How to train the shoulders

Geschatte leestijd: 7 minuten Everyone wants broader shoulders! You can impress your friends with big shoulders. Your clothes fit better. You can bench press more. Shoulders have a magical appeal to men and women alike. Big shoulders give the illusion of strength to a body.

How to train your shoulders

There are many ways to train your shoulders. You can do everything with machines, or everything with dumbbells. You can also choose to include all basic exercises with a barbell in your training and leave the more specific exercises to others. I choose to use a combination of all three types of shoulder exercises in my workouts. All exercises have their own advantages and disadvantages, and in my opinion, doing many different exercises in your workouts is the way to achieve complete development. In this article, I will discuss a few of the most important exercises for your shoulder muscles and give you an example schedule. How many exercises should you do for your shoulders? It is almost impossible to train all shoulder muscles with one exercise with evenly distributed intensity. This is due to the different placement of the muscles and their range of motion. Every shoulder exercise you perform will target a certain part of the muscle group the most. For example, if you do military presses, the front shoulder muscles – anterior deltoid – will do most of the work. If you do the same with the barbell behind your neck (not recommended due to the rather dangerous position), the force is more evenly distributed over the front and side. In principle, you can train your shoulders with three exercises, two if absolutely necessary. However, I prefer to do four exercises and distribute the number of sets over those exercises. How many sets do you need now? I keep it at about eight to twelve sets. This gives you two to three sets per exercise, so you can really focus on the exercise and its effect on your muscles. I keep the number of repetitions (reps) at eight to twelve.

Presses and laterals for big shoulders

Due to my height, I am not built for most machines – or is it the other way around? – so I prefer to work with free weights, especially for my shoulders. I can recommend this to everyone. A machine always takes over a part of the exercise: control over the weight. For optimal muscle development, you need this. Basically, my ideal shoulder workout consists of a combination of presses and laterals. Presses mainly because you build a lot of strength with them, laterals to mimic the correct shoulder movements the best. I usually do one pressing exercise and two lateral raises. I also like to throw in an upright row variation. Here are the four exercises I use most in my shoulder workouts, plus a few variations on these exercises:

Military Press

This is the basic exercise for the shoulders, like bench pressing is a basic exercise for your chest. Military presses are good for building a lot of mass in the shoulders, with emphasis on the front of the muscle group. The military press is actually a very simple exercise, but is – like most other exercises in the gym – potentially dangerous when not performed correctly. The standard military press is performed standing, but for safety reasons, the military press can also be done seated. The advantage of the seated version is the support of your back that you get when you almost upright the backrest of the bench. The execution of the standard military press is as follows: Grab the barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart Your shoulders are important for your entire appearance. Train them heavily but remain cautious. Do not overdo it! Remember that the shoulders are also trained when you do other exercises, such as bench presses and lat pulldowns. A good shoulder workout once a week is really enough!

• Bring the barbell to your chest
• Place your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly
• Now slowly press the barbell straight up past your face (watch your nose!) until your arms are straight
• Lower the barbell back down to your chest

To ensure that your back is protected, it is best to wear a good weightlifting belt. This ensures that your upper body remains straight without too much tension on your lower back. If you perform the exercise seated, make sure the backrest of your bench is at about eighty degrees (almost straight up). If the backrest is too straight, you cannot lean your entire back against it. Also, make sure your feet are forward, with your legs bent at a ninety-degree angle. This also reduces tension on your back but is definitely necessary to keep your body stable. Do not use too much weight, no matter how tempting it is! It is better to take less weight and perform the exercise correctly. Your shoulders are very susceptible to injuries (which I have unfortunately experienced…). Do not do presses behind the neck, i.e., barbell presses behind your head! Your shoulders are then in a position vulnerable to injury. Many athletes have already experienced problems from this. Good alternatives to the military press are the dumbbell press and the Arnold press.

Wide-Grip Upright Rows

If you really want wider shoulders, it is important to optimally develop the side of the muscle group! Many athletes think they can achieve this mainly from a lateral movement like side lateral raises. Although this directly targets the muscle, it is mainly a finisher, an exercise to finish the muscle after hitting it hard. A very good exercise to build the side of your shoulders is Wide-Grip Upright Rows. Most people do upright rows with their hands close together, but that mainly trains the trapezius. When your hands hold the weight at shoulder width, the side of your shoulder is trained hard. Concentration is everything; when performing an exercise, you need to focus on the muscle you want to develop. This certainly applies to wide-grip upright rows. Concentrate on your sides during the movement and try to put as much tension on them as possible. Although this is an exercise where you can use a lot of weight, you should mainly focus on proper execution. Shoulders grow best when trained properly, even if you use less weight than you can lift if you use extra muscle strength. The wide-grip upright row is relatively easy to perform:

• Use a barbell or an EZ curl bar. The latter puts less strain on your wrists
• Grab the bar with your hands at shoulder width
• Place your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly
• Roll your shoulders forward and keep them there
• Now pull the barbell up to your chin, keeping your elbows the highest point of your arms
• Hold for a moment and lower the weight again

The wide-grip upright row is a very good exercise to get a lot of mass on your shoulders, provided you maintain proper execution. If done incorrectly, you can cause a lot of damage to your shoulder muscles. A very good alternative to wide-grip upright rows with a barbell or EZ curl bar is to perform the exercise with dumbbells. Also hold the dumbbells at shoulder width. With dumbbells, you can target the tension on your sides much more precisely.

