses, and flies multiple times a week offer more than enough volume for the anterior delts (for most lifters). If, however, you are struggling to gain larger front delts, you can add more isolated movements (one per session, twice per week), like front raises or upright rows.
About The Author
Mike holds a Master’s in Exercise Physiology and a Bachelor’s in Exercise Science. He’s a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), USA Weightlifting Advanced Coach, and has over 10+ years of experience working with collegiate athletes, national level lifters, and beginners alike. Mike is Founder of J2FIT Strength and Conditioning, a growing global training company with gyms in New York City, Cincinnati, and online offering personal training, online custom coaching programs.
