The shoulders are a smaller muscle group with 3 heads, so the best shoulder workout has to work all 3 together and separately. To target the front, side, and rear delts for muscle building, this workout will include 4 sets of 5 exercises each, performed as a superset followed by a triple set. It’s important to use proper form and light enough weights to ensure you focus on your shoulders and engage your chest and arm muscles as little as possible.
This workout can be done at your local commercial gym or just as easily at your home gym. Start by setting up your bench so your back is supported about 10 to 15 degrees below vertical; you want to be leaning back just a bit. Position the bench right in front of your rack so the bar is easy to lift when sitting.
Start with one or two light warm-up sets of seated overhead presses—just use the bar or lightly load it. Remember that the idea is to avoid previously exhausting the muscles but to fill the area with blood and work the shoulders just enough to warm them up. Be sure to use a full range of motion so they stretch slightly as well.
Step One: Shoulder Superset
This best shoulder workout starts with a superset of seated overhead presses and upright rows. If your shoulder mobility allows it, do the overhead presses behind your head, but if not, lower the bar in front. The idea of using behind-the-neck presses is to avoid involving your chest in your lift, but it will still work well for your shoulders if you need to lower the bar in front. Have your training partner or spotter stand right behind you to make sure you don’t back up too much at the top of the lift and to help you reposition the weight if needed.
When you finish your set, immediately get up and do a set of upright rows with the same weight. Only raise your arms until your elbows are level with your shoulders to avoid damaging your rotator cuff; your grip should be wide enough that your arms bend at a 90-degree angle once your upper arms are parallel to your shoulders.
Most weightlifters will find that they are stronger on the upright rows than they are on the overhead presses, so you will find that you can do a few more reps on them. Start your superset with a lighter weight that allows you to do 12 reps of presses and 15 reps of rows, then throughout the 4 sets, increase the weight slightly on each set, ending with a final set of 8 presses and 12 rows. Be sure to maintain strict form at all times to avoid injury and use a cadence of 1 second to lift and 3 seconds to lower the weight on both exercises. Limit your rest between sets to 30 to 45 seconds, then after your last set rest for 3 to 4 minutes before moving on to the triple set. Remember to hydrate during the break!
Step Two: Triple Shoulder Set
Now that you’ve recovered from the two big compound shoulder exercises, it’s time to isolate all 3 heads and hit the rear, side, and front delts individually with a triple shoulder set. Grab a pair of dumbbells that you can easily handle and start with rear deltoid flyes. Lean forward about 15 degrees from the waist; If you’re not sure how far to lean, look to your side in the mirror and see how far to lean forward to engage your rear delts when raising your arms to shoulder height. Bend your elbow slightly and then lock your arms in that position, raising them out to shoulder height and then lowering them back in front of you. Don’t worry about lifting the weights to shoulder height—your delts are only involved in moving your upper arms, so focus on bringing your elbows to shoulder height.
Immediately after the rear deltoid flyes, stand almost straight, leaning forward just enough to allow the dumbbells to hang freely in front of your body. Keeping that slight bend in your elbows, raise your arms to either side, again until your upper arm is in line with your shoulders. Lower them slowly and under control, then repeat until you’ve finished your reps for this set.
Again, without taking a break, start your front raises. Keep the slight bend in your elbows and start with your palms facing your thighs, then raise the dumbbells in front of you to shoulder height and lower back down. You can do both arms at once or alternate one and then the other depending on your preference. At this point in the triple set, your energy will flag, but don’t let your form flag: avoid the temptation to lean back and swing the weights up, maintaining a controlled ascent and descent.
Each cycle through the 3 exercises is one set, and after each set take a break of about 60 seconds before starting the next set. Start with light weights where you can maintain strict form for 12 reps of each exercise on the first set, then increase the weight slightly on each set, doing your 4 sets with 12, 10, 8, and 6 reps. Try to maintain a cadence of 1 second up, 1 second at the top, 3-4 seconds down, and no rest at the bottom of each rep for all 3 exercises.
At the end of the best shoulder workout, you will definitely feel the pump in all 3 heads and know you have fully worked them. Avoid the tendency to speed up reps so you can go heavier; Remember that your goal is to build muscle, so you want to maximize your volume, intensity, and time under tension. Because the delts are relatively small muscles, they heal fairly quickly with proper nutrition and rest, so this exercise can be repeated two to three times a week on non-consecutive days. They may be a little sore at first the next day, but that will fade as time goes on and as your shoulder gourds grow, you’ll soon agree this is the best shoulder exercise to build! muscle!