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The truth is that the average bodybuilder doesn't have a clue how their shoulder muscles actually work. Unlike the biceps or triceps, the shoulder muscles are a complex muscle group. By far the most common injury associated with the shoulder are rotator cuff injuries. The rotator cuff is the group of muscles that stabilize the shoulder. Shoulder cuff injuries tend to result from excessive lifting sets, attempting to lift more weight than you can handle, and from poorly developed opposing back muscles.

Here are a few tips for an effective shoulder workout exercise that will maximize muscle gains and minimize the chance of injury:

1. Balance the training of your upper body. This means that every shoulder pressing exercise should be accompanied by at least one set of rowing. By balancing your pressing sets with complementary rowing sets you will actually help balance the muscles of the shoulder girdle.
2. Limit your lifting sets to no more than 6. Too many sets of a given exercise can actually cause your muscle tissue to deteriorate rather than develop. In other words, you may actually reverse your muscle gains with too much exercise.
3. Take 6 or 7 deep breaths between individual sets. This usually amounts to about 60 seconds between sets and gives your muscles just the time they need to recover before moving on to the next set.
4. Do at least 2 light weight shoulder workouts per month. Light weight workouts increase your muscle stamina and endurance and this reduces the chances of your ligaments snapping during a heavy weight workout.
5. Rotate your shoulder exercises every single time your workout. This means each shoulder workout should be in a different order than the previous workout. Rotating your shoulder exercises causes your muscles to inadvertently work harder which means improved muscular development.

In addition to following these basic tips, don't forget to also eat a balanced diet and sleep at least 8 hours per day. Without enough sleep or food your muscles will be starved of energy and rest which will in turn limit or reverse your muscle gains.

Posted in Build Muscle, Shoulder Exercises, Workouts

If you're interested in building solid, cannon ball shoulders in the least amount of time, then please read on. The exercise I'm about to share with you is one that I've steered away from for many years due to a poor understanding of how it is performed and the results it can deliver. Upon much research, trial and error, and finally performing this exercise, all of my efforts paid off.

A little about myself. I'm an exercise enthusiast and have been physically active all my life. When I was about 19 years old I became seriously interested in body building. Like so many other naive body builder beginners, I gravitated toward all of the muscle magazines and all of the pro body builder "fail safe" exercise routines for mass and size. Unfortunately, I'm a hard gainer. In the body building community this translates to an individual who can't add body mass easily.

Like so many other trainees, 90% of my exercises were isolation exercises. The exercises consisted of concentration curls, lateral raises, pectoral cross-overs, leg raises, hamstring curls, etc. Unfortunately, I never incorporated any of the "foundation" compound / multi-joint exercises - squat, dead lift, bench press, pull-up, etc.

When I began performing the compound exercises...BAMM! I began to add strength and size. However, my shoulders were still weak and poorly developed. One day, that changed. One of the best exercises I had the most success with was the overhead shoulder press - performed either with dumbbells or a barbell. I found the secret! And boy was I happy.

You see, there are three heads (areas of muscle) around the shoulder: anterior, posterior and medial head. When performing a shoulder press, all three of these heads are exercised. So many other shoulder exercises focus only on one or possibly two heads. And when performing those exercises, you're limited to the amount of weight you can lift due to the type of exercise. With the shoulder press, you are not.

How I performed the exercise...

Due to being a hard gainer, I only train using compound / multi-joint exercises. Additionally, I only train 3 days a week, allowing plenty of time for recovery. When performing the shoulder press, I use both the dumbbell and barbell. When lifting the weight, pressing straight over head, I will sit in either a chair with a strong back, or a bench with a back support. When pressing the weight over head, I'll look up toward the ceiling. I find this to be easier on my neck - less chance of an injury.

This is truly a wonderful exercise. If you're looking to add mass to your shoulder area, including the neck area, then I can't recommend the shoulder press enough. This particular exercise, along with the dead lift, pull-up, and dip, I've managed to add 30 pounds of muscle to my "hard gainer" body frame.

Good luck! Have fun! Be safe!

Posted in Bodybuilding Tips, Shoulder Exercises, Workouts

Dumbbell weights are a bit different from other kinds of free weights and offer more of an overall workout. Dumbbells offer more of a workout because they are able to focus more tension on your supporting muscle groups. This in turn causes the surrounding muscle groups to work harder than if you were working out with conventional free weights or nautilus machines.

When surrounding muscle groups are exercised in addition to the main muscle you will achieve superior muscular development. However, dumbbell weights are not for everyone because not everyone's physiology allows them to work out very intensely with dumbbells. I, for example, am unable to perform several abdominal dumbbell exercises because of my physiology. Therefore it's very, very important to start with very low intensity dumbbell weights before going heavy otherwise you could risk very serious and painful injury.

