Your shoulders are an important part of your body to work on strength training days, whether you’re looking for a beefier appearance or just a better ability to, say, shove your suitcase into the overhead compartment. Read on, and I’ll break down where your shoulder muscles are, what they do, and which exercises are the best ones to work them.
What are the shoulder muscles?
The shoulder is one of our strangest and most complex joints. Rather than two bones meeting in a hinge-like structure, we have multiple bones coming together to form the joint, including the scapula, or shoulder blade.
There are muscles on the front and back of our shoulder joint, as well as muscles below and above it. Many of these muscles attach to our shoulder blade, and double as back muscles as well. So it’s not simple to define what counts as a “shoulder” muscle. Still, I’ll try. The muscles we usually think of a shoulder muscles are:
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The front (anterior) deltoid, which helps raise your arm in front of you.
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The side (lateral) deltoid, which helps you raise your arm out to the side.
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The rear (posterior) deltoid, which helps you pull your arm back.
These three muscles are the ones that sit like a cap on top of the shoulder, like where your shoulder pads would be if you were wearing a 1980s power suit. They’re called deltoids (delts, for short) because they are in the shape of a triangle. The three sections each have an attachment point on the front, top, or back of your shoulder, and all three attach to roughly the same point on your upper arm bone.
In addition to the deltoids, or delts, some of the other muscles around your shoulder include:
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Your rotator cuff, which includes four muscles that connect your upper arm bone (your humerus) to your shoulder blade. These are the infraspinatus, supraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor. They help you to move your shoulder in all directions, and get their name because they surround the joint like a cuff.
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Your trapezius (“traps”) and rhomboid minor muscles connect your spine to your shoulder blades. When you shrug your shoulders, that’s your upper trapezius doing most of the work.
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Your pectoralis major and minor (your “pecs”) connect your chest to your upper arms. You use these when you’re pushing something away from you, as in a bench press or pushup.
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Your serratus anterior connects your shoulder blades to your ribcage, helping you to move your shoulders forward and stabilize them when you’re holding something overhead.
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Your latissimus dorsi (“lats”) are back muscles that connect to your upper arm bones. They pull your shoulders down and back, and help us pull things toward ourselves.
With all that in mind, you can see there won’t be a single exercise that hits every muscle. If you just want a big “boulder shoulders” look, you’ll want to give the deltoids some extra love. But if you also want your shoulders to function well in all their movements, you’ll need to do a variety of upper-body exercises.
For example, bench press and pushups work the pecs. Pullups and the lat pulldown machine work the lats. Shrugs work the upper trapezius. Horizontal pulling movements, like rows, work upper back muscles like the traps and rhomboids. These may not be “shoulder exercises” in gym bro lingo, but they’re definitely good for your shoulders.
That said—I get what kind of shoulder exercises you’ve come here for. I’ll share some of my favorite exercises that work the deltoids, and you can add these onto your next upper body day. Each of these can be done as a circuit, so you get a lot of reps in a short time.
The best shoulder routine for beginners
Of the two routines I’m telling you about today, this one is easiest for beginners to pick up. But there’s no need to ditch it when you get more advanced; this is a bread-and-butter shoulder routine for all levels of lifters.
Here’s a tri-set (like a three-part superset) that hits each of the three parts of the deltoid. You’ll do these exercises, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Do both arms at the same time.
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Front raise: Raise the dumbbells up in front of you, with elbows straight. Stop when your arm is roughly parallel to the floor (so, not all the way overhead.)
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Lateral raise: Raise the dumbbells out to the side, as if you were a bird (slowly) flapping your wings. It’s ok to bend your elbows if you need to, or to keep your arms slightly in front of your body rather than sticking them straight out to the sides.
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Rear delt raise (also called reverse fly): Bend at the hips, so you’re leaning forward with your chest toward the ground. It’s OK to bend your knees to make this more comfortable. Now, raise the dumbbells, using your rear deltoid muscles to pull the weights toward the ceiling.
Use the same pair of dumbbells for all three exercises, and don’t put the weights down until you’ve done all three. Use a weight that lets you get 10 to 12 reps on the first exercise, and then aim for the same number on the others—but don’t be surprised if your shoulders get tired and maybe you can only manage 10 and then eight. After you’ve done all three, put the dumbbells down and rest for a minute or two before doing another round.
Three rounds of this circuit is a great way to finish off an upper body workout.
The best shoulder routine for functional strength
Lateral raises are a favorite of bodybuilders, but if your focus is shoulder strength for overhead lifting, you’ll probably want to get some kind of overhead press in the mix. (Barbell press and double kettlebell press are my favorites, personally.) Some compound pulling movements are a great way to round out a circuit, so if I only have 10 minutes for a shoulder finisher, this is the one I do.
The press works the front and middle deltoids, as well as shoulder stabilizers like the traps and serratus. The upright row also targets the delts and traps, and it gets the rhomboids and rotator cuff. Finally, we’ll finish with a little something for the rear delts and other upper back muscles.
Before you begin, gather your equipment: a barbell, which you may want to place in a rack, and a long, thin resistance band.
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Overhead press: Just what it sounds like: Stand up, take the bar out of the rack, and press it overhead. I start with a strict press (no knee bend), but it’s fine to push press the barbell when the strict presses get tough.
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Upright row: You can take either a wide or narrow grip on this one. Hold the bar at hip level, and then pull it up the front of your body as if it were attached to the zipper on your hoodie. Keep your elbows above the bar the whole time.
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Band pull-aparts: Hold both ends of the resistance band out in front of you with straight arms, angled up a bit so the band is around eye level. Pull the band apart, so that your arms go out to the sides and the center of the band touches your upper chest.
For the barbell, pick a weight you can press for 15 reps or so. It’s OK if that’s the empty bar, or one of those fixed-weight barbells that many gyms have on a rack next to the dumbbells. As you repeat the circuit and your shoulders begin to get tired, you might only be squeaking out five reps by the end.
Some people find that upright rows bother their shoulders. If the upright rows aren’t feeling good, try widening your grip on the bar, and not pulling it as high. (Up to belly button level is still great.)
I like to set a timer for 10 minutes and do as many rounds as I can in that time, resting no more than needed—usually about 30 seconds between my last band pull and my first press of the next round.
