Shapely shoulders do more than add pop to your arms—they give the illusion of a smaller waist and cap off your physique. This workout, which focuses on building muscle, is a great way to chase the burn while getting your shoulders to grow.
After a brief warm-up, get ready to dive into three supersets, one giant set, and a dropset finisher to really burn out those shoulders. Let's kill it!
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Exercise Notes
Cable High Face Pull
When it comes to face pulls, it's important to focus on the muscle you're targeting. Pull with your rear delts and not your biceps. Be mindful when choosing weight—the movement shouldn't be easy, but you should be able to maintain proper form. Squeeze at the top of each rep!
Cable High Face Pull
Cable Rear-Delt Fly
For rear delt flyes, focus on using your shoulder blades rather than moving the weight with your entire back. At the start, both pulleys should be above your head. Cross them in front of you at the same time. Focus on the contraction.
Cable Rear-Delt Fly
Seated Dumbbell Press
Keep your arms at a 90-degree angle and drive the weight all the way up. Don't touch the dumbbells together—if you do, you’ll lose tension on the shoulder muscle. Once you've fully extended, lower your arms until they're back to a 90-degree angle. Repeat for reps.
Barbell Front Raise
Use a pronated grip here, with your palms facing down. This should be a relatively slow and controlled movement. Pick a weight that doesn't make you swing. Squeeze your delts the entire time.
Arnold Press
What's different about the Arnold press from a standard dumbbell press is the range of motion and path of the movement. By rotating your arms—from palms facing you to palms facing out as you move the weight up—you emphasize the front and medial delts.
Lateral Raise
As I raise the dumbbells, I keep a slight bend in my elbows and bringing the weights slightly out in front of the plane of my body. This isolation exercise strengthens the entire shoulder, placing extra emphasis on the sides of the deltoid muscle.
Standing Alternating Front Raise
For these front-delt burners, raise a dumbbell up straight and lower it back down slowly before switching arms. At the end of this giant set, your arms should be burning.
Standing Alternating Front Raise
Cable Leaning Side Raise
I like to go a little bit heavier on these than dumbbell lateral raises. Typically, I discourage swinging, but I make a small exception for this exercise. With each raise I keep a slight bend in my arm, raise the weight under control, and hold for a second at the top before releasing.
Cable One-Arm Upright Row
Go up to almost at a 90-degree angle. Once you’ve reached that height, squeeze and lower the cable back down. Then, switch hands.
Lateral Raise Dropset
It's time to run the rack! Pick a dumbbell with which you can perform 10 reps, bust 'em out, drop the weight, and do 10 more reps. As you run the rack and get lower in weight, go all out and do as many reps as you possibly can. By the time you end this dropset, your arms should be on fire.