Looking for ways to improve your push and pull workout? In this quick guide, we&#;ll go through the steps you can follow to work on your push-pull split. Below you&#;ll find an easy-to-follow list of shoulder push and pull exercises you can incorporate into your workout routine starting off with the basics.
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The deltoids are made up of three heads: the anterior (front) lateral (middle) and posterior (rear). This means that in order to effectively target the whole of the deltoids, movements must be performed which require each head to contract and relax.
Splitting your training into a Push/Pull/Legs routine has become popular over recent years, as it&#;s possible to train each muscle group twice per week when training 6 days per week and taking one off-day, and also allows for 48 hours rest between performing the same exercises to promote recovery.
This routine splits the upper body by posterior and anterior chain. This is to separate the movements that require pushing/pressing movements (push day workout) and pulling movements (pull day workout). The third day is solely for lower body movements.
Shoulder movements tend to be performed on push day. This is because during pressing (or pushing) movements, the shoulder is either involved as a secondary muscle (such as in bench press) or a primary muscle group (overhead press). These work the anterior and medial head of the deltoids.
However, many pull movements use the shoulder &#; specifically the posterior head of the deltoid. The only pull movement can be called a &#;shoulder exercise&#; is the upright row, which involves all three heads of the deltoid. But generally, shoulders are mainly performed on pressing days.
To target the anterior (front) deltoids effectively it&#;s important to perform vertical/incline pressing movements.
Exercises you should definitely consider within your push day include:
Shoulder accessory movements are important for targeting the lateral and rear delts.
Exercises you should definitely consider within your pull day include:
As mentioned before, shoulders are mainly done on push day. However, it is fine to do them on pull day if you&#;d like. There are many pull movements, such as rows, pull-ups and rear-delt flyes that exercise the shoulder. Upright rows primarily target your side delts and trap muscles.
When we hear the term &#;pushing exercises&#; we basically can include all exercises that target the front of the body, with the exception of the triceps. This includes the front part of the shoulder (anterior deltoid) that are worked during lateral raises. But lateral raises are named so because they mainly work the lateral (side) head of the shoulders. But since the anterior deltoid is a secondary muscle involved in other compound movements on push day, it makes sense to do lateral raises on push day too.
As there are five different types of shoulder exercise for both Push and Pull day, it may be worth rotating the exercises between your sessions. The beauty of rotating Push/Pull/Legs twice per week is that you are able to target each muscle group twice every week and therefore you have the opportunity to utilise a variety of exercises.
4 Sets of Each (Total Sets 24)
3 Sets of Each (Total Sets 24)
Each of the heads of the deltoids will be targeted by using the above two training plans for Push and Pull day. However, in order to keep the volume up and make use of the rest of the exercises mentioned previously, we have created a second Push and Pull day which can be used in conjunction with the above.
4 Sets of Each (Total Sets 24)
3 Sets of Each (Total Sets 24)
Each of the above training routines consists of 24 sets. Every set should take 45 seconds to 1 minute to perform, and a rest period of the same time should be taken between each set and exercise.
This brings the full session time to 48 minutes excluding a warm-up and cool-down. We would recommend a five-minute row prior to each session as a warm-up accompanied by some dynamic warm-up movements, and a five-minute cycle as a cool-down followed by static stretches. Performing warm-ups increases muscle temperature and blood flow, which contributes to improved exercise performance and reduced risk of injuries to muscles and tendons [1].
Rather than splitting your training days into individual muscle groups (e.g. shoulders, arms, chest, legs, back), this routine allows you to target each muscle group more frequently. Be sure to split your shoulder movements between Push and Pull day, as each head can be isolated using different movements.
Hungry to learn more? We believe that every person, with support, has the right to transform their lives through fitness. That&#;s why we&#;ve put together hundreds of articles with expert advice, all to help you on your fitness journey. From structuring a pull day to more shoulder exercises, check out our relevant articles below:
A lot of people &#;forget&#; to train shoulders, don&#;t train them often enough, or train them improperly.
As much as shoulders may not be at the top of your list of favorite muscles to train, it&#;s crucial that you not ignore them! Plus, a set of big boulder shoulders makes a very impressive contribution to your overall physique.
In this complete guide to shoulder workouts, I&#;ll give you an overview of the shoulder muscles, tell you why they&#;re so important and give you the best shoulder exercises and workout tips regardless of what equipment you have available to you so that you can create the best shoulder programs for you.
This step-by-step guide is broken down into sections so you can easily find exactly what you&#;re looking for to build strong shoulders. I&#;ll also be answering all the most common questions related to shoulders and shoulder workouts.
Here are some of the topics that I&#;ll cover in this shoulder strength training guide:
Before we launch into my favorite shoulder exercises and shoulder training techniques, let&#;s review shoulder muscle anatomy so you are familiar with the playing field as we explore the best ways to hit these muscles.
