Four for the shoulders

This is one routine that tends to get short shrift in the strength training sections of gyms. While most men tend to focus a lot on chest exercises, like the ever popular bench press, or on building their biceps and triceps, the shoulder muscles are often dealt with cursorily. I have a theory that could explain why that happens. Most men and women who train with weights regularly exercise four or five days a week and their programme usually begins with chest exercises on the first day, followed by back exercises on the second day, arms and/or legs on the third day and, perhaps, shoulders on the fourth day. So, by the time they get down to the shoulders, it is the fag end of the week when there’s a pretty good chance of their shoulder routine becoming a chore.

Yet, wide and strong shoulder muscles are a key to a powerful physique. Not only do wide and well-developed shoulders make you look good, strong shoulder muscles (the deltoids—posterior, anterior and lateral) help prevent injuries during exercise besides giving you more power to lift, push and pull—all things that you need to do in the gym when you’re exercising different muscle groups.

Here are four exercises that can help you build strong shoulders:

1. The shoulder press. Use a barbell (or two dumb-bells) with a wide grip. Press the weight upward until your arms are fully extended. Return to the starting position where your upper arms should be parallel to the floor (see illustration). The key is to go heavy with the weights. Try to use weights that you can raise 8-10 times per set and do three or four sets. The shoulder press, done well develops the entire shoulder muscle group.

2. The lateral/side raise. Sit or stand holding dumb-bells. Bring the weights up together sideways to a level where the dumb-bells are parallel to the shoulders. This exercise, as is evident from its name, targets the lateral deltoids.

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3. The bent-over side raise. Hold dumb-bells as in the lateral raise, only bend your torso from the waist at a 45 degree angle. Raise the weights simultaneously and hold them for a second or two at the end of the movement before returning to the starting position. As you may have guessed, this exercise targets the posterior deltoids.

4. The shrug. Holding a heavy dumb-bell in each hand by the side of your upright body, shrug your shoulders as high as they can go. Hold them in that position for a second or two and then slowly bring them down to the starting position. That is a single repetition. As in all the other exercises, do 8-10 rep sets. The shrug is a great exercise for building muscle mass in the shoulders. Instead of dumb-bells, shrugs can also be done by holding a barbell across the thighs while in an upright position.

These four exercises should form the core of any shoulder routine. The key is to use progressively heavy weights as you go along. As soon as doing 8-10 reps becomes easy, you should go in for heavier weights. For instance, you could add 5 lbs or 2.5 kg to the weight you lift for every successive set.

— Muscles Mani

Write to musclesmani@intoday.com and click here to read Treadmill blogs
Caveat: The physical exercises described in Treadmill are not recommendations.
Readers should exercise caution and consult a physician before attempting to follow any of these.