Shoulder Workout Projects

Whether your goals include developing a wider torso, getting the classic X-frame or filling out your t-shirt sleeves, building bigger shoulders can help. Though your shoulders are targeted indirectly when you work your chest and back, you need a more direct approach to really work the shoulders.

  1. You Gotta Specialize

    • If you want big shoulders, you need to train them more frequently. When trying to develop a body part or focus on one area, the best approach is to increase your total volume for that muscle and scale back on everything else, suggests personal trainer John Romaniello of Roman Fitness Systems. Instead of just working your shoulders once a week or adding one or two exercises to an upper-body workout, this project requires three dedicated shoulder workouts per week.

    Three-Pronged Attack

    • Your shoulders have three different parts -- the front deltoids, the lateral deltoids and the read deltoids, so trainer Bill Geiger recommends focusing on a different area every session. Your first workout of the week should include mainly front delt exercises. Start with a press variation, such as the barbell or dumbbell military press, or a machine shoulder press. After this, perform upright rows with a straight bar, EZ bar or a cable machine, and finish with front raises. Aim to go relatively heavy on your presses, for five sets of five to eight repetitions. For the upright rows and front raises, do eight to 12 repetitions in each of three sets.

    Going Sideways

    • Take a day off and then perform a lateral delt session. Cable lateral raises are a better choice than dumbbell laterals, notes strength coach Sean Hyson, as you feel the tension all the way through. These work well when performed as a 100-rep rest-pause set. Pick a weight with which you could perform around 30 reps and do as many as possible. Rest and then do a few more. Keep going until you hit 100 total reps. After this, you may not need to do much more, but you may do two sets of 15 to 20 machine lateral raises and three sets of eight to 10 overhead presses.

    Rear End

    • For your final session of the week, work your rear delts. Impressive rear delts can really separate you from the competition, claims bodybuilder Flex Wheeler in an interview with the Flex magazine website. One of the most effective exercises for this is the bent over lateral raise, which you perform in exactly the same manner as the regular lateral raise, except you are leaning your torso forward. Perform four sets of eight to 12 reps and then do four sets of eight to 12 face pulls. Do these on a cable machine by pulling the rope handle in toward you from a straight-arm position until your hands are next to your ears.

    The Deltoid Details

    • Stick with this shoulder workout project for six to eight weeks, and try to lift a bit more weight or do additional reps in each workout. During this time, it's highly unlikely you'll increase strength or size in any other body parts, so aim to maintain your current condition with one session for the chest, back and arms and one session for the lower body each week. You may need to increase your intake of protein and carbohydrate if you're not growing or getting stronger.