Seated Side Lateral Raises

Lateral Raises are very suitable for training specific muscles in the shoulder muscle group. With a simple adjustment of your hand, you can shift the tension to a different part of a muscle. Lateral raises are exercises you do after the heavy exercises. Your shoulder muscles need mass, and with lateral raises, you cannot use enough weight to develop that heavy mass. However, the various types of lateral raises are indispensable for shaping your shoulders so they do not appear to consist of a large lump of muscle. This can be done by following the separate movements of the three shoulder muscles, something you cannot do with just a barbell. You can best train the side of your shoulders with Side Lateral Raises. Side lateral raises follow the function of your deltoid lateralis – the side – completely: lifting your arms sideways. I prefer to do side lateral raises seated. You can perform the exercise very precisely when seated, and you can hardly use the rest of your body to help your shoulder muscles lift the weight. The seated side lateral raise – if performed correctly – is not an easy exercise:

• Sit at the end of a bench with your feet shoulder-width apart and your legs bent at a ninety-degree angle
• Grab two dumbbells and let them hang parallel to your body
• Roll your shoulders forward and keep them there
• Now lift both arms sideways, keeping your palms facing straight down! Keep your elbows higher than your hands throughout the exercise
• When your upper arms are straight to the side, stop the movement
• Hold this position for a moment and lower the weight again

You need to find the right position for your upper body to get the most benefit from the exercise. I have found that the tension on your sides becomes much greater when your upper body is slightly bent forward during the exercise. Your shoulders are then in a better position to contract your muscles well. Variations are the standing side lateral raise and the one-arm lateral raise. It is always good to temporarily replace exercises with other movements. This gives your muscles a different tension to deal with, keeping them growing.

Standing Bent Lateral Raises

This is usually the last exercise I do for shoulders. You will often see that few people have a good development of the rear shoulder muscles – the deltoid medialis. You can see this well when you see these people from the side; the back of the shoulders is quite flat. It is not a difficult muscle to develop – in my case at least – but you have to perform the exercises very well to make the muscles grow. The disadvantage of training the deltoid medialis is that you almost always have to do this bent forward because the movement of the muscle requires it. The rear shoulder muscles move the arms straight back when you hold your arms to the side as in a cross. The medialis is also heavily engaged when you do chin-ups with the bar behind your head, or with lat pulldowns behind your neck. Again, execution is of great importance here; if you do not perform the exercise correctly, i.e., if you do not move your shoulder blades toward each other, your back will not grow, nor will your medialis! You can perform the Bent Lateral Raises standing, sitting, and lying down. I prefer the standing version because I feel my medialis best this way. The only disadvantage of performing the exercise standing is the fact that your stomach is quite compressed because you are bent over… You quickly run out of breath. The standing bent lateral raise is also not an easy exercise:

• Place your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly
• Grab two dumbbells and let them hang parallel to your body
• Bend forward until your upper body is almost parallel to the floor
• Now lift both arms sideways in a ninety-degree angle with your upper body, keeping your palms facing straight down! Also keep your elbows higher than your hands throughout the exercise
• When your upper arms are straight to the side, stop the movement
• Hold this position for a moment and lower the weight again

It is very important that your arms move straight to the side during the exercise. You see many people move their arms backward, which gives a much less effective workout for your shoulders. You can also perform the bent lateral raise sitting at the end of a bench or lying on a low incline bench.

Example Shoulder Training Schedule

A good beginner’s shoulder workout is as follows:

• Seated Military Presses: 3 x 12
• Wide-Grip Upright Rows: 3 x 12
• Standing Bent Lateral Raises: 3 x 12

An advanced shoulder workout could be the following:

• Standing Military Presses: 3 x 12
• Seated Side Lateral Raises: 3 x 12
• Wide-Grip Upright Rows: 3 x 12
• Incline Bent Lateral Raises: 3 x 12

Your shoulders are important for your entire appearance. Train them heavily but remain cautious. Do not overdo it! Remember that the shoulders are also trained when you do other exercises, such as bench presses and lat pulldowns. A good shoulder workout once a week is really enough!