Take a look at this picture. Arnie’s shoulder muscles are so thick and well rounded. You might also notice how thick his pecs are - we dealt with that in this post. Today we are looking at how to get huge shoulders like Arnie.

Massive shoulders require perfect technique

More than any other muscle the shoulders demand that you use perfect technique. The shoulder joint is a very sensitive joint and it doesn’t deal well with incorrect pressure. I know so many people whose bodybuilding career was stopped short because of a shoulder injury.

To learn the perfect technique you should read as much information as possible. Since we are talking about Arnie it would be a good idea to mention his book the Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding because it is the best way to learn how he trained.

You should also ask the trainers and experts at your gym about your lifting technique.

How do I know if my technique is wrong?
There is one question that I ask to test people to see whether they know what they are talking about when it comes to shoulders. On the overhead military press how should your shoulders be positioned? Should they be pointing forward, sideways or somewhere inbetween?

Massive shoulders need a light weight

I really don’t care what anyone says; you do not need over huge weights to grow huge muscles. You need perfect technique, contraction, reps and a good diet.

The thing about light weights is that it allows you to really focus on your technique. This is 10 times more important than the weight you are lifting; especially if you are lifting it wrong.

Start with a light weight (even if you are pro) and work on all of your exercises until you can do them all perfectly. Then start upping the juice.

Massive shoulders love the dumbbbells

Dumbbells are great because they allow for a much freer lifting motion. When you use a barbell or a machine you are is some ways restricted in how you can lift the weight. With a dumbbell, however, the weight is free to move around in any direction and this forces you to use stablizier muscles to control what is going on.

The dumbbell also allows for a greater stretch. An overhead press with dumbbells does so much more than a barbell!

Massive shoulders need the right food

We all know the one gram of protein for every one pound of bodyweight but I think its time we started looking at the type of food we eat. Natural proteins from healthy, fresh and organic sources are so much better than store bought powder. When I started drinking raw organic goats milk I grew faster than ever before. The protein in it was alive and well!

Conclusion
You can learn a lot about Arnie’s training from the book mentioned above. It is one of the best books out there for learning how to approach bodybuilding in a systematic and very practical way. And best of all, it was written by Arnie!

More people come to Real Muscle Online looking for shoulder workouts than for any other topic. For this reason I wanted to provide you with a shoulder workout that hits all three deltoid heads and allows you to develop some huge shoulder muscles.

The three deltoid heads that make up the shoulder

Before we dive into the workout you need to know exactly how your shoulder exists and where each part is located. You then need to learn how these parts move and learn what exercises target them the best.

The image above shows you two out of three of the deltoid muscles. The posterior deltoid (left on diagram) is the back of your shoulder which connects into your shoulder blades and rhomboids. The anterior deltoid is the front part of your shoulder and is pictured on the right of the diagram. Finally there is the lateral head which is the middle part of your shoulder and is situated inbetween these first two.

To get a complete shoulder workout you need to make sure all three heads are hit well by the right exercises.

Shoulder development requires perfect technique

More than any other muscle the shoulders require you to use perfect technique when you are working them with weights. The consequences of poor technique are quite detrimental and include:

• No muscle growth
• Muscle injury
• Rotator cuff injury
• Etc.

An injury to the shoulder takes a VERY long time to heal and in many cases requires surgery. Other than the knee there are more shoulder surgeries per year than any other muscle. You need to take care.

The actual shoulder workout

Now that we have touched on a few important points we can get to the actual workout itself.

This workout hits all three heads with some very good movements. You want to start with a light weight and make sure your technique is perfect before you begin to get too heavy. I actually prefer using a lighter weight for my shoulders as I feel it is better to concentrate on the form than push up a heavy weight using cheat reps. The shoulders get a much better pump this way.

Tips for developing hug shoulders

If you really want to take your shoulders to the next level you should apply these tips to the workout above or any other workout you might be using.

1. Mix up the order
Don’t always train the same exercises in the same order. If, for example, you do your lateral side raises first everytime you will start to develop your lateral head more than the other delts. This is because the other areas of the muscle will be tired by the time you get to them. Mix it up.

2. Go slow
The shoulders need to be done in a very clean and smooth manner. Take it slow and really feel the muscle contraction and make sure you aren’t using any momentum to get the weight to its final position.

3. Don’t forget the negative
The downward part of the exercise is just as important as the upward part. Many people forget this and just drop the weight down as if it wasn’t even part of the exercise! Make sure your negative motions are even slower than the incline and that you keep tension on the muscle.

If I had to pick an exercise that was performed worse than any other exercise I would say the lateral side raise would win hands down. People get this one wrong. And, they get it wrong bad! This post will look at some common mistakes as well as how to correctly do the lateral side raise for better delts.

What muscle does the lateral side raise target?