The deltoid muscle is comprised of 3 deltoid heads: the front delt head (anterior deltoid), middle delt head (lateral deltoid) and rear delt head (posterior deltoid).
I&#;ll use my handy Muscle Markers to show you each of the deltoid heads.
You can refer back to this section if needed, because I&#;ll be showing you different shoulder-specific exercises to target each of these areas, and some that target all three.
Shoulders are a muscle that people tend to undertrain, train incorrectly or ignore altogether.
If that sounds like you, you&#;re making a big mistake by omitting shoulder programs from your training!
Training shoulders is critical for three important reasons:
The shoulders are one of the smallest but arguably one of the most important muscles in the body, so it&#;s time to give them priority!
First let&#;s discuss what it takes to get bigger shoulders&#; you might surprised by my advice!
If you&#;re trying to develop big broad shoulders, you&#;re going to have to let go of the ego.
What do I mean by this?
When it comes to deltoid training, that old adage of &#;lift big, get big&#; doesn&#;t ring true. To build strong beefy shoulders, you&#;re going to have to pick up the light dumbbells.
The heavy weights will still have their place in your shoulder development, but light weights are where it&#;s at for developing bigger delts.
Why is that the case?
Heavy compound lifts aren&#;t ideal when it comes to building muscular shoulders. That&#;s because the deltoid muscles receive so much assistance from other muscle groups in the upper body when doing big lifts. To move all those pounds of weight, the triceps, chest muscles, back, abdominal muscles and legs kick in. There will be some momentum involved as well.
What all this means is that it&#;s not really possible to isolate the delts with those bigger lifts. The fastest way to build bigger deltoids is to laser target them by using lighter weights.
Try the Zero Momentum Side Lateral Raise technique below and you&#;ll see just how challenging lifting lighter weights can be. This is one of the most effective lateral delt exercises for increasing shoulder size.
Start with a pair of 15 lb pair of dumbbells. Yes, just 15 should be enough!
HOW TO DO THE ZERO MOMENTUM SIDE LATERAL RAISE:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: Elimination of momentum means just your deltoids are doing the work, which is why you can use such a light weight on this exercise. This is one of the more effective shoulder raise variations for isolating the lateral delts.
Give this technique a try with a pair of 15 lb pair of dumbbells or half of whatever you&#;d normally use for a side lateral raise. You&#;ll quickly see just how challenging it can be when your deltoids are doing all the work instead of allowing other muscles to kick in.
Incorporate this into your dedicated shoulder workout routine and you&#;ll see how lighter weights can help you build bigger shoulders! For a more in depth look at this technique and a step by step breakdown of each of the repetitions, check out my article on How To Get Bigger Shoulders.
The best shoulder workout should hit all three heads of the deltoid muscle: front delt, middle delt and rear deltoids, but even that&#;s not enough to make the upper-body workout complete.
The best shoulder workouts also have to ensure we properly activate the shoulders, create overload, and include explosive movement.
We also need to train the shoulders through their entire range of motion, including on stretch, in order to build shoulder strength and size.
Let&#;s look at the most important elements of a great shoulder routine:
It&#;s important to activate the shoulders before we train them for a couple of key reasons. The shoulder joint is a three-dimensional ball and socket joint, which means the this complex joint has ample range of motion.
Also since the shoulder&#;s socket is the shoulder blade, there are several important muscles that are affected by shoulder movement, including all the muscles that attach to the humerus and the scapula.
Shoulder activation is important to help all these muscles work together properly and to avoid shoulder injuries.
One of the best exercises for shoulder activation is the Overhead Band Press performed with an elastic stretch band. A few warm up sets of this exercise will greatly help to prepare your shoulder mobility for your workout. This is one of the better rear delt movements.
HOW TO DO IT THE OVERHEAD BAND PRESS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: In this variation, the resistance isn&#;t coming from the ground up, like it would in a typical dumbbell shoulder press or barbell shoulder press. The elastic band is pulling you toward the front, so you&#;ll have to activate the muscles of the rear delt and the rotator cuff muscles. We need the support of the rotator cuff muscles to provide shoulder stability to do overhead activities, so it&#;s important that we warm it up.
While it&#;s important to use targeted shoulder exercises with lighter weights to zero in on these muscles, foundational moves are just as important.
For this, one of the best compound shoulder exercises is the Barbell Overhead Press, because we&#;re able to create overload and scale to heavier weights.
If we perform the Banded Overhead Press followed by the Barbell Overhead Press we&#;re also using neuromuscular reeducation to enforce what we established with the banded activation exercise in the barbell exercise.
HOW TO DO IT THE BARBELL OVERHEAD PRESS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: Put simply, the overhead shoulder press is the best barbell exercise around for overloading the shoulders to build strength.
