Shoulder Workout

Our shoulders are the unsung heroes of our upper bodies. They definitely don’t get as much press as our chest or arms, but they contribute just as much to the creation of a balanced, well-built physique. More importantly, though, the shoulder joint is vital for all kinds of movements, from throwing a baseball and swinging a golf club to picking up your children or doing work around the home. And yet, despite their importance, the shoulders are often neglected. Too many guys skip direct shoulder training altogether, relying on indirect shoulder exercises like the bench press, and almost every gym bro neglects shoulder mobility work, which is a recipe for long-term joint disaster. But you’re different, right? RELATED: Best Back Strengthening Exercises If you want to improve your posture, build a broader, more balanced physique, and keep your shoulder joints flexible and limber for the long term, read on to discover the best and most neglected shoulder exercises, all of which deserve a spot in your gym rotation. The Best Exercises for Shoulder Health & Strength It’s a bit misleading to talk about “the shoulder” as if it’s a single entity. Your shoulder encompasses three bones (the humerus, scapula and clavicle), 17 different muscles (including the rotator cuff), the shoulder capsule (made up of ligaments surrounding the ball-and-socket shoulder joint), and the shoulder labrum, made up of the surrounding cartilage. A balanced shoulder routine won’t just tax the muscles, but also restore mobility to the shoulder joint, all while protecting the delicate cartilage and minimizing strain on the ligaments. For those purposes, these are the best exercises you can do: Dead Hangs Some social media trends are toxic (literally, in the case of the Tide Pod challenge), but some are actually very positive, and one that has caught on recently in the fitness community is the dead hang challenge. Basically, participants are asked to perform a dead hang (just as it sounds: hang from a pull-up bar without moving for as long as possible) at least once per day, for 30 days in a row, and track their progress. Not only can you expect a stronger grip and serious back pain relief (dead hangs are a great way to decompress the spine), but you’ll also find your shoulder joint mobility improving rapidly. That’s because supporting the weight of your body in a hanging position recruits the shoulder joint, mobilizing it in a way that counteracts the gradual wear and tear on the joint caused by prolonged sitting. Because these require almost no equipment and very little time, and because they aren’t particularly taxing on your body or nervous system but still come with a ton of benefits, they’re an absolute no-brainer to include in your routine. Y Raises Y raises are very easy to perform and require very little weight to be effective (in fact, you may want to start out with no weight whatsoever), but they engage your shoulders and upper back in concert, helping to safely train the rotator cuff and rear deltoids. They can be performed lying face-down on an incline bench or lying prone on an exercise mat, and because they aren’t taxing your musculature in any real way, they make for a great pre-workout exercise to prepare your shoulders for heavier lifting. If you suffer from poor posture, daily Y raises are a phenomenal way to slowly counteract your slump and reset your shoulder girdle. External Rotations As with Y raises, there are tons of variations to the technique of the external rotation, including using bands or dumbbells, but the concept is the same: we’re training our shoulders through an often-neglected plane of motion, helping to activate our rotator cuffs and increasing stability in the shoulder joint. If you’ve been suffering from shoulder pain or discomfort, or if you’ve been told you have slumped or “caved in” shoulders, external rotations, performed regularly and with a gradual progression in load, will cure you. Pushups Remember how we dragged people for relegating their shoulder work to indirect exercises like the bench press? Well, before you point out the irony of our including a chest-dominant exercise on this list, hear us out: pushups allow for a much greater range of motion in the shoulder joint, since you’re not back-down on a bench, and this added range of motion helps to train the hard-to-reach serratus anterior, nicknamed the “puncher’s muscle” for its role in, uh, throwing punches. A strong serratus anterior helps to stabilize the scapula, which not only allows you to throw harder punches but also creates greater stability all through the shoulder joint, alleviating or preventing shoulder impingement and allowing you to press heavier weights, which sounds like a win-win to us! Barbell Shoulder Press Standing or seated, the barbell shoulder press is your best bet for adding size and strength to your delts. The barbell allows you to load the maximum amount of weight while still maintaining stability in the lift, and progression is easy via the variables of increased sets, reps or weight (change plates are your friend for all shoulder exercises in particular). Check your ego at the door and focus on tempo and technique, progressing only as quickly as they allow, and you’ll find you’ll have to start buying larger shirts in no time. Standing Single-Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press Dumbbell aficionados, never fear: we were never going to neglect you. Unilateral work is extremely important to help alleviate muscle imbalances, injury-proof your joints, strengthen your core and train your smaller stabilizer muscles, and the shoulders are no exception. Though you could do this exercise seated, standing allows for greater core activation, and being able to hold a load overhead is a skill with lots of carryover, in life and in sports. Cable Lateral Raises Pressing movements are great and all, but they don’t do a very good job of targeting the medial deltoid, and an underdeveloped medial deltoid takes width off your frame — and nobody wants that. There’s no shortage of lateral raise variations, including dumbbell options, but we favor the cable variant for its ability to provide a stable force curve. For bonus points, lean slightly away from the cable stack to enlarge the range of motion and really burn out your side delts. Face Pulls Face pulls broke out into the mainstream exercise consciousness a few years ago, but they’re still widely neglected by most gym goers, to their detriment. Not only are face pulls an excellent way to train the rear delts, helping to create the “3D” shoulder look everyone is chasing after, but they also provide excellent rehabilitation for the rotator cuff and help to correct against the kind of postural imbalances prevalent among people who use computers too often (all of us). Reverse Fly The final exercise on this is also targeted to the rhomboid and trapezius muscles of the upper back as well as the rear delts, and can also be done with either a band, dumbbells or a cable machine. On top of being a great way to build size and strength in these hard-to-reach muscle groups, the reverse fly works in tandem with face pulls to gradually correct the muscle imbalances caused by excessive sitting, helping you improve your posture and restore mobility to your shoulders and neck. You Might Also Dig: Most Effective Arm WorkoutsBest Body Fat Bathroom ScalesThe 10 Best Leg Exercises