What shoulder exercises do YOU do?

[chillenword]

Just curious as to what other people are doing on shoulder day.. I know some people split up their traps and delts, but I prefer to hit them all on the same day. My typical shoulder day goes as follows

light stretching then:

I usually do 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps heavy weights for the following:
Front raises
Lateral raises
Shrugs
Military Press
upright rows

then follow with wide grip pull-up 2 sets until failure.
and occasionally jump in the pool and do some light breast strokes if I have time/energy.



I feel like my shoulders aren't being worked enough, and am open to any input and critiques on what other people enjoy doing for their shoulders, please suggest any other exercises that would help. I do try and very them up (i.e. military press standing vs seated some weeks, lateral raises seated/standing others - shrugs with barbells/plates/big dumbells).

Any input is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[kristophs]

Just curious as to what other people are doing on shoulder day.. I know some people split up their traps and delts, but I prefer to hit them all on the same day. My typical shoulder day goes as follows

light stretching then:

I usually do 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps heavy weights for the following:
Front raises
Lateral raises
Shrugs
Military Press
upright rows

then follow with wide grip pull-up 2 sets until failure.
and occasionally jump in the pool and do some light breast strokes if I have time/energy.



I feel like my shoulders aren't being worked enough, and am open to any input and critiques on what other people enjoy doing for their shoulders, please suggest any other exercises that would help. I do try and very them up (i.e. military press standing vs seated some weeks, lateral raises seated/standing others - shrugs with barbells/plates/big dumbells).

Any input is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Mine is:
Military press
Dumbell press
Front raises superseted with lateral raises
Dumbell shrugs
Smith machine , behind the back shrugs

[chillenword]

Mine is:
Military press
Dumbell press
Front raises superseted with lateral raises
Dumbell shrugs
Smith machine , behind the back shrugs

Thanks, Tonight I think I'll add some standing dumbell press' as well as military!

[DYTrainer]

Seated Dumbbell Press
Seated DB Lat Raise
Machine Lat Raise

DB Shrugs

I'd be careful with the front raises as its a very small muscle and it gets hit on all pressing movements.

Also, not sure where you put rear delts ( i do them on back day) but if you do them on shoulder day I would add Bent-over db lat raise. Just make sure to come directly out to your side and not behind you. It's easy to move them behind you since that will use more lats than anything, but much less effective for stimulating the rear delt.

[consumingfire]

military press
laterals

[matjusm]

I do shoulder related exercises 3x a week:

Day 1: Push press (usually first lighter set is a strict press): 3-4 sets of 5-6
Day 2: Behind the neck jerk: 4x5
Day 3: Push and split jerk (followed by a negative since the lack of a lifting platform at my current gym means I can't just drop the bar from overhead) preceded by a clean: Don't really count, perhaps some 7-8 sets, starting from triples and ending up with singles.

Also a bit of rear delt work (3x8-10 of face pulls or rear delt raises) on push press day.

[ase19]

upright cable rows
behind the back shrugs

[m3dude]

military press/bench press/incline bench press/dips

[chillenword]

upright cable rows
behind the back shrugs

those are the only 2 you do?

[Farley1324]

Press

[defleaner]

Press
side raises
incline side raises
face pulls



loving it

[stunnna23]

Usually stick with this:

DB Military
Smith BB Military/Standing Push Press (generally alternate each week)
Seated DB Front Raise
Standing Side Raise
Seated DB Shrugs

[RussAnderson]

Seated DB Press
one arm Side cable Laterial raises
Bent over cable raises
Barbell Shrugs

4 sets

[Tyciol]

OP and several repliers are not hitting the mid or lower trap or the posterior deltoid, add in a bent-over rowing movement for this. Elbows in will allow strength do to lat assistance, elbows out diminishes this for better focus but less weight.

If you use a barbell, using a wider grip will diminish reliance on elbow flexors and focus on max contraction of back at top. Using a narrow grip will allow better stretch at the bottom but reliance on elbow flexors to pull it to your chest (or else you will bring elbows in and use lats to row to hip). If you use a dumbbell, you can get the best of both worlds as you get the stretch on the bottom but can space your hands further apart as the elbows raise out.

Rowing can also be done with other tools like an ez-curl bar (I just got a cheap one from wal-mart that says it can load up to 150) and if you have a pulley machine, those split ropes people use for tricep moves.

