Picking the right shoulder exercises for your delt workout can be tricky. There are so many to choose from and so many different combinations in which to do them. Here are the best shoulder exercises to get huge delts.
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.
