The 3 Best Shoulder Workouts Imaginable
Nov 29th, 2009 | By Todd Bowman | Category: Exercises, Shoulders
"Don’t waste your money on a shoulder workout program that’s not right for you. See our reviews of the best workout programs you’ll find anywhere." – Todd
Best Shoulder Workouts–Build Shoulder Muscles In A Matter Of Minutes
If you are looking for that sculpted and shredded upper body, you must have well developed shoulder muscles. Having lean, cut and thick shoulder muscles will give you that v-shape physique that every bodybuilder and weight lifter is looking for.
Finding the best shoulder workout, to build bigger shoulder mass takes just minutes a week. Most all serious bodybuilders will admit that big strong shoulders make the biggest contribution towards how your upper body looks.
The Anatomy Of The Shoulder:
Your shoulders are actually one of the more weaker and unstable muscle groups in your body. They are constructed of a ball and socket joint which has the largest range of motion (ROM) of any joint system in your entire body. The bone that makes up the actual shoulder socket is called the glenoid bone and the ball part of the joint is actually your upper arm bone which is called the hemerus bone.
The acromion actually rests right on top of your shoulder girdle but underneath the acromioclavicular joint (ac joint) near the clavicle bone. This is generally where the majority of shoulder separations happen.
Your entire shoulder can abduct about one hundred and fifty degrees, flex about one hundred eight degrees, extend about forty five degrees, and rotate both internally and externally about 90 degrees on the average person. Having this big of a range of motion sets the stage up for injury for the average person.
Your Rotator Cuffs:
The rotator cuff is surrounded by many very small and most oftentimes weak muscles. Given the instability of the shoulder muscle itself, along with the fact that there’s a huge range of motion with weak stabilizing muscles equals: torn rotator cuffs.
Checkout An Interesting 3 Step Shoulder Workout Plan.
Your Shoulder Functions
The functions of your shoulder are numerous. Being that they rotate in every direction you use your shoulders for just about every human function. The shoulders are diamond shaped like mini triangles and have 3 heads to them. They are:
Anterior Deltoid
The anterior deltoid muscle helps to rotate your arm inward and typically this muscle in the bodybuilder is over used and can cause posture problems over time.
Posterior Deltoid
The posterior deltoid (rear head) is the muscle that sits in the rear or back of your shoulder and helps to extend and abduct your arm to the back side of your body.
Medial Deltoid
The medial deltoid is the muscle on the outside of your shoulder and helps to abduct your arm parallel to the ground often isolated in lateral side raises. Also seated rows, chin ups, pull ups and reverse flyes help to workout the medial deltoid or middle head part of your shoulder muscles.
Hang Clean & Press
Regular Military Press (Overhead Shoulder press)
Overhead Squat Shoulder Press
Lateral Dumbbell Side Raises
Your shoulder muscles are actually divided into 3 parts, the font (anterior), the middle (medial) and the back (posterior). These 3 muscles are responsible for all rotational movements made by your arms in every direction. Now it is possible to exercise all 3 parts of your shoulder muscles with only 2 different exercises, a shoulder raise and an overhead press.
Overhead Shoulder Press:
The biggest thing to remember here is that the one exercise that is most responsible for building bigger shoulders is the overhead press. The stimulating and powerful overhead press exercise cannot be matched in terms of effectiveness. It’s better to use a dumbbell for the overhead shoulder press but a barbell will work as well but is not as effective. Using dumbbells gives you an even shoulder workout because one of your shoulders cannot cheat and compensate for the other one. The full stress and stimulation is on the each shoulder instead of on the upper chest as with the barbells.
When you’re doing your overhead shoulder press with dumbbell,s make sure the seat has a back for support. Press up the dumbbells all the way up to the ceiling just shy of locking your elbows. When you lower the weights, bring them back down only to shoulder level and then back up again.