If you are doing dumbbell rows, keep in mind you can also forcibly extend the elbow with triceps to keep the hands outside of the elbow. It's a way to avoid relying on elbow flexors and the leverage makes the weight harder to lift, especially at the top. You can also do flies with a given weight and gradually bend the elbows as you fatigue until you're rowing it, a way of doing a kind of drop set without letting go of the weight.

Rowing a weight and then extending the elbow (feels a lot like a kickback, but you're kicking them out to the side) is also an option, you would be using the traps/rhomboids/post delt to isometrically hold the scapulae and humeri back while the triceps do this. This may possibly allow someone to get to the top of the fly position with a heavier weight than they might have done via keeping the arm straight as they flied it up. I'm not sure how that would work. It doesn't work totally the same as using this trick with bent> straight arm lateral raises.

[__Iceman__]

Standing OHP
Sitting DB OHP
Sitting Lateral Raises
Bent over reverse flyes
Face pulls

BB Shrugs
DB Shrugs
Upright Rows

[Farley1324]

OP and several repliers are not hitting the mid or lower trap or the posterior deltoid,

Really? It is not possible to hit those areas with any movement other than one for 'shoulders'?

[bamfhawkins]

For me my right shoulder gets inflamed pretty easily, so i normally start with shoulder press on the nautilus machine, i also do pretty high reps 15-20 to get a good pump in without having to risk injuring my shoulder.

Then i move on to arnold presses or db military presses and stick around the 10-12 rep range.

I finish up the delts with a few tri sets of front/lateral/rear delt raises. 10 reps each exercise but 30 in sequence.

I recently found a good toaster for traps by doing bb shrugs 2 x 60 and take a few seconds rest every 20 reps and then doing the same thingwith dumbbells.

Hope this helps!

[BillabongVolcom]

Side Laterals (Different variation each week)
Bent-over Laterals/Flys (Or Rope Face Pulls, change every week)

I'll throw in Military Press every other week at the very end for 1 set til complete failure with rest-pause style for 15 reps.

[Tyciol]

Really? It is not possible to hit those areas with any movement other than one for 'shoulders'?

It's possible, yes, but it's also possible that people doing this routine may not be doing those movements. All I can point out is that they're not listed.

Certainly a lot of trap/postdelt stuff is part of a 'back' or 'upper back' routine. It's a bit confusing since shoulder can range from meaning the entire clavicle/scapula/arm contraption or meaning something like 'muscles on the top of you'. The tragedy of slang

[Dr.Singh2010]

I do:

Military press
Seated DB press
Face pulls
Bent over DB flies
Lateral cable flies
Leaning lateral db flies
DB/BB shrugs

Gets all heads of the delts, seeing good progress so far.

[shredorded]

Always: 4-6 sets of seated DB press and /or military press and 4-6 sets of lateral raises

Sometimes: 3-4 sets of reverse fly's and/or more of a bent over lateral raise. I hit rear delt quite a bit on 'back' day.

Seldom: 3-5 sets of front raises and upright rows. Most of us are over developed in the front delt due to bench press.

My main focus: overall shoulder mass + side and rear delt development.

[STEELCITYMUSCLE]

Military Presses
Barbell Shrugs
Side DB Laterals
Rear Machine Laterals 4-5 sets each exercise 6-12 reps.

[ase19]

those are the only 2 you do?

no, those are the ones I do that most people overlook... i do all the normal stuff also (DB/BB OH press, lat raises, etc etc)

[simonkite]

Usually do a quick warm up, 20 reps of press on low weight, bit of stretching etc.

Will then do a set of medium weight seated DB press, then will go in to:

3x8 seated DB press
3x8 lateral raises superset with front raises
3x8 across body cable raises (dont know the proper name) - hits rear delts
3x5/6 heavy shoulder press SS with 12shrugs

i try to go to negative failure on the raises, seems to be working quite well for me so far, been doing this a few months and have seen considerable improvement in my shoulders in both size and strength. suppose it's different for everyone tho.

also think my traps are genetically good - hence why i dont do much for isolating them, tbh i often leave out shrugs if im tired already.

[dtoxUK]

DB Press
Side raises
Rear delt flye's
Upright rows occasionally

[240witsr]

Hang clean & press x3
seated db arnold press x2
front raise x2
side raise x2
behind back bb shrug x3


sometimes i add db shrug x2 at the end