Shoulders can sometimes be a muscle that gets overlooked. It gets worked a little bit when you bench and workout your chest and can get some minor work from other exercises you do for other muscles, like your back for example. But if are struggling to find a good shoulders routine well then try giving the following routine a shot, I have been doing it for a while now and am more then happy with the results.
After you have stretched your deltoids for a couple of minutes start out with some sitting Military presses. If they don’t have a sitting military free weights bench set up, you can do this exercise anywhere there is a rack over your head and you can safely sit and lift the barbell off the rack and bring it down and back up. Now when you are performing sitting military presses you simply lift the barbell off the rack and bring it down in front of your head until your arms are at about a 90 degree angle. Some people prefer to bring the barbell down in behind their heads and that is fine to, but it can leave you at a greater risk for shoulder injuries, I would suggest you go with whatever is more comfortable to you, either way you are working your shoulders. Do 3-4 sets and any where from 6-10 reps, I like to start out lighter so I can get in ten reps and warm up then add more weight with each set until the last set I can only squeak out 5-6 reps. This is a great workout for the deltoids and is a great exercise to start with because if you do it later in your routine you might be a little wore out and not able to lift as much weight and get as much out of it and since you are lifting heavy weight over your head I like to have all the energy I can get for this exercise.
The second exercise I usually go to is dumbbell front raises. These are real simple to perform and are great for the shoulders. You simply grab a dumbbell in each hand and raise one arm at a time until it is straight out in front of you. Do 3-4 sets and 12-18 reps per set since you are raising one arm at a time. Using dumbbells is good because it also works out some of your stabilizing muscles as well.
After I get done with the dumbbell front raises I usually do one of two different exercises. Sometimes I go with lateral dumbbell raises which is the same as front dumbbell raises except you start with the dumbbells at your side and raise your arms out with your elbows slightly bent, raise both arms at once with this exercise as apposed to the front raises. Do 3-4 sets 6-10 reps. If I don’t do the lateral raises I go with back flies, this is where I sit on a chest fly machine and face the opposite way. I grab the handles directly in front of me and push backwards until my arms are pointing straight out from my sides doing 3-4 sets, 6-8 reps per set.
Then I like to finish with bent over low pulley lateral raises, this is where you grab the handle attached to the pulley at a slight bend and raise straight out from your side. Do 3-4 sets at 6-8 reps per arm. If I don’t finish with that exercise I go with pull ups with my palms facing away from my body. I’ll do 3-4 sets at 6-10 reps.
If you find this routine is too much or too little for you, just simply do one less or one more set per exercise, either way you should be doing 3-4 exercises for a total of 9-16 sets. So give this shoulder routine a try and remember to change it up every other week or so. It is good to change things up every now and then and keep pushing and working your deltoids in different ways. That is why I usually choose between a couple different exercises. In a month or two those shoulders should see much improvement.
