Training Shoulders

Shoulders:

Shoulders (deltoids).  This muscle consists of three heads; anterior (front), lateral (medial), and posterior (rear).  No one exercise can hit all three heads well at the same time, however there are many excellent exercises that can hit one of the heads very well.   The good thing about shoulders is that even if you don't work them out, they can get a sufficient amount of work by secondary involvement in exercises such as bench presses (work the front head), rows (work the rear delts), behind neck press (medial and rear heads), almost any back exercise and all pushing exercises.  This is why I work shoulders the least out of all the muscle groups I train. Seated Press (a.k.a. shoulder press, military press) one of the best exercises for shoulders, it's a basic compound movement that trains your front and medial heads.  Barbell shoulder press puts more emphasis on your front head, while dumbbell shoulder press shifts the emphasis on your medial head.  This is actually one of the few exercises where I prefer dumbbells to a barbell.  This is due to the fact that dumbbells force you to use your traps because the weights are not connected and force has to be exerted to keep the dumbbells together at the top of the movement.  Also, stabilizer muscles are much more involved with dumbbell rather than a barbell because each arm/shoulder is more independent (you can not help your weaker shoulder with the driving force of the stronger one).  Dumbbells are the more difficult one of the two alternatives, however you can go a little faster with them, with a barbell you should lift at a slower pace. Lateral Raises (a.k.a. side raises, side laterals), if done properly, this exercise will add width to you shoulders in no time. It works, you guessed it, the medial (lateral) head, although that's not why the exercise is called that. This is one of the most difficult exercises to perform correctly, mainly because it's so easy to cheat.  All kinds of secondary muscle groups readily come into play.  You can perform this exercise seated or standing, seated is more difficult. Hold the dumbbells in front of your body at crotch level with arms slightly bent at the elbows, the outer plates of the dumbbells may be resting on the front of your thighs. Without swinging or tilting back, bring the dumbbells up at a slow or moderate pace (never fast) to your sides just above shoulder level.  You should be marking off a quarter circle with each of your arms.  At the top of the movement, and this is very important, your elbows should be slightly higher than your wrists, or at least just as high. Tilt your wrists slightly forward to get the “pouring coke bottles” effect. This exercise is very difficult and if you don't feel the burn after 3, max 4 sets, then you are doing it wrong.  Two more important notes, never sacrifice weight for form in this exercise, and always do it 2-4 more reps than seated press, following it. Bent Over Dumbbell Rows  Aren't rows for back?!  Not in this case.  There is one way to do this exercise to target therear deltoids instead of the lats.  Here is how you do it.  First, get in the same position you get to do this is exercise for lats.  I prefer the bench, although I've seen some people do it without one.  You should use less weight than you would for your back simply because rear delts are so much smaller.  Instead of rowing close to your body and toward your stomach, you should move (not so much pull) the weight parallel to your shoulders and out away from you body (not too far away).  Make sure you don't swing the weight, but pull it with your posterior delts.  You should feel the burn almost immediately.    *If you ever decide to try this exercise, please e-mail me with your results or questions.    Upright Rows  Is this a back page?!  Once again, NO.  To target your front delts instead of your traps all you have to do is just take the bar wider.  Grip the bar with an overhand grip, wider than shoulder width, stand straight, and… row.  Very simple.  Try to reach your chin.  I dare you. Front Raises are a good exercise for front delt heads. You can do them with a barbell or dumbbells, they're equally effective.  Simply hold the barbell (or dumbbells) in front of yourself and slowly, without jerking them or swinging them, bring it up to just above shoulder level.  The good thing about using dumbbells for this exercise is that you can alternate (do one at a time). This is one of those exercises that if you do them fast, you are still going to get much of the benefit as long as you don't swing the weight and don't squat down just when the weight is passing through the sticking point.