BUILDING BIG SHOULDERS
Many people find building the shoulders hard work. All too often a combination of slow progress and shoulder injury will leave a our shoulder development lagging behind the rest of our muscle growth. Here are some great shoulder exercises that’ll be sure to pack more muscle onto your shoulders without risking injury.
BRIEF ANATOMY OF THE SHOULDER
When we think of building shoulders, we generally mean adding size to the deltoid muscles. The deltoid consists of 3 parts or ‘heads’ - the front, mid and rear deltoids. There are many different shoulder exercises that can be used to target each of these heads, although most exercises will work all three together to some extent.
The front deltoid is used to bring the arm forward and is used in all pressing exercises, such as the bench press. A common isolation exercise for the front deltoid is the front dumbbell raise.
The mid deltoid is the main part that pulls (or abducts) the arm out to the side and is often trained using lateral raises.
The rear deltoid pulls the arm backwards in movements such as the bent-over dumbbell raises.
Other muscles that are important in stabilizing the shoulder joint are the rotator cuff muscles. Theses are normally forgotten about as they are not visible on the surface, but they are the ones that tend to get injured and hamper our upper body training if we ignore them.
AVOIDING INJURY WHEN TRAINING SHOULDERS
The last thing you want to do is to get a shoulder injury because it’ll wreck your upper body training while you rest and repair your shoulder. Worse still, you’ll just keep on training and never let that shoulder get better.
Many shoulder injuries occur when raising the weight above ones head. So only include one overhead pressing exercise in each shoulder workout.
Start with the muscles at the back of the shoulder, and progress to the middle and then the front. This will make sure all the smaller muscles are warmed up and ready for the overhead pressing exercises.
You should also bear in mind any other exercises you do during the week that place stress on the shoulders. For example, incline bench presses on your chest day. It’s a good idea to leave a day two between such exercises and your shoulder training day.
When performing the bench press, or flyes, make sure you don’t overextend your shoulder joint. In other words don’t allow your elbow to move further back than your shoulder. This will help to prevent you straining the rotator cuff muscles.
THE BEST SHOULDER EXERCISES
Bent Over Lateral Raises
This exercise will work the rear deltoid. You can either use dumbbells or a cable system with the pulley height set to the lowest position.
Start by standing with your feet shoulder width apart. Bend your knees slightly and bend forward at the waist so your torso is between about 45 degrees to the floor and parallel with it. The more you lean forwards the more emphasis is placed on your rear deltoids rather than the mid deltoids.
Protect your lower back by keeping it in a neutral position (making sure you don’t hunch over) and by contracting your abs.
Hold the dumbbells or cable handles with your arms hanging beneath your shoulders, then raise them out to the sides and lower back to the starting position.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Sit on an incline bench with the back rest in the upright position. With your palms facing forward, hold the dumbbells at shoulder height. Press the dumbbells up overhead making sure that you don’t lock out the elbows at the top of the movement. Lower the weights back to the starting position.
Shrugs
Shrugs are a great exercise for working the trapezius muscles of the upper back and neck between your two shoulders. Start by holding the dumbbells down by your sides. Then shrug the shoulders up, pausing for a second at the top and lowering slowly. Just move your shoulders straight up and down rather than rolling them.
You can vary the exercise slightly by leaning forward slightly at the waist to recruit more of the trapezius muscle. However, be careful that you protect your back, again by keeping your spine in a neutral position and contracting your abs.
Shrugs can be performed either using dumbbells or a barbell.
Dumbbell Lateral Raises
This exercise works the mid deltoid. Start by holding the dumbbells in front of your thighs, with your knees and elbows slightly bent. Raise your arms out to the sides until your elbows are at the height of your shoulders. Lower the weights again and repeat.
For some reason, this exercise is one that too many people seem to use a weight that’s far too heavy for them. They end up throwing the weights up using their whole body to swing the dumbbells upwards and then letting them drop back down. The whole motion should be slow and controlled to both maximize shoulder growth and prevent injury.
Front Dumbbell Raises
This exercise targets the front deltoid. Unfortunately this is another one where people tend to use poor form and swing the weights around. Make sure you use a weight that you can comfortably manage.
Hold the dumbbells in front of your thighs. Keeping your elbows slightly bent, raise one arm up in front of you until it is parallel with the floor. Lower it back to the starting position and then repeat with the other arm.
