I've been training my shoulders more than any other muscle group, because they are lagging behind my other muscles.  No matter what exersices I do, I never feel it the next day or two.  My lats and traps always take over the exersises.  Before you say, "what are you talking about, your lats can't take over shoulder exersises!"  Whenever I do lateral raises, my lats always take over the negitave and control the weights down.  I've tried using lighter weights, and it's just too easy and I just can't feel it at all.  A typical shoulder workout for me looks like this:

Arnold press/Military press - 4 sets, 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps (using weight that will cause me to fail/close to fail after those reps)

Lateral raise - 4 sets, 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps (using weight that will cause me to fail/close to fail after those reps)

Bent-over rear raises - 4 sets, 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps (using weight that will cause me to fail/close to fail after those reps)

I will superset some of these exercises together when I am short on time.

Any tips?

First question I'd like to ask is how frequently are you training your shoulders because it's possible you are overtaining them so they arne't having the chance to recover and rebuild.

Building a good set of delts is difficult for us natties. I have been training this lagging body part of mine more frequently also over the past year. The answer to your conundrum is to first train them more frequent (Up to three times a week minimum). I would suggest focusing on side delts and rear delts twice a week leaving one remaining session to focus on building the front delts (reason for this is because front delts get alot of activation from bench pressing/pushing movements I assume that you do for your chest. What I found works really well is this exercise (see link below) for hitting the side delts and isolating them from the interference from other body parts; Bigger Side Delts With One Exercise

I hope this helps :)

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45ish minutes 2x per week

Which program are you doing for shoulders? Sets, reps and exercises?

-Arnold press/Military press - 4 sets, 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps (using weight that will cause me to fail/close to fail after those reps)
-Dumbbell lateral raise - 4 sets, 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps (using weight that will cause me to fail/close to fail after those reps)
-Dumbbell bent-over rear raises - 4 sets, 15 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps (using weight that will cause me to fail/close to fail after those reps).

I will superset some of these exercises together when I am short on time.

It looks like you have enough volume... are you trying my cheat and recover reps?

I am not, although I should probobly give them a try. I have tried cheat laterals before though, and my lats always end up taking over the negitive.

It just takes some practice to get used to. Keep trying it and you will see gains from the negatives!

Yeah, try to keep your scapula retracted and core tight! That always works!

Great tips as always by Scott above.

My 2 cents for getting the side delts to pop out even more: have you ever tried Y Raises? Those and Standing OVerhead Press are the only 2 movements I do that target the lateral deltoids and they've been popping out like crazy. Plus, Y Raises don't have any risk of shoulder impingement.

Great Posts! Arnold presses are my favorite. Definitely have to train more than once a week. I have noticed a difference. Face Pulls are good, too.

yeah especially when it comes to a lagging bodypart. Definitely need to be hitting those twice a week! 🏋 

I agree with all these posts and recommendations but I have to bring up the controversial behind-the-neck-press. I have been using these for decades and no other exercise isolates all 3 heads of the Delts as well as provides some Trap activation like this movement. I am aware that they can produce bio-mechanical strain on the shoulder joint and capsule and not all people can do these without issues. I happen to be one of the lucky few that can. I know the bodybuilders of yore like Arnold and Franco as well as many of the mass guys like Doran Yates used these as their main shoulder exercise.

I prefer to do them seated and with my elbows pointed slightly forward (which may be why I am not stressing the shoulder joint as much by putting my arms at a 90 degrees out to the side). You don't need tons of weight as well to build some solid shoulders. Again, this is personal opinion and I do rotate in other multi-joint shoulder exercises like DB presses and face pulls as always doing BTN presses can lead to joint overuse syndrome.

John