4 New Shoulder Shapers

It doesn't matter if you're in the gym for aesthetics or athletics‐your shoulders matter. Healthy, strong, good-looking shoulders are the product of smart training and smart planning.

The problem with shoulder training, though, is that the effective exercises can grow stale. You can only do so many front raises and military presses before you start to feel like a wind-up toy.

Dreading shoulder day from sheer boredom? Add some new twists! These four shoulder exercises are unique and effective. You can throw one or two of them into your normal routine or do them all in one workout.

Either way, they'll help you add some boulder to your shoulders!

Dumbbell Side Swing

 Exercise 1 Dumbbell Side Swing
(3 sets of 8-12 reps to failure)

Stand with two dumbbells at your sides. Bring the right up like you would for a traditional lateral raise motion and the left arm up and across the front of the body. Alternating sides for each rep. Keep the arm that is crossing your body tight to the torso.

Kneeling Single-Arm Barbell Shoulder Press

Exercise 2 Kneeling Single-Arm Barbell Shoulder Press
(3 sets of 8-12 reps to failure)

Wedge an Olympic bar in a corner like you would with a traditional T-bar row and add weight to the free end. Kneel in front of the bar with the right knee down. Hold the bar with your right hand. Press the bar off the shoulder moving the bar in front of your face. Return with a slow negative to the starting position.

When the target rep range is reached with the right hand, put the bar down and set up with your left knee on the ground. Press with your left hand. Complete the appropriate rep range and that completes one set.

Lying Cable Upright Row

Exercise 3 Lying Cable Upright Row
(3 sets of 8-12 reps to failure)

Lie down in a cable row machine with an EZ bar attached to the cable. Place knees against the foot platform and your feet flat on the floor.

With a wide grip, pull the bar to the bottom of your chin and hold at the peak contraction point. Slowly hit the negative rep with a good stretch at the bottom. The back of your head should remain on the pad throughout the movement.

Repeat until target rep range is reached.

Seated Side Lateral Raise with a Twist

Exercise 4 Seated Side Lateral Raise with a Twist
(3 sets of 8-12 reps to failure)

Try dropsets, giant sets, supersets, pre-exhaust training, or use rest-pause.
Sit holding two light dumbbells at your sides. Hold the weight with your palms facing forward and slowly perform a lateral side raise with a slight bend in your elbows.

Don't stop when your arms are parallel to the floor, but continue until your hands are over your head.

When you near the top of the movement, rotate your hands so the back of your hands face each other.

On the way back down, rotate your wrists back so your palms face forward and finish where you started.

Continue until you reach the desired rep range.

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Total Shoulder Workout! - 5 exercises for broader shoulders!

The shoulders are one of the most noticed body parts. When fully clothed or not, it can make one's appearance much broader. For bodybuilders and every day exercisers, it is the one body part that will make your waist appear smaller with out losing any inches. In addition, proper shoulder training will allow you to develop your chest and back quicker.

As a personal trainer for competitive bodybuilders, I always recommend concentrating on building up the side deltoids and of course the legs for this reason alone.

Here is a typical routine that I like to do and I brief description of each exercise.

First off, the shoulder muscles consist of three deltoid heads. They are, anterior(front), medial(side) and rear. The following exercises will work each area to the fullest.

EXERCISE1 Barbell Shoulder Press

A mainstay exercise is the shoulder press. This pressing movement primarily works the side and front deltoids. Using a machine, a barbell or dumbells, can perform the shoulder press. I personally prefer to use dumbells because there is less restriction and most importantly the muscles move in their natural plane. When pressing the weight, try not to lock your elbows. Locking the elbows will reduce the resistance on your shoulder muscles and place unwanted stress on the elbow joint.

EXERCISE2 Seated Side Lateral Raise

To hit the side delts, my favorite is the side lateral raise. This exercise can be performed with dumbells or even a low pulley cable. In most cases, I like to start my routine with this exercise because I want to be able to lift as much as possible. But never sacrifice form to lift heavy weights.

I see too many people either not lifting enough weight or doing this movement incorrectly. Remember to only lift the dumbells as high as your shoulders while keeping your elbow slightly flex.
EXERCISE3 Front Raise and Pullover

A forgotten exercise is the front raise. The reason being is that you are not going to turn heads while doing the movement. You can use a variety of methods to burn the front delts. My two favorites are alternating dumbells and the low cable pulley with a short bar. It can also be executed while holding a plate like a car steering wheel. The key for this exercise is to keep a slight flexion at the elbow while lifting the weight just above shoulder level.

EXERCISE4 Smith Machine Upright Row

To tie in the front delts, side delts and traps, the exercise to do is the upright row. With this movement, you can choose your resistance from a low cable pulley, barbell or dumbells. I prefer, the low cable, because of the continuous tension. The key is to squeeze on the top portion of the movement and to hold for a beat. In addition, the shoulder shrug exercises the traps, but that is it. For beginners, I recommend the upright row because it works more than one muscle group.

EXERCISE5 Lying Rear Delt Raise

I like to work the rear delts at the end of the routine and only do a couple of sets. The rear deltoids are exercised during most back movements, therefore, not as much work is needed. There are machines that specifically hit this area, or again you can use the dumbells. Either way, the exercise is done in the same manner in which you want to do a reverse chest fly. Lighter weight is recommended, because this is a true feel exercise.

All in all, these five exercises will give you total shoulder development. Remember to change the exercises from week to week because you do not want your body to adapt to any movement. I suggest choosing 3 exercises and complete 3 working sets of 10-to-12 repetitions for each shoulder workout. Do not forget to warm-up the shoulder with lighter weight.

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