This exercise is just about the best exercise there is for the lateral (side) deltoid. It targets the muscle in such a way that almost no other muscles come into play during the movement. This means that it is very important for isolating and bringing up the side of your shoulders as you can hit this first before moving onto the more general shoulder exercises.

How to do a lateral side raise

Here are the steps you should follow if you want to perform a lateral side raise correctly for maximum muscle growth.

1. Grab two dumbbells

2. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and lean forward slightly

3. Keeping a slight bend in your elbow place your arms by your side

4. Keeping your little finger higher than the rest tense your shoulders and raise the dumbbells until your arms are parellel with the floor

5. Slowly lower the dumbbells back down the start position

Common mistakes

There are many ways to muck up this exercise and as such slow down your progress.

1. Standing too straight.
You do not want to be standing to upright for this exercise as the shoulders are designed in a way that requires you to bend slightly forward to target the middle deltoid.

2. Too fast.
To hit the shoulder properly you need to make sure the motions are slow and controlled and do not use the motion to get the weight in place. This is especially important for this exercise.

3. Hand placement.
Make sure your hands are in the right place. If your pinky finger is not the highest on the hand then you probably won’t be hitting the middle delt as well as you could be.

Final tips
I started out by doing one arm at a time. This really allowed me to feel the muscle moving and made sure I wasn’t skimping out on the technique. The shoulders crave special attention to grow - make sure you work them properly.

When people train their shoulders for muscle mass they often don’t pick a variety of exercises that targets all three areas of the shoulder. This workout is one I use that brings all round shoulder development by giving each head its fair share of work.

What are the three deltoid heads?
So we know what we are working out it is important to know where the muscles are, how they work and what the best way to target them is.

The anterior deltoid is the front part of the shoulder muscle. It is smaller by comparison and is involved in lifting motions like the front raise.

The lateral deltoid head is the outer most part of the shoulder and is used in motions like the lateral side raise. It is quite strong and dense.

The posterior deltoid head is the rear most part of the shoulder and ties into the upper back muscles. As such it is used in many back exercises.

The best shoulder exercises to hit all three heads

When you want to train the shoulders so that all three heads get worked nicely you need a mixture of compound and isolation exercises.

A compound exercise is one that used lots of muscle groups to do one motion. An example would be the bench press which uses the shoulders, pectorals and triceps.

An isolation exercise is, as the name suggests, an exercise that uses one muscle only or at least puts most of the weight on one muscle while others are used only as support. An example would be the bicep concentration curl which only works the biceps.

Compound shoulder exercises
Firstly, start your shoulder workout with some heavy sets of your chosen compound exercise. This means that all three heads will get worked hard at the beginning when you are fresh and have lots of energy. The best compound exercises for the shoulders are:

1. The military press
This is an exercise done with a bar bell where you simply take a medium wide grip and push it above your head. It is the most basic and easy to learn of the shoulder exercises and is excellent for building some heavy mass.

2. Arnold presses
This is an exercise attributed to Govenor Arnie. It is best done sitting down and with two medium heavy dumb bells. Start with the dumbells resting on your chest with your palms facing towards you. Press the weights up in the air at the same time and as you do rotate your arms so that when the weights are at their highest point your palms are now facing outward as in the military press. On the decline rotate them again so that at the decline your palms are facing back in. This is one of the better dumb bell exercise for the shoulders.

Isolation shoulder exercises
Once you have done some compound exercises move along to the isolation exercises. Pick one or two for each head and hit it hard and with perfect technique.

Anterior (Front) deltoid
Here are the some of the best exercises for developing this muscle.

1. The front raise
Keeping a slight bend in your elbow and with your palms facing down lift a dumb bell up using the tension in your shoulder until your arm is parallel with the floor. Slowly lower it back down and repeat with the opposite arm.

2. Bench press
Many people think that the bench press only works the chest. However, the flat bench press is actually more of a shoulder exercise. If you want to develop the font deltoid then heavy bench presses are the way to go. NOTE: If you want the bench press to target your chest more try switching to an incline bench with some heavy dumb bells.

Lateral (Side) deltoid

1. Lateral side raise
The lateral side raise is all you need for the side deltoids. It is very efficient in its motion and allows you to focus almost completely on this one head of the shoulder.

When you perform it you should lean slightly forward and keep a small bench in your elbows. Your little finger should be the highest finger on the hand when your arms reach their top position. And remember, the decline motion is the most important part of the exercise - do it slow.

Posterior (Rear) deltoid

1. The lying rear delt row
You know the bent over row that you do for your lats? Well, with some slight modifications that can turn into a really powerful rear delt workout.

