Few men relish shoulder day, but you neglect them at your peril. Broadening out up top slims your waist to carve out that coveted V-shape and, because you've probably never properly tested them, gains will come quicker than anywhere else on your body. For the best approach to pump up up top we asked PT and osteopath James White for some boulder shoulder moulders, fashioned into an intense workout that builds muscle fast. Prepare to shoulder arms.

And remember, perfect form is key when doing these exercises – not only to maximize contraction of the shoulder muscles but also to prevent a nasty shoulder injury (one of the most common gym injuries).

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 Barbell behind neck press

this exercise can be done in standing or sitting position. With chest completely straight up, grip the barbell with both hand wide open. With barbell origin position at the back of the neck, raise up the barbell until the arm is straight up. This is usually done in 6-8 groups, each doing 4 to 6 repetitions. This action can fully develop the front, middle and back portion of the deltoid muscle. This exercise is not good for anyone who has past/present shoulder problem or people who has pain between shoulder blades problem as the pain may become worse. It is advisable to do this exercise with a workout partner to help you to unload the reload the weights.


Seated Dumbbell Press 

 re-rack your barbell and grab a pair of dumbbells. They're all you'll need for the rest of the workout. Then grab a bench; sitting down helps isolate the shoulder motion. "These are really good for not only handling a lot of weight, but also having the freedom of using dumbbells" White tells us. "You can bring them nice and low to get a really full range of motion." Take a load off your feet and put a load on your shoulders.

Seated Dumbbell Press

 re-rack your barbell and grab a pair of dumbbells. They're all you'll need for the rest of the workout. Then grab a bench; sitting down helps isolate the shoulder motion. "These are really good for not only handling a lot of weight, but also having the freedom of using dumbbells" White tells us. "You can bring them nice and low to get a really full range of motion." Take a load off your feet and put a load on your shoulders.

Front raises

 White recommends front raises to those that have gone through the routine and feel short-changed in the front. "It’s unlikely that your anterior delts need extra work, so spend more time on your medial and posterior deltoids. However, if you feel you want to hit your front deltoids harder, then a front raise is the one for you." Again, low weight and high reps help you maintain form for shirt-busting gains.

Dumbbell lateral raise

stand straight with both hand holding dumbbell. Arms are straight to your sides. Raise the arm laterally in slow movement until both hands are at the height of your shoulder. Hold for 1-2 seconds and then slowly drop the arms down to the sides. This exercise is mainly for the development of the. Exercise in 8 deltoid muscles to 12 repetitions and in 3 groups. The dumbbell weight should be just adequate.

Seated bent over rear delt fly

Sit down, lean forward and hold a dumbbell in either hand so that they're resting above your feet. Stay bent forward as you raise your arms to the side, lining the dumbbells with your shoulders. Bring the weights back down and repeat.

Face pull

The face pull is great for your upper back, traps, and rear delts.

But its real magic for creating more badass looking shoulders lies in its ability to pull back the shoulders and fix the dreaded rounded shoulder look that a lot of guys get as a result from too much pressing.

And even if you don’t suffer from the rounded shoulder look, face pulls are still a great exercise to keep your shoulders healthy and offset the negative effects of too much pressing. You should be doing face pulls 2-3x per week.

Overall Delt Mass

To build mass, always start your workout with the most demanding exercises—multijoint overhead presses, in the case of the delts—which allow you to push the most weight. In this mass workout, a second multijoint move is next, followed by single-joint moves for each of the three delts heads: front, middle, and rear. This is the foundation for a solid mass workout. Keeping the total volume fairly high also promotes muscle growth.

You can make the workout more challenging in several ways. For the overhead press, start by using dumbbells, which are slightly more difficult to control and have a slightly longer range of motion than a barbell. We'll also follow a reverse-pyramid scheme, which allows you to take more total sets to muscle failure. For the first 2 sets, you'll use a fairly heavy weight for a low rep target—just 6—to promote even greater strength gains than you might normally get when shooting for a slightly higher rep target. As you become increasingly fatigued, decrease the weight by about 5 pounds per side on subsequent sets. Finally, on your two heaviest sets, enlist a spotter who can provide you just enough help to keep the weight moving.

Because the front delts get so much work on chest day, and the middle delts take the brunt of the weight on overhead pressing moves, it's not uncommon for the rear delts to be the smallest—and weakest—of the three. In this workout, you'll do them before the other two, while you have a bit more energy in the tank. Feel free to rearrange the order of the single-joint moves based on your weaknesses, though. If you judge your delts to be fairly balanced, simply rotate the order of the single-joint movements from one workout to the next.


Of course, the workout above is better suited towards a shoulder specialization type day. But of course, this is just a sample workout you can set your own routine however you wish.

To help grow my shoulders I used the Adonis Index workout since its primary focus is to build your shoulders and give you that sweet V-taper look.

thanks for reading.