11 Best Moves For Strong, Sculpted Shoulders
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Modern life can be hell on your shoulders — sitting all day at a cramped desk, hunching forward to answer texts, slouching in the driver’s seat on your commute home. So if you’re not doing the right moves to build powerhouse deltoids (the shoulder’s muscle group) during your workout, you’re doing your body a major disservice.
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"Strong shoulders are safe shoulders, protecting you from serious injury," says Craig Ballantyne, strength and conditioning coach and author of Turbulence Training. “Developed delts also kick up your performance in almost every major exercise and sport.” Plus they improve functioning in daily life too, making everything from hauling a camping pack to picking up your kids easier. These 11 shoulder-building exercises will boost your shoulder size and strength, improve flexibility, and stave off injury.
Related: The Only 10 Moves You Need to Stay Injury-Free
Rear Delt Raise
This move strengthens the small muscles in your back called the posterior deltoids. They help improve posture and make bench presses a lot easier, says Ballantyne.
The Setup: Contract your glutes, brace your abs, and keep your spine in a neutral position. Stand with knees soft and hinge forward from the hips so your upper body is parallel to the floor.
How to Do It: Perform a lateral raise, lifting the dumbbells up and out to the side.
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TRX Rear Delt Fly
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"This works the same area as the rear delt raise but also hits more upper back muscles," says Ballantyne.
The Setup: Grab the TRX straps and take two steps backward. Lean back, so your arms are extended in front of you.
How to Do It: Squeeze the muscles between your shoulder blades and spread your arms out to the side while pulling your body to an upright position. Slowly return to the start position.
Related: The Only 5 Moves You Need for a Healthy Back
Band Pull Apart
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This is another move that’s perfect for desk jockeys and office drones, says Ballantyne. “This exercise strengthens the rear delts and rhomboids, two muscle groups that get weak when you spend the day in a seat,” he says.
The Setup: Stand and Hold a resistance band out in front of you at chest height with arms extended and hands spaced shoulder width apart.
How to Do It: Using light to moderate tension, pull the band apart While squeezing your shoulder blades together. Slowly return to start position.
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Overhead Squat
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Don’t underestimate this deceptively simple move. “Besides improving posture, it builds the kind of strength that helps you lift things overhead with ease,” says Ballantyne, by targeting your delts, back, and core.
The Setup: Hold a broomstick overhead with a wide-grip. Keep your abs braced and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
How to Do It: Keep your chest lifted as you squat as low as possible (below parallel) without losing your form while maintaining the stick overhead. Return to start position.
Related: How to Do a Perfect Squat
Chin-Up
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"This move is ideal because it works all the muscles of your shoulder in tandem with your back and upper arm muscles and doesn’t isolate any of the individual muscles," says Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength.
The Setup: Grip the bar with your palms facing you, hands no more than shoulder-width apart. Start from a dead hang, with your shoulder blades down and tight, back straight.
How to Do It: Pull up to raise your chin to the bar, then lower down slowly until your arms are straight.
Related: How to Do a Perfect Pull-Up
Wide-Grip Deadlift
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"This version of the deadlift uses a wider grip and works your delts as well as your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back more efficiently than a regular deadlift," says Ballantyne, warning that it should only be attempted if your back is not compromised at all by injury or weakness.
The Setup: Place a weighted barbell on the floor. Stand behind it with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, knees bent 45 degrees. Bend down and grasp the bar with an overhand grip, keeping your hands four inches wider than shoulder width, back flat and shoulders pulled back.
How to Do It: Tense your back, butt, and hamstrings, and pull bar up — back flat the entire time — making contact with shins, knees and thighs, and driving hips forward until they’re locked and you’re upright. Exhale as you near the top of the movement. Pause briefly and then lower, reversing the movement, and being careful not to round your lower back.
Eccentric Cable Lateral Raise
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"Focus on the eccentric, or lowering phase, to build more muscle fibers," says Ballantyne, who suggests doing one arm at a time. The cables, he explains, are a better option than dumbbells because they require more work at the bottom of the movement.
The Setup: Stand beside the cable stack holding a cable handle with one hand. Lean forward slightly from the waist, maintaining braced abs and an arched lower back, knees bent slightly.
How to Do It: Raise the handle up to the side to shoulder height and return with control.
One-Arm Standing Overhead Press
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"This is the safest version of the overhead press because it reduces the weight used, keeps your elbows in — which is easier on your rotator cuff — and also strengthens the abs as you stand locked in place," says Ballantyne.
The Setup: Hold a dumbbell at shoulder level with your palm turned in. Place your other hand on your abs to ensure they are braced. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent.
How to Do It: Keeping your abs braced, press the dumbbell overhead. Slowly lower back down.
Medicine Ball Chest Pass
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"This exercise builds upper arm strength too, working your delts, triceps, and biceps with each throw," says Jimmy Minardi, founder of Minardi Training in New York City.
The Setup: Standing and holding a medicine ball with feet shoulder-width apart, eight feet from a partner or close enough to a wall to bounce the ball back.
How to Do It: Holding the ball in both hands, take one step forward to throw the ball, catching it as it’s thrown or bounces back to you. Try to perform continuously for up to two minutes.
Upper Body Ergometer
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"By far the best machine at the gym for shoulder stabilization, mobility, and muscle development is the UBE," says Minardi. "Use it regularly, and you’ll see bigger, rounder delts." Since it’s a spin bike for your upper body, you’ll get cardio benefits too.
The Setup: Sit or stand at the machine, and adjust it so your shoulders are level with the handles.
How to Do It: Grip the handles and pedal with your arms, aiming for four minutes at level 2 with a speed of 80 RPMs.
Jumping Jacks
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You know it as old-school cardio, but this weight-bearing calisthenic exercise increases shoulder flexibility, range of motion, and blood flow for faster muscle development, says Minardi. Do them in the middle of a shoulder circuit to break up boredom, or as a warm-up or cool down.
How to Do It: Stand tall with arms fully extended, clapping thighs at bottom of the motion, and hands above your head at the top. Start with a set of 20, and work your way up from there.
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By Esther Crain
