Best Exercises for Big Shoulders

Building a big, round shoulders won't be an easy task, and you have to focus on all three heads of shoulder muscle. Anterior deltoid is engaged in almost all chest exercises and it is front head of shoulder muscle that is mostly overtrained. Lifters often don't pay attention to their medial and posterior deltoid, that is very bad for muscles balance and proportion. Training only with exercises that build a front head of shoulder will lead to bad body posture and shoulder injuries. 

Medial deltoid is very important for building shoulder width and Posterior deltoid is important for body posture and building it is greatly improving your body look from the back. That means, to look bigger and broader you have to train every side of shoulder muscle equally.  

To build big shoulders you have to use compound and heavy exercises with some additional isolation exercises. So train with heavy weights (about 80% of 1RM) and with rep range from 8 - 12 which is best for muscle gains.

Which exercises to choose for building big shoulders?

• Standing Military Press (Shoulder Barbell Press)
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press (Standing or Seated)
• Arnold Press (Variation of Dumbbell Press)
• Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise 
• Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise
• Face Pull (Great for improving posture)

ABOUT THESE EXERCISES

Standing Military Press:

The Standing Military Press is a great workout which targets all the muscle groups in your shoulder. Arching your back too much while performing this workout will hurt your back, so pick a weight that is not too heavy. 

How to perform Military Press: Grab a barbell and push it upwards then slowly bring the barbell down while inhaling. Keep your back straight through this process. 

Seated or standing dumbbell press and Arnold press can be considered as variations of this exercise.

Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise:

This exercise target you medial shoulders. Try not to swing the weights while performing it.

How to perform it: Hold dumbbells at the side of your body and lift the dumbbells up while slightly arching your back, then slowly return dumbbells to the starting position.

Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise is performing similarly like Side Lateral Raise. 

Face Pull is an exercise that is performing on a machine by attaching the rope to a pulley station and set it at chest level and then pull the rope towards your face. Keep your arms parallel to the ground (when you pull the rope, stand in a biceps showing posture and then slowly return the rope). 

Those exercises are sufficient for your shoulders workout day and they are great for building muscle mass and bigger shoulders. 

Try it, check out the results and leave a comment.