I bet you’ve tried too. You’ve poured who knows many hours of time
and gallons of sweat into your delts only to be disappointed. I know how
that goes.
The reality is anyone that says building impressive
shoulders is easy is lying. I takes a lot of work–the right work–and
patience. It can be done though. And this article is going to show you
how.
So, let’s first take a quick look at the anatomy of the
shoulders so we understand what we’re trying to achieve in our shoulder
workouts and then we’ll talk about how to build size and strength.
Understanding the Shoulder Anatomy
Your shoulders are comprised of three major muscles known as deltoids, and here’s how they look:
It’s very important to develop all three heads of this muscle group, because if one is lagging, it will be painfully obvious.
Home Shoulder Exercises Workouts The Best Shoulder Exercises For Mass
Do you want to know 5 exercises which will really improve your shoulder appearance and strength? These exercises are top quality but they should not obviously be carried out whilst neglecting the rest of your body. Ok, so in terms of the best shoulder workout, here it is:
- Lift Heavy and Focus on Strength Gains
Many athletes over-complicate their training. One of, if not the best time-tested and proven strategies is to simply lift heavy on the most important exercises and focus on making small incremental improvements each workout.This means carefully tracking workouts and focusing on improvement in each and every session. Shoulders are a stubborn muscle group, especially for naturally skinny people (ectomorphs), so it’s necessary to emphasize progressive overload principles.Take for instance the dumbbell shoulder press – one of the best mass building shoulder exercises used by athletes at every level. If you performed the dumbbell shoulder press with 55 lbs for 7 reps in your last workout, push yourself to do 8 reps with the same weight the following workout, or move up to 60 lbs and do 7 reps again. This forces the muscles to respond and grow bigger and stronger. This may sound extremely basic, but too many people in the gym don’t follow this simple, effective principle. It’s the little things that make a huge difference.
- SEATED DUMBBELL SHOULDER PRESS
How do you do it?Sit on a chair at home or an upright bench at the gym. Lift 2 dumbbells and pull them to your shoulders. Keep your feet shoulder width apart. With your elbows directly beneath the dumbbells, raise them upwards until straight above your head, then lower the dumbbells to the starting position.
- BENT OVER LATERAL RAISES
How do you do it?Lift 2 dumbbells. Bend over at the waist with your feet shoulder width apart. Keep your knees bent to prevent hurting your lower back. Hold the dumbbells at arms length in front of your. Keep a slight bend in your elbows. Raise the dumbbells to the back and upwards in a semicircular arc as far as you can. As with previous exercises, hold this position briefly to maximize the peak contraction in the rear deltoids and then lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.
- Train all three heads of the deltoid muscles
As we mentioned earlier, deltoids actually have three sections. Unfortunately, many people fail to realize this, which is why you rarely see a shoulder with the front, middle and rear portion fully developed. Without adequate development in all three sections, it’s nearly impossible to form those powerful looking boulders.The difference between the average guy who is fairly lean and muscular with some ab definition and the ripped fitness model is all in the V-taper, and for many people, developing the anterior and posterior deltoid muscles is the missing link for achieving that sought-after shape. The wider and thicker your shoulders are, the better your V-taper ratio will be.
- DUMBBELL SIDE LATERAL RAISES
How do you do it?Get 2 dumbbells. Hold the dumbbells just in front of your body with the palms of your hands facing each other. Using your deltoids, raise the dumbbells out to the sides and upwards until they are just above shoulder level. Hold this position for a second to maximize contraction in the deltoids. Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. Then repeat
thanks for reading.