Diabetes Details

Some of the lifters in the gym will tell you how muscular shoulders is the greatest contribution toward the overall appearance of the upper body. Thick, round “cannon ball delts” will make your upper body appear wide and powerful. Big, full, separated, striated and capped delts will guarantee you’re wide up top.

The shoulder is a 3-headed muscle that performs the function of lifting and rotating the arm. It consists of the anterior region (the front), the medial region (the middle) and the posterior region (the rear). These heads can be stimulated in the gym using two different movements: an overhead press and a raise.

Both a barbell and a dumbbell can be used to achieve your goal, but dumbbells are the best overall choice. The overhead press is the meat and potatoes of effective shoulder training. There isn’t a single lift out there that can match the incredible shoulder-stimulating effect of a basic overhead pressing movement.

With dumbbell presses you get a greater range of motion for overall development and each shoulder is working individually maximizing the effort put out by both shoulders completely. Also, doing presses with barbells to the front overemphasizes the anterior delts and upper chest while presses behind the neck using a barbell put a lot of stress on the shoulder joint risking injury. Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on a bench with a vertical back support. Press the dumbbells overhead until your elbows are just short of locking out, and then lower them back to shoulder level.

Next in the pecking order are side lateral raises. Side lateral raises primarily develop the medial head (side delt) of the deltoid. The anterior and posterior deltoid also comes into play in this movement as well the trapezius (to a much lesser degree). This exercise is great for capping the delts, giving them a nice round look from the front. Stand with your knees slightly bent and hold a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing inward. With a slight bend in your arms, raise the dumbbells up to shoulder level and then lower them back to the starting position. And it is, but you should still go heavy if you are trying to build size, side lateral raises are an effective mass builder as well.

Most people perform far too much work on their shoulders and actually hinder their gains as a result. Because of this I typically do not recommend that you perform isolation exercises for the anterior and posterior heads. The anterior heads are heavily stressed during all chest pressing movements while the posterior heads are hit equally hard on all rowing movements for the back. A couple of extra sets won’t hurt, but you should try to minimize the volume as much as you can. The key to massive shoulders is quality, not quantity.

Here is a sample shoulder routine that you can use: Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press - 2 sets of 5-7 reps. Standing Dumbbell Side Laterals - 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps. Standing Front Dumbbell Raise - 1 set of 10-12 reps. Seated Rear Lateral Dumbbell Raise - 1 set of 10-12 reps.

There you have it. All sets should be taken to complete muscular failure where no additional reps can be completed using proper form. Keep a detailed record of each workout and strive for continual improvement from week to week by either increasing the resistance or the number of reps performed.