The shoulders are an important muscle group. They give the body balance and proportion. Well-developed shoulders provide the upper body width, they make the waist appear smaller, and it's aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Creating well-developed and balanced shoulders can be a daunting task. It requires focus, determination, and consistency.

Compound Movements

The mass builder in shoulder exercises are any overhead pressing movement. This can come in the form of barbells, dumbbells, machines, and even cables.

Keep in mind that free weights allow all the muscles and stabilizers to be utilized, and the barbell will be the best overall shoulder builder. However, your body can adapt to an exercise, so it's best to change your pressing methods from time to time to prevent staleness.

Overhead presses target all of the heads of the deltoid simultaneously. The important thing when pressing is to press from the front. Rear shoulder presses are unnatural, especially with a lot of weight. You could possibly injure yourself.

Another aspect not tapped on to very much is that to effectively target the deltoid, you really only need a partial movement. When pressing, once your upper arms (from your elbow to your shoulder) are parallel to the floor, the movement is finished. Going pass this point will be involving the traps more and not the shoulders.

If you want to train traps, then that's fine, give them an exercise of their own. If you want to build dramatic deltoids, focus on the proper form.

Shoulder training for size and strength can be difficult and many give up far too early in their endeavor. The shoulder is composed of many fibers, and a lot of slow twitch fibers. With this in mind, be sure to focus on endurance training in the beginning months of your shoulder development.

Start with about 4 sets of 20 repetitions. When you feel you can master this easily, increase the poundage slightly and lower the reps to 15. Keep progressing in this manner until you are lifting heavy poundage in the 6-8 rep range. When you hit heavier weight and less reps, you can drop down to 3 sets.

Once you have mastered heavy shoulder training, be sure to alternate it with the endurance training for variety and shock.

Adding Symmetry

Now that you have the shoulder packing mass training down, let's shape those deltoids to make them more impressive.

Lateral deltoid work will add more symmetry to your prize winning shoulders. This is necessary to create proportion and the complete package. Without tailored deltoids, your physique could look like a giant blob. Build your shoulders and sculpt them.

Lateral raises are best for bringing out shoulder symmetry. This can be a difficult exercise in the beginning, but keep working at it to build your shoulder endurance and strength.

Don't begin too heavy with this exercise, it's a delicate movement and can cause injury if you go through the motion haphazardly. Start the training as stated above, with high reps and light to moderate poundage and gradually build on it.

Page 1 of 3 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 | Next