How To Develop Massive Shoulders

Some of the lifters in the gym will tell you how muscular shoulders is the greatest contribution toward the overall appearance of the upper body. Thick, round “cannon ball delts” will make your upper body appear wide and powerful. Big, full, separated, striated and capped delts will guarantee you’re wide up top.

Your shoulder (or deltoid) is a 3-headed muscle that performs the function of lifting and rotating the arm. It is a large three-headed muscle group consisting of the anterior (front), medial (side) and posterior (rear) deltoid. Shoulder training involves two basic types of exercises: presses and raises.

The overhead press is the meat and potatoes of effective shoulder training. There isn’t a single lift out there that can match the incredible shoulder-stimulating effect of a basic overhead pressing movement. Both a barbell and a dumbbell can be used for this exercise, but dumbbells are the best overall choice.

With dumbbell presses you get a greater range of motion for overall development and each shoulder is working individually maximizing the effort put out by both shoulders completely. Also, doing presses with barbells to the front overemphasizes the anterior delts and upper chest while presses behind the neck using a barbell put a lot of stress on the shoulder joint risking injury. Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on a bench with a vertical back support. Press the dumbbells overhead until your elbows are just short of locking out, and then lower them back to shoulder level.

Next in the pecking order are side lateral raises. Side lateral raises primarily develop the medial head (side delt) of the deltoid. The anterior and posterior deltoid also comes into play in this movement as well the trapezius (to a much lesser degree). This exercise is great for capping the delts, giving them a nice round look from the front. Stand with your knees slightly bent and hold a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing inward. With a slight bend in your arms, raise the dumbbells up to shoulder level and then lower them back to the starting position. And it is, but you should still go heavy if you are trying to build size, side lateral raises are an effective mass builder as well.

Training shoulders is always fun. You may have noticed that I have not included specific exercises for just the anterior delts. This is because they will be getting plenty of work when you train chest. Not to mention they will be getting plenty of involvement in the other exercises in the routines. If your front delts are a weak point, you may wish to incorporate a movement that will isolate them fully, but more likely than not, your anterior delts will get enough work and isolating them will not be necessary.

Here is a sample shoulder routine that you can use: Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press - 2 sets of 5-7 reps. Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals - 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps

There you have it. All sets should be taken to complete muscular failure where no additional reps can be completed using proper form. Keep a detailed record of each workout and strive for continual improvement from week to week by either increasing the resistance or the number of reps performed.