The majority of the most common shoulder exercises aren&#;t good for putting the delts on stretch.
For example, in a Side Lateral Raise, the arm stops right on the side of the body, so the shoulder muscles are never stretched.
In a Dumbbell Front Raise, it&#;s the same situation. The arm stops on the side of the body.
In most Shoulder Press motions, the arm stops in that same position.
However, it is possible to perform these exercises a little differently to incorporate that stretch on the delts.
In the Front Delt Raise variation below you&#;ll see that you can take the arm back behind the body to stretch out the fibers in the front of the delt.
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HOW TO DO THE CABLE FRONT DELT RAISE WITH STRETCH:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: When the arm goes back into extension, it places more stretch on the front delt fibers.
Hypertrophy should never be the only goal of complete shoulder training. Explosivity is important to allow you to function more athletically.
One of my favorite dumbbell shoulder exercises also has the added benefit of training all the muscles of the entire shoulder region together, as well as recruiting some nearby muscles that are connected to the shoulder girdle.
The Cheat Lateral Raise accomplishes all of this!
HOW TO DO IT THE CHEAT LATERAL RAISE:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: This exercise allows you to train the entire shoulder girdle explosively with muscles working together.
The number one exercise for targeting the posterior delts has a lot of other important benefits as well.
In fact, it&#;s one of my favorite corrective exercises, and one I prescribe people to do after every single workout!
And that&#;s the Face Pull!
I love this exercise because it solves a common deltoid training problem, which is that when we train our chest muscles, triceps muscles and shoulders, we feed into a front to back imbalance that can cause a lack of muscle symmetry or even shoulder injuries.
The Face Pull solves this by offsetting all the pushing work that you&#;re doing in the rest of your upper body workouts, and by building posterior deltoids and rotator cuff strength to provide shoulder stability. This is one of the best moves for rotator cuff and rear delt isolation work.
HOW TO DO IT THE FACE PULL:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: This exercise hits the difficult to target rear delts and rotator cuffs, helping to offset all of the pushing work we do in our upper body workouts.
There are a wide range of exercises to choose from, but the best shoulder exercises for you will depend a lot on what type of equipment you have available.
I want to help make sure you&#;re training this often-neglected muscle group, so in this section and the ones that follow I&#;ll show you some of the most effective exercises you can do to build bigger shoulders depending on the tools you&#;ve got.
If you have a full gym at your disposal, there are some great exercises you can do with a cable machine, a barbell or a landmine setup.
Let&#;s take a look at a few great options!
HOW TO DO RELAY RAISES:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: The Relay Raise is one of my favorite cable exercises because it&#;s among the best pressing exercises you can do if you have access to a cable machine.
HOW TO DO HIGH BOY ROWS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: If you have access to a barbell, this is a great mass builder for the rear delt.
HOW TO DO THE OBB LANDMINE PRESS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: The OBB Landmine Press is a great explosive option that will take your scapular plane pressing power to new levels if you&#;ve got access to the equipment for a landmine setup.
HOW TO DO THE OBB TWISTING THRUSTER:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: The OBB Twisting Thruster is another great athletic power builder using the landmine setup.
These highly effective gym based shoulder exercises are included in my list of 12 Best Shoulder Exercises along with several other favorites utilizing dumbbells and resistance bands.
If you have access to a set of dumbbells but not a full gym, you can still get a very effective shoulder workout.
In fact, using dumbbell shoulder exercises you can train the shoulders for any goal, including strength, power, hypertrophy, metabolic, or even total body.
Let&#;s take a look at an example for each!
HOW TO DO THE STANDING DUMBBELL PRESS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: This dumbbell overhead press exercise allows you to get your elbows out in front of your body into that scapular plane so you can press overhead more safely without risking impingement of the shoulder. It also allows you to effectively overload the shoulders with dumbbells, but keep in mind that you&#;ll be able to make smaller jumps in weight with dumbbells than you would with a barbell.
HOW TO DO IT THE DUMBBELL PUSH PRESS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: This exercise allows you to apply extra power by using the legs to drive from the ground up. Effectively loading the hips will help you apply force, strength and speed to the movement because you will utilize the biggest muscles in your body (legs and glutes).
HOW TO DO THE CHEAT LATERAL RAISE MECHANICAL DROP SET:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: An important aspect of hypertrophy training is to apply stress not just to, but THROUGH failure. Once you fatigue in the Cheat Lateral Raise you can grab a lighter weight and follow it up with a Straight Dumbbell Lateral Raise to failure. For more information on this technique, check out my article on Best Dumbbell Exercises for Shoulders.
HOW TO DO THE DUMBBELL POWER CLEAN-OVER:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: This is a great explosive compound exercise for shoulders that also hits a good portion of the shoulder&#;s range of motion.