The best way to do this is to lay on a flat narrow bench and place a medium bar bell underneath. Reach down the side of the bench and grab the bar bell and, keeping the arms perpendicular to the upper body, lift the weight up to where your upper chest is resting on the bench. Don’t stop lifting until the weight hits the bottom of the bench.

Conclusion
If you work out with these exercises using sound technique then you will make progress in no time. Over the years I have found these few exercises to provide the best all round shoulder workout.

A few of these exercises can be done on the cables which adds a different dimension to your training. The weight always pulls due to gravity and this keeps the tension on your muscles for the entire duration of the set. Try mixing it up with a few cables each workout.

What are the shoulders exactly?
It might seem like a dumb question but in order to workout any muscle group you need to know where it is and how it works. If you have a good idea of how a muscle works then you can base your training around that instead of some fuzzy idea of how an exercise should look.

With the shoulders it is of particular importance because they are so succeptable to pain and injury. And a should injury is no small matter. Sometimes they take months or years to heal and often times (as in my case) they might never heal. So take some time to learn about your shoulders and how to use them and always build up to the heavy exercises gradually.

This image from Wikipedia is of the main deltoid region. The shoulder muscle as it is commonly known is made up of three seperate muscles called heads - the anterior, posterior and lateral. Each of these heads is responsible for a different movement. For example, if you are doing a lateral side raise it is the lateral head that will be doing the most work.

The Best Shoulder Exercises
If you want to keep your shoulders healthy while still aiming for some awesome size then these are the best exercises.

1. The Military Press
The military press is my favorite shoulders exercise because it is heavy and compound. It uses all three heads in one simple motion and it allows you to lift heavy weights quite safely.

Many people often do the military press incorrectly by either having a too wide or a too narrow grip. If your grip is too wide you run the risk of hurting your wrists as they will be taking the bulk of the weight on their small joints. It will also stress your shoulder cuff joint too much as their is not enough tension being put on the muscles themselves. If your grip is too narrow you limit the amount of work that the rear head can do and thus don’t get the most out of the exercise.

The best way to make sure your technique is correct with the military press is to start out with a light weight. Your grip width will be heavily dependant on how tall you are so try and get a feel for yourself. You will also have to learn how to place your elbows. Should they be pointing in, out or in the middle? It is different for everyone. Keep your movements very slow and learn to feel the weight on your shoulder muscles, not your shoulder joints.

2. Lateral Side Raise
The lateral side raise is the primary width builder for many bodybuilders. It is an isolation exercise that hits the lateral head better than almost any other exercise.

Similar problems arise with the lateral side raise as they do with the military press. Almost everyone does them incorrectly. You will see people at the gym swinging their arms around, up and down. You will see them leaning back to get the weight up. You will see them leaning forward to heave the weight up. All wrong!

The lateral side raise is a gentle movement, not one that involves heaving and yanking. It needs to be done with grace and precision or you will damage your shoulder joints for real.

To do the lateral side raise correctly you actually need to be leaning forward a slight bit. As you lift the weight you should do so by contracting your shoulder muscles and your little finger should be the highest finger on the hand. This keeps the weight on the middle deltoid. And you should never swing your arms to get the weight up, that just brings other muscles into play.

3. Bench Press
When I tell my clients to do a bench press for their shoulders they look at me like I am nuts. “Isn’t a bench press for your chest?” they all say to me. Well, acutally, the flat bench press works out your chest and your front shoulders pretty much the same. If you are lacking a bit of front deltoid mass then the flat bench is the way to go. If you want to shift the emphasis onto your chest then an incline bench press or a dumb bell press is a much better option than the traditional bench.

4. Standing Dumb Bell Press
The standing press is fantastic because it allows you to get a much greater range of motion with each rep. With a bar bell you are limited in the amount you can lower it because your wrists are unable to bend and the bar gets stuck on your upper chest. With a pair of dumb bells, however, you can lower the weight much further and this gives you a huge increase in muscle stretch.

5. Cable Work
By peforming your regular shoulder exercises using a cable instead of a free weight you can significantly increse your deltoid growth. The great thing about cables is that there is always tension on your muscles as the weight keeps pulling down while you are forced to hold it up. This means you don’t get a rest at the end of each rep and consequently your shoulders are always filled with blood.

The best shoulder exercise to perform on the cables is the lateral side raise. You simply set the cable to it’s lowest position and stand with your lifting shoulder facing away from the machine. Slowly lift the cable across your body until you do a full lateral side raise. You will only be able to handle a small amount at first.

Conclusion
These are the best exercise for developing some big shoulders. They form the bulk of my own shoulder workout and I generally alternate between three of them for each session. I always start with the biggest exercise and try to add weight each time so that my muscles are continually being challenged.

Always take care when training the shoulders. People think that a shoulder injury means no more shoulder training but it actually means no more upper body training at all! The sholders are heavily involved in almost every upper body exercise so you need to make sure they are healthy and strong.

