The shoulders are an important muscle group if you want to build a powerful physique (and a healthy body, for that matter), but there’s more to training than simply throwing as many pressure variations as you can imagine into your training split.
“There are hundreds of shoulder exercises,” says men’s health fitness manager Ebenezer Samuel, CSCS “You don’t need them all.”
The reason you should limit your repertoire of shoulder movements is not because the muscle group should be avoided, or because only a few exercises are worth doing. According mh Advisory Board Member and Celebrity Trainer Don Saladin, it’s because your workout is probably too heavy on your shoulders in the first place. “Throughout the week, if we’re training our chest, we’re training our shoulders, if we’re training our triceps, we’re training our shoulders,” he says. “When we’re squatting, we’re creating tension in our shoulders, if we’re doing farmer’s walks or any form of carrying…what do you know i like to do— pushing the sled, our shoulders are involved.
With that in mind, Samuel and Saladino selected four moves they use to fully train the shoulder, keeping that weekly volume in mind. Watch the video above for a complete guide, and read on for the highlights of these Shoulder Workout Muscular Musts.
4 essential shoulder training exercises
rear delt fly leaning on the head
Work around your shoulder and train your rear delts with this light dumbbell exercise. The key: use an incline bench to help maintain perfect posture and movement. Focus on lifting the weights, not swinging them. “I’m just focusing on doing a reverse fly and contracting those rear delts,” says Saladino.
Try high reps with lighter weights for this one.
High Incline Lateral Raise
You’ll stay on the incline bench for this move, but sit with your chest forward for support (again, to keep your posture on point). By assuming this position, you will help eliminate opportunities to use momentum to lift the weights. “I love the high slope, it just keeps me from cheating, so I get a really good squeeze,” says Samuel.
Again, work with lighter weights and higher rep ranges for this exercise.
Seated Dumbbell Press
Before we get started, Saladino points out that the straight-back bench position might not be best for everyone. If you have difficulty getting into the right spot for the vertical press (if you don’t have a great range of motion for external rotation or if you have a rounded back posture), you can move the bench to its highest incline.
For this exercise, you can train with heavy or light weights, depending on your goals.
Half-Kneeling One-Arm Kettlebell Press
Switch up your workout with this surprise top pick. The move is also even more versatile than you might think: Saladino says you can press on the same side of the kneeling leg or the opposite side for a different effect. Samuel loves the move because the position prevents him from flaring his ribs or overextending his lower back, two common form errors in traditional standing overhead presses.
“This becomes a great way to showcase power, and building that power will translate to the shoulder muscle you want,” he says.
Load the weight and do low rep sets for this move.
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