Shoulder Exercises for Men

In the conquest of building arm muscles and chest muscles, people often forget to work on their shoulder muscles. Along with your arms and chest, shoulder exercises also constitute an important part of your workout! Now, the reason behind this is simple. Imagine yourself standing bare chested in front of the mirror. While on one side you'll be admiring your arm muscles but on the other side your body will look disproportionate, as you have always ignored shoulder exercises and now they aren't developed at all, making you look weaker on that side! So to avoid this, you need to pay attention towards your shoulder development as well. But, what are those shoulder exercises, that would perfectly shape your shoulders and even broaden them? Find out an answer in the following text.

Shoulder exercises should be done by both women as well as men. Women mostly perform shoulder exercises to tone their shoulder muscles and men perform them to make their shoulders curvy and wide.

Best Shoulder Exercises for Men

To develop shoulder muscles, it is necessary that you do all the shoulder exercises regularly and properly. The exercises discussed below should be included in the shoulder workouts for men.

Seated Dumbbell Press
Sit on a bench and hold two dumbbells with palms facing in the front. Pull the dumbbells up to your shoulders. To maintain balance, spread your feet sideways to your shoulder width. Now, with your elbows below the dumbbells, lift the weight till the length of your arms. Hold in this position for a couple of seconds and then come back to the original position. This exercises can also be performed with the help of a barbell. 2-3 sets with 10-12 repetitions is enough.

Front Lateral Raises
Stand erect and hold two light weight dumbbells in the front of your thighs, with palms facing inwards. Now, applying your shoulder strength, lift both the dumbbells in the front and hold the position for 2-3 seconds. Further, come back to the original position. You can perform 2-3 sets with 10-12 repetitions for this exercise.

Side Lateral Raises
Stand erect with two light weight dumbbells sideways and palms facing towards each other. Now, lift the dumbbells to the sides. Maintain this position for a couple of seconds, to optimize the peak contraction in your shoulder muscles. Slowly bring down the dumbbells and come back to the original position. 2-3 sets with 10 repetitions would suffice.

Barbell Shrugs
Stand erect and firmly hold a barbell with sufficient weights attached to it. Now, using only your upper shoulder strength, lift the barbell as much as you can. Hold the position for a 3-4 seconds and then slowly release it down. See that you do not lift the barbell with your hands. 3-4 sets with 8-10 repetitions is sufficient.

Hise Shrugs
Hise shrugs exercises benefits two parts of the body. It is amongst the best back and shoulder exercises for men. Stand straight with a barbell placed on your shoulders (the position resembles to the one in squats). Do not bend your legs in the entire exercise. Now, just hunch or shrug your shoulders upwards and maintain this position for a couple of seconds. Come back to the original position. 3-4 sets with 8-10 repetitions can be done.

Tips for Shoulder Exercises

Whether you are doing shoulder exercises with cables or sophisticated exercise equipment or doing them using free weights, some things need to be taken care of. Here are some tips for doing shoulder exercises.

• Do some warm up exercises and stretches before starting the shoulder workouts. Warming up would get your shoulder muscles ready for the heavy exercises to follow.
• Adjust the weights properly, know your strength and capacity. To get the peak contraction in your muscles, it is necessary to lift the exact weight.
• Train yourself on the techniques before going on for the exercise. Learn all the movements correctly.
• Have your trainer beside you, while doing all the exercises. In case, you need support to balance the weights, your trainer should always be present to help you out.

Remember, building and developing shoulders is not a matter of a day or two! It requires a lot of patience and regular effort. Following the above said tips would avoid muscle injury and help you in obtaining desired results within your planned time frame. All the Best!