Strengthen your shoulders with these exercises
What's the story
Building stronger deltoid muscles is key to improving shoulder strength and stability. The deltoids, found on the uppermost part of the arm and top of the shoulder, are crucial to a range of upper body movements. Adding certain exercises to your routine could help target these muscles perfectly. Here are five exercises that specifically strengthen the deltoids, ensuring better posture and enhanced performance in physical activities.
Shoulder strength
Overhead press
The overhead press is a basic exercise for hitting the deltoid muscles. As you lift weights over your head while standing or sitting, you work all three heads of the deltoid muscle group. Not only does this exercise build your shoulders, but it also enhances core stability as you balance yourself during the lift. Begin with lighter weights to master the form before increasing resistance gradually.
Side delts focus
Lateral raises
Lateral raises target the lateral head of the deltoids, which adds shoulder width and definition. How to do it: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and hold dumbbells at your sides. Raise your arms out to the sides until they're parallel to the floor and slowly lower them back down. This isolates and strengthens the side delts perfectly.
Anterior delts emphasis
Front raises
Front raises are meant to work on strengthening the anterior (front) part of your deltoids. Keeping dumbbells in front of your thighs with palms facing down, lift them straight up till shoulder height before lowering them down slowly. This exercise improves overall shoulder strength and increases muscle endurance in day-to-day life with forward arm movements.
Rear delts activation
Bent-over reverse flyes
Bent-over reverse flyes mainly target the back (rear) of your deltoids and other muscles of the upper back. Bend at the hips with a slight bend in the knees; hold dumbbells with palms facing each other under shoulders; lift the arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the ground, and return slowly again downward without swinging throughout reps performed correctly every time practiced regularly over weeks ahead, too!
Full shoulder engagement
Arnold press
The Arnold press is an advanced variation that activates all portions of your shoulders at once by mixing elements from both overhead presses and rotational movements thrown into the mix as well! Start seated, holding two dumbbells at the chest level, palms facing inward. Rotate outward, press upward, rotate inward, return to start position. Repeat the sequence multiple times to build strength and endurance alike!