The Best Shoulder Exercises for Mass

Building big chest, back and leg muscles is all well and good, but if your shoulders aren't up to standard, your body will look unbalanced. Big shoulders make you look wider and denser and can really improve the look of your physique. When training your shoulders at the gym, exercise selection is critical. Though there aren't necessarily any absolute best mass builders, there are several shoulder movements that should be part of your plan.

  1. Pressing Exercises

    • If you were to only choose one shoulder exercise, make it the overhead press, which emphasizes the front part of your shoulders. This exercise involves holding a barbell at shoulder-height and pressing it straight up until your arms are straight. The standing overhead press with a barbell is so effective it can take the place of three separate isolation exercises, claims strength coach Charles Poliquin. When performing overhead presses, hold your thumbs underneath the bar and keep your whole body tight, advises trainer and powerlifter Jim Wendler. If you don't have access to a barbell, use dumbbells instead.

    Lateral Raises

    • The overhead press doesn't really work the side portion of your shoulders. To hit this part, you need to incorporate lateral movements, according to trainer and former elite bodybuilder Doug Brignole. Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs and lift your arms straight out to the sides until they're parallel to the floor. You can also use a cable machine for this movement.

    Rear Delt Raises

    • To fully work your shoulders, include an exercise for the rear portion of the muscle, too. Rear delt raises work best for these. Lie face down on a weight bench or stand up and bend over and then perform a lateral raise movement. Focus on squeezing your shoulders at the top. Like regular lateral raises, start with dumbbells, but occasionally use cable or resistance machines to do the same movement.

    Programming

    • Exercise selection matters, but how you train is just as important. To focus on building shoulder mass, work your shoulders twice a week with three or four days of rest between in each shoulder session. Perform a press, a lateral raise and a rear lateral raise each session for four sets of six to 10 reps in each set. Perform two light warm-up sets for each exercise and then do your four main sets, aiming to hit muscular failure at the end of each one. Lift the weights up forcefully and lower them slowly for a count of two.