In this post I want to look at some essential tips for getting huge shoulders.

(photo from: http://www.spitfirelist.com/)

1 - Work all heads of the delts
The shoulders are made up of three main muscles and you need to make sure all of them are getting sufficient work in your shoulder routine.

For example, if you spend too much time doing lateral side raises then you will only be working the middle deltoid and thus the other two will start to lag behind.

2 - Work your smallest delt first
If you have a part of your shoulders that is lagging behind the others then you should put it first in your workout so that it can handle the most weight. This will also allow you to have the best technique.

For example, my rear deltoid is not as strong as the other two so now I start my workout with some bent over flys and other exercises that will hit it nice and hard.

3 - Technique is KING
If you technique is lacking then so too will your shoulders. Make sure you know how to do each exercise perfectly and never cheat to get the next repetition out. Each repetition should be controlled and slow and make sure you tense your shoulders as much as possible. Never swing the weight in place.

4 - If it hurts, stop
Shoulder injuries are some of the hardest to fix and the easiest to get. If you feel any soreness whatsoever when you are working out other than the usual weight training burn then you need to stop and investigate where this pain is coming from. See as many doctors, physios, etc. as you need to until the problem is solved.

5 - Use the military press
The military press using a heavy bar bell is the biggest shoulder mass builder there is. I have used it for many years and almost always put it first in my set. It is easy to get the technique right and allows you to handle a lot of weight while you hit all three deltoid heads.

6 - Stretch
Stretch the shoulders before, during and after your shoulder workout. This will help them repair faster and grow bigger!

7 - Dont rest too long
If you rest too long your shoulders become cold. Many pro bodybuilders advocate keeping the shoulders full of blood in order to develop them to their max. Many think this means using a lighter weight and higher reps so that they are full of blood longer in the set. Try doing this as well as not resting too long in the breaks.

Does anyone have any other tips for training the shoulders?

(Image from http://www.billgrant.net/article9.html)

Favourite Shoulder Workouts
I change my shoulder workout all the time so that I dont get bored of it. To be honest, I dont really enjoy working out the shoulders because it takes much more effort and concentration to do it correctly than the other muscles. But, when you get it right it is rewarding because nothing looks as good as a big set of defined shoulders.

Shoulder Training Tips
Remember the health and muscle growth tips that we have learned when studying the shoulders.

1. Warm up well with stretches, light weights and cardio.
2. Don’t do a heavy weight until your technique is PERFECT.
3. If there is any pain whatsoever during the session stop immediately.

Remember, the shoulders are one of the easiest muscles to damage and hardest to repair. Keep safe.

Shoulder Workout
Here is one of my most recent shoulder workouts. Perform it once a week in conjunction with your back workout or on a separate day if your shoulders are really lagging.

• Warm up
• Military Press - 5 sets - 8 - 10 reps.
• Lateral Side Raise - 4 sets - 8 - 10 reps
• Seated Dumb Bell Press - 3 sets - 8 - 10 reps
• Dumb Bell Front Raises - 3 sets - 8 - 10 reps

Make sure you stretch after each set and only take a small 45 second break. Have a protein shake straight after the workout and then another meal within one hour to maximize results.

(image from http://www.bbcenter.sk/)

Top 5 Tips for Huge Shoulders

# 5 - Perform compound exercises first
Always peform the exercises that use a lot of weight first in your routine when you are fresh and full of energy. If you do a set of lateral side raises and then try to go and do some heavy military presses then you are asking for trouble.

Bar bell military presses really are the top exercise for shoulders so do it heavy first up in your routine after a good warm up.

# 4 - Work all three heads of the delt
The shoulder is made up of the front, back and middle delt muscles (anterior, exterior and posterior). Try to make sure they all get an even workout with exercises that use all the muscles at once, or by hitting them separately with their own exercises and sets.

# 3 - Keep the shoulders full of blood
I read this a long time ago. Some bodybuilder said he had better results doing less weight and more reps with his shoulders because they responded better to being flooded with blood and doing more work. I was VERY sceptical of this view but gave it a try anyway.

The results were quite good. Not only was it safer but I made some good gains. Now, I am not saying that the shoulders dont need progressively heavy weight - they do. Perhaps the reason I got such good results was because it was a change to my regular way of training. Either way, give it a go.

# 2 - Stretch
Stretching before, during and after shoulder workouts not only helps with recovery and injury prevention, it also helps to make the delt look more toned according to many bodybuilders. Keeping your shoulders healthy is a very important part of bodybuilding.

# 1 - More protein!
Obviously, if you want big gains in any part of your body you have to increase the amount of good quality protein that you take in. This really is the ‘magic secret’.

Especially, get a good liquid protein straight after your workout.

Does anyone have any other useful tips?