If you think you are ready for some serious shoulder workouts with dumbbells, here are 3 exercises to get you started:

1. Seated Shoulder Press - So here's how this works: Seat yourself at the end of a bench and place your dumbbells on your upper thighs (always your upper thighs with this exercise, not on the ground as you want to shorten the distance you need to lift these over your head). Grab each weight so that they are facing left to right not frontward to backward and lift them over your head simultaneously. Now slowly lower each one until it is about one inch away from your shoulder. Rinse and repeat.

2. Shoulder Flys - This is somewhat of a light weight exercise and it is rare that you will be able to do more than 40 pounds in each hand as your regular set even if you happen to be very strong. This means that if you have never done these before you should probably start off with less than 15 pounds in each hand. Here's how this works: Stand up right and hold 2 weights in front of your chest. Bend over at a 45 degree angle and lift each weight outward in a manner that resembles flying (hence the name "flys") and then lower each weight to your waist. Rinse and repeat.

3. Shoulder Shrugs- If you are new to this you should only start off with about 40 pounds in each arm. Here's how this works: Stand upright holding each weight frontward to backward. Slowly lift each weight using your shoulders and without lifting your arms. In other words, lift each weight in a "shrug" like fashion. As you lift, make sure you lift in a rolling motion, not just straight up and down.

If your goal is to increase your shoulder muscle mass then you should pick a weight that allows you to do 4-6 shoulder reps for at least 5 sets.

Posted in Shoulder Exercises, Shoulder Workouts, Workouts

The deltoids are the muscles that forms the bulk of the shoulder. Delta means triangle, and the deltoid is a triangular shaped muscle that has three portions. The three portions are the anterior deltoid, middle deltoid, and posterior deltoid.

Each part of the muscle is emphasized with different movements. The anterior deltoid is emphasized during flexion, which is when your shoulder moves forwards. The middle deltoid is emphasized with abduction, which is when the shoulder moves out to the side, and the posterior deltoid is emphasized with horizontal abduction, which occurs when the arm moves backwards in the horizontal plane.

It is every easy to emphasize different parts of the deltoids with dumbbells. Front raises are the first exercise, and they will emphasize the anterior deltoid. Simply stand with two dumbbells in your hands with your palms facing down. Then, exhale as you lift your arms in front of you to about 90 degrees.

Although you can isolate the anterior delt with front raises the anterior delt also works during chest exercises, such as push ups, bench press, and chest flies. Since the anterior portion of the deltoid gets a lot of work during chest exercises, some people choose not to isolate it with front raises, but if you really want to focus on building the shoulders, front raises are a great way to build up the anterior delt.

A second exercise with dumbbells for the deltoids is side lateral raises. All 3 parts of the shoulder will work during lateral raises, but the middle deltoid is emphasized. To perform lateral raises you simply stand with dumbbells in your hands and your palms facing the sides of your body. Exhale, and raise your arms out to the side to about 90 degrees.

During lateral raises it is important not to shrug up your shoulders. When the shoulders are weak, the tendency is to cheat by shrugging the shoulders up towards the sky. Move in a slow and controlled motion to decrease the change of momentum taking over.

The posterior deltoid is probably the most under-worked part of the deltoid muscle, but it may be the most important part. The posterior deltoid works to balance out the strength of the anterior deltoid. And because the anterior deltoid works so hard during chest exercises, it often gets much more developed than the posterior deltoid.

Reverse flies with dumbbells are a great dumbbell exercise to focus on the posterior deltoid. You can lie face down on a bench or you can stand up and hinge forward from your hips. When you do reverse flies from a standing position, you must be mindful of the position of your lower back because your lower back muscles will stabilize your body. When you lie on a bench to perform reverse flies, there is much less pressure on your lower back.

These exercises are all pretty simple to perform but they are all great to build up your shoulders. If you want to develop your shoulder muscles, try adding front raises, lateral raises, and reverse flies into your workout routine.

Posted in Shoulder Exercises, Shoulder Workouts, Workouts

Bodybuilding supplement is for the body to use when you exercise it to extreme, and it needs more energy.

The shoulders are the most difficult body part to train. This three-part muscle wraps around the shoulder joint.

The basic exercise is the shoulder press or military press.

You do the exercises on a Smith machine or free weights. I prefer free weights.

Grab a Barbell with a moderate weight, grab a seat. Yes, this is the seated version.

Keep your back straight, your arms should be wide enough so you can get the weight down behind your head. Start slowly so as not to hit yourself at the back of the head then straighten your arms. Do a set of ten repetitions. And then rest for a full minute.

