The way lifters train their shoulders is usually a balance of personal taste and injury history. Is lifting heavy overhead the ultimate goal? Or is it something you just don’t care about? Are they your bread and butter lifts, or are they a low-priority accessory lift?
If you’ve read the other articles in the 6 Best series, you know we advocate a bit of both: a heavy muscle-building move like the press to start, followed by targeted isolation work. This approach is a time-tested way to create the best shoulder workout for both men and women. And it allows you to use a wide range of movements! Here’s how we made our selections:–
Easy to learn and perform
- Total muscle stimulation and intensity
- Popularity among diehard lifters and bodybuilders (this is important!)
- Availability of equipment in commercial gyms
- You’ll find enough variations of each movement below to keep you busy for a long time. Read, eat, and supplement to get big, then work out with the three complete workouts below!
1. Dumbbell front raise
Overview
This exercise is an effective move to isolate your anterior deltoid muscles, or the front of your shoulders. Standing, hold a dumbbell in front of you and place your palms facing your feet. Keep your elbows and knees slightly bent as you raise your arms straight out in front of you to shoulder level. Slowly return to the starting position.
Goal : Four sets of 12 repetitions. Rest about 60 seconds between sets.
- Beginner: Move up and down at an even pace. Two seconds up, two seconds down. Don’t lock your elbows or lean back during the execution.
- Intermediate: Try to reduce the rest between sets to 30 seconds and combine the front, lateral, and reverse fly shoulder in one order.
- Expert: No rest between sets. Combine the front, lateral, and reverse fly shoulder in one order.
2. Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Overview
The Dumbbell Lateral Raise is a shoulder exercise used to strengthen the shoulder muscles. It’s a good exercise to build width in your upper body, giving you a “V” shape.
Instructions for Dumbbell Lateral Raise
- Select the desired weight from your hips, then step back a few steps to an open space.
- Take a deep breath and use a neutral grip to raise the dumbbells to shoulder height (palms facing in) with your elbows slightly bent.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position under control.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tips for Dumbbell Lateral Raise
- Focus on keeping the reps slow and controlled. Since this is an isolation exercise, the focus muscles should be working properly – not moving the weight as much as possible.
- Don’t bring your arms up too high – only about shoulder height.
- If you experience shoulder pain while performing the movement, consider implementing one of the following modifications:
- Tilt your pinkies slightly higher than your thumbs. Imagine you are pouring water into a cup.
- Turn your palms forward so that your thumbs point away from your body. This will place the shoulder in a more externally rotated position and potentially allow the shoulder joint to move a little more.
3. Push-Press
Why it’s on the list: This press allows you to load more weight and do more reps than any other overhead exercise, making it a great way to unlock new shoulder growth. It’s actually considered a bit more of a full-body movement than a pure shoulder movement, as it engages your lower body, core, delts, triceps, and upper pecs.
That’s not always a bad thing! This type of compound movement engages a lot of muscle mass and releases muscle-building hormones better than a single-arm movement. It’s a favorite of bodybuilders who want to build strength and athleticism in the offseason, like Steve Cook’s shoulder and arms workout.
Push-press variations for shoulder development:
- Barbell push-press
- Dumbbell clean and press
- Kettlebell push-press (double-arm or single-arm)
- Front squat push-press
- Dumbbell thruster
4. Military Press (AKA Overhead Press)
Overview
The military press is a complete shoulder building exercise perfect for building shoulder muscles. The military press is an exercise that goes by many names and is often referred to as the shoulder press, overhead press, and hard press.
The military press is primarily used to build the deltoid muscles. It indirectly targets other shoulder muscles, your triceps, and your core. Since the military press is performed standing, it involves a lot of core strength to help stabilize the spine while pressing the weight overhead.
There are several variations of the military press that you can use to target the deltoids at different angles and in different ways.
Military Press (AKA Overhead Press) Instructions
- Adjust the barbell to just below shoulder height then load the desired weight onto the bar.
- Assume a shoulder-width stance and place your hands shoulder-width apart (or just outside) with an overhand grip on the bar.
- Go under the bar and unhook it, keeping your spine in a neutral position.
- Take two steps back, inhale, brace, tuck chin, then press bar to lockout overhead.
- Exhale when bar locks out and slowly move bar toward your chest while controlling it.
- Repeat for desired number of repetitions.
These military press variations include:
- Seated Military Press
- Dumbbell Military Press
- Seated Dumbbell Press
- Arnold Press
- Behind The Neck Military Press
- Smith Machine Military Press
5. Rear Delt Row
The rear delt row is an upper-body exercise that primarily targets your upper back and shoulder muscles. Specifically, the rear delt row is a shoulder exercise that primarily targets the rear deltoids or “rear delts,” which are the muscles in your shoulder that are located behind your shoulder joints.
The rear delt row goes by several names, including barbell rear delt row, standing rear delt row, and bent rear delt row, but they all refer to the act of holding a barbell while bending at the waist, letting your arms hang straight down to the floor, and then pulling the barbell straight up toward your torso.
If you follow a halfway decent strength training routine that includes plenty of pushing exercises, you’ll usually have no problem getting your front and side delts big and strong.
The rear delt row effectively targets the rear delts (hence the name), making it ideal for ensuring proportional development of your shoulders.
Training your rear delts isn’t just necessary for aesthetic purposes, though – it’s also integral to shoulder health and stability.
Rear Delt Row: Muscles Worked
The main muscles worked by the rear delt row are —
- Rear Deltoids
- Trapezius
- Rhomboids
- Infraspinatus
- Terres Major and Minor
6. Seated Dumbbell Press
Overview
The Seated Dumbbell Press is a variation of the Standing Dumbbell Press and is an exercise used to strengthen the shoulder muscles. The overhead press is a foundational movement for establishing baseline strength and a fully balanced body. Using dumbbells, as opposed to performing with a barbell, allows the individual to strengthen each side of the muscle equally.
The exercise can be incorporated into shoulder workouts, push workouts, upper body workouts, and full body workouts.
Instructions
- Set up an adjustable angle bench at 90 degrees and select the desired weight from the rack.
- Lift the dumbbells from the floor using a neutral grip (palms facing in). Place the ends of the dumbbells on your knees and sit on the bench.
- Using a safe and controlled motion, kick your knees one at a time to get each dumbbell into place.
- Take a deep breath then press the dumbbells down by extending the elbows and contracting the deltoids.
- Slowly return the dumbbells to the starting position (arms should be at about 90 degrees or slightly less, depending on the length of the limbs).
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
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