Side Lateral Raise:
This next shoulder exercise is called the side lateral raise. This works the medial head of the shoulder muscle. This is going to be the best shoulder workout for widening our upper body and giving you that v-shape. Here’s how to do this shoulder workout. Stand with your knees shoulder length apart and slightly bent. Grab a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing inward. Keep your arms slightly bent. Raise your arms to your shoulder level and then back down again. Your arms should be straight out to the sides of your body parallel to the ground.
These two exercises will give you the best shoulder workout ever. It’s important to remember that there is no need for many other shoulder exercises or workouts. These two will give you the most bang for your buck as far as size and strength. Many people forget that your shoulders get worked as a byproduct of many of the other exercises we’re doing at the gym. What tends to happen is that they overwork their shoulder muscles and hinder their progress as a result.
There’s no need to isolate the anterior or posterior shoulder muscles. The reason is that the anterior muscles get stimulated while doing bench press exercises while the posterior shoulder muscles get stimulated while doing seated rows for your back. Shoulder muscles tend to respond more to the quality of the workout rather than the quantity. Here are a couple shoulder and deltoid routines that will give you the best shoulder workout ever…
Shoulder Workout Routine #1
- Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – 2 sets of 5-7 reps
- Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals – 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps
Since I know you will probably continue doing isolation exercises for the anterior and posterior heads for awhile, check out the following routine.
Shoulder Workout Routine #2
- Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals – 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps
- Seated Rear Lateral Dumbbell Raise – 1 set of 10-12 reps
- Standing Front Dumbbell Raise – 1 set of 10-12 reps
- Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – 2 sets of 5-7 reps
That shoulder workout is really all you’ll ever need right there! This is not a time to slack off. You need to push it to complete muscle failure if you want to see results in 4 weeks. Make sure that you cannot do one more rep without messing up your form. Also make sure to keep your results in a log book to track progress and results. Remember what gets tracked gets measured.
Shoulder Workouts With Dumbbells:
If you want big muscular shoulder muscles, it’s important that you use free weights during your training sessions. Dumbbells are the best way to exercise your shoulder muscles. The shoulder muscles consist of the deltoid muscle which is basically a triangle head that sits on the collar bone. The deltoid muscle has 3 heads which are the front (anterior) deltoid, the middle head (medial), which is the outside of the shoulder and finally the rear head (posterior). You want to use free weight dumbbells for this shoulder workout. Here are 3 of my favorite shoulder workouts with dumbbells:
- Dumbell Side Raises
- Dumbell Upright Row
- Standing Military Press
Click Here To See A Weird Shoulder Workout That Is Getting Some Shocking Results.
4 Great Shoulder Workouts:
Building shoulder muscles is great but many times you need some good workout routines to follow for a few weeks. Here is a good shoulder workout I like to do. But make sure you always vary and change your workouts so that you don’t hit a plateau in your training.
Beginner Shoulder Routine
- Side shoulder raises 3 x 8-12
- Standing military press 3 x 8-12
Intermediate Shoulder Routine
- Side raises 3 x 8-12
- Barbell upright row 3 x 8-12
- Standing military press 3 x 8-12
Advanced Shoulder Routine
- Side raises 4 x 8-12
- Barbell upright row 4 x 8-12
- Standing military press 4 x 8-12
Pre-exhaust Shoulder Routine
- Side raise to Standing military press 3 x 8-12
- Barbell upright row 4 x 8-12
What’s the best shoulder workout for mass?
If you want the best shoulder workout to build muscle mass and size, you can follow the shoulder workout I mentioned above but instead of doing 8-12 reps, increase your weight so that you can only perform 5-7 reps maximum. On your 5th or 7th repetition, you shouldn’t be almost unable to lift the weight.
You should be struggling and straining so hard that your muscles are literally shaking trying to life that much weight.
Always have a spotter there to help you so that you don’t drop that heavy dumbbell on your head or injure your shoulder muscles in any way. This in my mind is the best should workout for mass you can do to get huge shoulder muscles that are also very strong.
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