Do another set of ten repetitions with the same weight, then go to the next weight, a bit heavier. Do another set.

A couple of variations on this exercise are to the front where you lower the bar to the front of the head instead of the back. This shifts it to the front of the shoulders.

Another variation is the wide grip where you grab the bar a little wider. This intensifies the muscles as you do not get help from the triceps.

Next Dumbbell Lateral Raise. Grab a pair of Dumbbells and sit at the end of the bench with your feet together. Hold the weights to your side with your thumb to the front and raise your arms straight up to your side. Stop when they get level with your head then bring them down. Do a set of ten repetitions then have a rest.

Do three sets of these exercises with the same weight if you find it a bit difficult.

Now, Barbell Upright Row

Grab a barbell, overhand grip. Hold the bar in front of you with your arm straight. Raise the bar to just under your chin pause then slowly follow it down to the starting position.

Do three sets of these exercises with moderate weight.

The shoulders should feel pretty exhausted now, and the supplements will be kicking in with extra energy.

Dumbbell Seated Shoulder Press

Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the edge of a bench. Hold the weights similar to the Barbell Press with the weights level with your ears. Press the weight up with your arms almost straight. The weights are not to touch then back down to the start. Do three sets of ten.

That's shoulders done til next week when we do it all over again.

Posted in Bodybuilding training, Shoulder Exercises, Shoulder Workouts

One of the most visually appealing muscle groups is the deltoids or shoulder. When fully developed the shoulders add width to your upper body and create the v-taper of the body down to your waistline. The shoulder is split into three parts: the front, side and rear deltoids. Training the shoulders is different to other parts of the body in some respect as there is more to it than just creating huge cannonball delts, there is also some priority to create proportion and symmetry in the shoulder muscles.

Personally the effect on training shoulders is a different feeling to other parts of the body. I can hardly ever achieve a pump or DOMS. For me the shoulders have always just felt sore and because of this it is a difficult muscle to learn about training from experience. To make sure you have all bases covered when you are working out your shoulders make sure to include these exercises.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

As always form is the most important part of any exercise. Shoulder presses begin at shoulder height with one dumbbell in each hand and then lifted over your head and touch them together and then lower them again. Dumbbell shoulder pressing adds more range to the movement than with a barbell although both are fine to do. Keep in mind not all the shoulder muscles are being used only the front and side are being actively worked in this movement. This is why variety is especially important in a shoulder routine.

Military/Push/Machine Press

Similar to the dumbbell shoulder press all three of these are the same movement in a slightly different way. They are however performed with a barbell. Any press is done with the hands wide on a barbell held slightly above the chest and then raised over the head to full extension and down again. The military press is performed sitting down, the machine press done either on a specific machine or smith machine and the push press is done standing up. The push press is good to use to add in extra reps as you can use the bounce off your legs to add momentum to the lift. All the press exercises again work only the front and side deltoids.

Front Dumbbell Raises

A simple exercise to build size for the front deltoid. Holding the dumbbell raise one arm from the waist at the front of your body and raise is over your head whilst keep the elbow locked out or slightly bent. This will give a nice pump and very sore feeling immediately afterwards.

Lateral Cable/Dumbbell /Machine Raises

The idea here is to build the side delt which gives the rounded look to a shoulder. With a dumbbell held in one arm at the side of the body raise it in a wide arc to above shoulder height and back down. This can be done seated or standing; the seated position adds stability to the movement and reduces cheating. For the cable movement it can be done across the body as if you were drawing a sword.

Bent-Over Dumbbell/Cable Laterals

You might have noticed a neglect of the rear deltoid muscle in this article. Being creative in working your rear delt is a good idea as there are limited options so find the exercise that works for you. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when building up shoulder size is to put little priority into the rear delt. Doing few sets at the end of the workout is a bad idea as it likely be out of proportion with the rest of your shoulder. Starting your shoulder routine with rear delt exercises is a good idea to ensure they receive a good workout.

This can be done seated or standing and involves bending over close to a ninety degree angle. Holding the cables or dumbbells in each hand at the same time raise the weights from a relaxed position out the side in an arc motion. The movement resembles a reverse dumbbell fly and really works the rear delt hard. With the cable exercise have the cables crossed in the starting position and maintain a straight arm to ensure emphasis on the rear delt.

There you have a number of shoulder exercises to get you going in the gym. Remember though when it comes to shoulder training mixing it up, form and ensuring you hit all parts of the deltoid muscles is important.

Posted in Bodybuilding training, Shoulder Exercises, Shoulder Workouts