Lifting for the Shoulders

Your shoulder muscle is responsible for moving your shoulder joint and can lift your arm forward, backward, out to the side and internally or externally rotate it. Your shoulder has three parts -- the anterior, posterior and lateral deltoids, and to develop well-balanced shoulders you need to work all three with a variety of exercises in the correct set and repetition ranges.

  1. Anterior Exercises

    • The anterior or front portion of your shoulder muscle works to lift your arm forward and push your arms overhead. Front raises, where you lift dumbbells or a barbell out in front with straight arms, work the anterior deltoids, but overhead presses may be your best choice of exercise, as these actually work all three heads with a specific focus on the anterior one. Perform your presses sitting down, advises sports conditioning specialist Curtis Schultz. Perform them with dumbbells or a barbell, starting with your hands at shoulder-height and pressing your arms directly overhead until your elbows are straight.

    Lateral and Posterior Exercises

    • The lateral and posterior heads do some work when you perform overhead presses, but they're mainly responsible for raises. Side raises, where you lift your arms out to your sides, work the medial part, and other raises, which you perform with your torso leaning forward, work the posterior head. These are best performed with dumbbells or on a cable machine. You'll need to use a lot less weight for both of these than you would on a press, and you must keep your form strict with just a slight bend in your elbows at all times.

    Sets and Reps

    • One of the biggest mistakes you can make when training your shoulders is performing your reps too quickly and not focusing on the target muscle group, according to trainer Greg Merritt. Perform eight to 12 strict reps on your raises, taking one second to lift the weight and two seconds to lower it. If you start to find yourself using too much body momentum, stop and perform a rest-pause set, where you break for a few seconds between reps, or have a partner give you assistance for a few forced reps. You can do slightly fewer reps on your overhead presses with sets of five to eight, but your form still needs to be correct.

    Training Routine

    • Your anterior and lateral deltoids are worked when you perform chest-focused exercises such as bench presses, pushups and dips, and your posterior delts are worked when you do rows and face pulls. For this reason, leave at least one day between training your shoulders, back and chest to allow time for your muscles to recover. Perform one pressing exercise in each session and two to three raise variations, aiming to increase your weight or reps every week or resting less between sets.

    Warming Up and Cooling Down

    • Before your shoulder session, hit the treadmill, bike, elliptical or rower for five minutes at a moderate intensity but just enough to break a sweat. Perform a simple upper-body mobility circuit prior to any lifting, advises strength coach Joe DeFranco. Roll your upper-back and shoulder area with a foam roller or tennis ball and then stretch out your shoulders, pecs and lats. Grab a resistance band with a wide grip, lift it over your head and take it down as far as you can by rolling your shoulders back. Do this 15 to 20 times. Perform two light sets of 15 reps on each of your main exercises as a bridge between the warm-up and the main workout. After your session, complete another five minutes of cardio and stretch out all your upper-body muscles, holding each stretch for at least 20 seconds.