3 Best Exercises to build BIG shoulders!
Whats up guys,
In this post I wanted to show you my favorite exercises to build up your shoulders.
If you’re training for aesthetics building big shoulders is super important.
This is one muscle group a lot of naturals lack and thats because the shoulders need to be trained with high volume and specific movements.
People who take performance enhancing supplements are known to have 3d capped shoulders from the high concentration of androgen receptors.
They can pretty much do anything and their traps and shoulders will grow from supplement use.
Naturals dont have it that easy!
whats worked best for me is to put a majority of my focus on over head pressing, and finishing with high volume lateral raises, inverted rows, and some form of rear delt work or face pulls.
If your goal is to build big shoulders you want to include the barbell overhead press.
This movement hits several muscles but puts a huge focus on your delts.
try to be as strict as possible and not use any leg drive. If you’re having to push press it up, then definitely lower the weight.
If you’re a beginner you may need to improve your mobility to execute the lift correctly.
I've found that bracing my core, and squeezing my glutes helps keep me more stable and allows me to lift more weight.
another option is to rotate to dumbbells but keep in mind progressive overload is much easier with a barbell in my opinion.
and the barbell overhead press is my favorite exercise by far.
I did 185lbs for a few reps in my last workout and want to build back up to sets of 5
Im just getting back serious into my training but strength is coming back pretty fast
my ultimate goal is to eventually reach a 225lb overhead press.
This is a movement alot of the old school lifters used and most had pretty big delts from it.
Another benefit is they also help with upper back and trap growth.
So just make sure you’re including this exercise in your routine.
if you’re not doing any heavy incline benching then i would stick to the 5-8 rep range and add weight whenever possible.
If your program does include incline bench then do over head presses in the 8-12 rep range.
This is a more difficult exercise to progress with so you may need to add reps or weight every week vs every workout.
the 2nd exercise is
dumbbell lateral raises
This is a perfect isolation exercise for aesthetics and probably one of the most common ones you see bodybuilders performing.
I like to train with a lighter load and high reps for hypertrophy.
Overhead press is my main strength builder but the isolation work is where you really get the volume and muscle growth.
I like to perform these in the 10-15 rep range and focus on strict form without swinging.
You can do lots of reps and sets of these without getting fatigued like you would on the overhead press.
so be sure to add these to your hypertrophy routine.
now lets talk about the rear delts
If you focus too much on pressing and not enough pulling, more than likely you will lack rear delts.
the most effective movements ive found for them are inverted rows, rear delt flys and face pulls.
if you dont have access to a cable machine you could also use bands. or you could swap them for what im doing in this video. I do these rear delt flys two different ways, so try both out and see what works best for you.
One is on an incline bench and the other has my head resting on top of the bench.
these 3 exercises pretty much hit all 3 parts of the shoulder and will get you great gains if you do enough volume and focus on consistent progression.
Overhead press for strength and the 2 accessorys for volume work will promote hypertrophy.
if you’re following an upper lower you could do 3 sets of overhead press and 2 sets of each of the isolation movements.
That will give you around 14 sets a week for shoulders which almost guarantees growth.
if you’re looking for a program. Checkout my ebook strength + aesthetics. It has a full body and a upper lower routine.
I created it for people that want a simple but effective guide to get you to your best physique.
talk to you in the next one! peace