If you&#;re looking for more great exercises to add to your dumbbell shoulder workouts, you can check out my article on Best Dumbbell Exercises for Shoulders to see more examples.
Is it possible to get a great shoulder workout at home without any special shoulder equipment? What about while traveling? Absolutely!
Resistance bands are the ideal tool for training the shoulders at home, and they&#;re extremely portable too! And the best part is that they&#;re far more versatile for training the shoulders than you might think.
You can use elastic bands to hit all three heads of the deltoid muscle together or you can use them to isolate the front deltoid, middle deltoid and rear delt.
Let&#;s take a look at one exercise for each of these four functions!
HOW TO DO THE LYING ECCENTRIC OVERHEAD PRESS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: Typically, with banded overhead presses the bands won&#;t stretch enough or don&#;t create enough overload to cause muscle growth. In this overhead exercise we are getting eccentric overload when we straighten the bent leg to adjust the tension on the band.
HOW TO DO FRONT RAISE PULL APARTS:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: The front raise portion is very effective for hitting the front delts. The pull apart portion shifts some of the load to the medial delts and posterior delts and prolongs time under tension.
HOW TO DO THE LONG ARC LATERAL RAISE:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: The extra range of motion provided by anchoring the band on the opposite foot allows you to apply more tension and get the most out of this medial delt exercise.
HOW TO DO THE BANDED REAR DELT PULL:
WHAT MAKES IT EFFECTIVE: By keeping the arms straight throughout the entire movement, you keep tension on the rear delt, ensuring that it&#;s doing the majority of the work.
By now you should be convinced that building bigger, stronger shoulders is a must for your training program. Great-looking shoulders also benefit the look of your overall physique. The shoulders are also one of the most important joints to nearly any exercise you perform for any muscle group!
Give the techniques and exercises in this guide a try, and you&#;ll be surprised by just how quickly your shoulders will grow.
If you&#;re looking for a complete plan to build lean muscle and strength in every muscle group in the body, see which of our ATHLEAN-X programs best suits your goals and equipment possibilities.
SHOULDER WORKOUTS FAQ
The best foundational exercise for shoulders is the Barbell Overhead Press because we can create overload and scale with heavier weights over time. The Barbell Overhead Press will help you build big well-developed shoulders, but be sure to follow proper form and keep core muscles tight throughout the exercise to prevent potential shoulder injury and excessive pain. Because this is a heavy compound movement, you'll want to be sure to take adequate rest times between shoulder sets. Barbell presses should be the mainstay of your shoulder programming and will help you build healthy shoulders over time.
The 4 best exercises to include in your shoulder training are:
These exercises will help you build wide strong shoulders.
Push ups can help build shoulders, but not as well as exercises like the Barbell Overhead Press which specifically targets the shoulders and can be overloaded with heavy weights. Be sure to include the Barbell Overhead Press in your shoulder programming.
You can get a great shoulder workout at home using just a resistance band with these 4 exercises:
The best shoulder training frequency is about twice per week. This amount of shoulder strength training gives you the best potential muscle growth gains because your shoulders need adequate rest in order for the muscles to be able to repair and grow. Training shoulders 1-2 times per week will help you build strong broad shoulders.
The best dumbbell shoulder workout is:
The best shoulder workout for preventing shoulder injuries is the Overhead Band Press which is a shoulder activation exercise. This prepares the shoulder muscles to work together properly and should be done before starting the rest of your shoulder workout.
To get big boulder shoulders, be sure to train your shoulders 1-2 times per week. To get nice 3D shoulders, you should be doing some exercises with heavy weights. These would include compound exercises done with heavy loads like Barbell Overhead Presses, as well as other isolation exercises with lighter weights. For strong shoulders, your shoulder training should include exercises that hit each of the deltoid heads including lateral delts, front delts and rear delt movements.
Shoulder programming should definitely not be done every day if you want to build big boulder shoulders. You should have a shoulder day just 1-2 times per week in order to avoid potential shoulder injury. This is because in order to build big beefy shoulders, your muscles need ample time to repair themselves and grow.
Two shoulder exercises probably isn't enough to build the upper body muscle mass and the broad shoulders you're looking for. For best potential muscle growth gains, you should be doing exercises that cover all three delt heads including lateral delt moves, rear delt movements and front delt exercises in your shoulder training.
REFERENCES
Jeff Cavaliere is a Physical Therapist, Strength Coach and creator of the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs and ATHLEAN-Rx Supplements. He has a Masters in Physical Therapy (MSPT) and has worked as Head Physical Therapist for the New York Mets, as well as training many elite professional athletes in Major League Baseball, NFL, MMA and professional wrestling. His programs produce &#;next level&#; achievements in muscle size, strength and performance for professional athletes and anyone looking to build a muscular athletic physique.
Read more about Jeff Cavaliere by clicking here
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