How to Do Shoulder Workouts

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By sonni57
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Shoulder Workouts

Shoulder workouts are important to body builders, since they strive for the ever so popular V shape; wide shoulders narrow waist. Therefore, much work is put into making the shoulders bigger, rounder and wider. To do this there are a variety of shoulder exercises that must be done to accomplish the goal.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Step 1

The best way to do shoulder workouts is with free weights, barbells and cables and an occasional machine here and there. It's always a good idea to do a warm up and stretches before you hit the weight room. This could consist of 5-10 minutes on a cardio machine then stretch whatever muscle groups you intend to weight train. Now the muscles are ready for the hard work ahead!

For simplicity I will refer to exercises by their name and if you aren't familiar go to Youtube and check them out there. This way you can see exactly how the exercises are done to ensure proper form and execution.
Step 2

Once you have a shoulder workout routine it's usually about time to change it. This is why. The muscles get used to exercises and don't respond to them as they did at first. Therefore, change the order, reps, sets and weight on a regular basis to challenge them.

I always super set my shoulder exercises. In fact, I use giant sets, which is more than 3 sets back to back no rest. This is an intense workout for those who are in good physical shape and know exactly what they are doing and what the goal is.
Step 3

Below is a giant shoulder workouts routine that is done as I stated with no rest between sets, so there must be a set up of dumb bells and barbells ready to grab immediately one after the next like a circuit.

Seated barbell press- 8-10 reps
Standing dumb bell front lateral raises- 8-10 reps
Standing dumb bell side lateral raises- 8-10 reps
Standing barbell Upright Rows- 8-10 reps
Seated dumb bell reverse lateral raises- 8-10 reps
*If building use less reps (4-6) and more weight
*Repeat entire routine twice
Step 4

To add variation switch shoulder exercises from dumb bells to cables to machines moving quickly from one to the other. For example, if you used dumb bells one day use cables/machines the next workout. Don't forget, there needs to be 24-48 hours rest for muscles to grow.

Remember, it's the intensity that counts not the numbers. More is not better, harder is better. If you can't do super or giant sets work your way up and build intensity over time. Finally, muscle responds to challenge and hard work, so hang tough and make them go to failure.