Despite the dizzying list of shoulder exercises to choose from, the muscle’s relatively small size and simple structure mean you can max out its growth with just a small handful of carefully chosen exercises. Dumbbell Overhead PressIf you do exercises like the bench press or push-up, you’re already working your anterior deltoid – the front part of your shoulder muscle. “The most bang for your buck is probably going to be an overhead press,” he says. The lateral raise is the well-established meta for developing thick middle delts, but people commonly squander the exercise’s potential by using dumbbells. Enter the cable lateral raise, which keeps even tension on the muscle throughout the full range of motion.