It is almost every gymgoer’s dream to achieve the V-taper look. The muscle that contributes the most to achieving that look is the shoulder muscle.
In gym terms, it is known as having boulder shoulders, which means building a round, hard shoulder. Having a big shoulder greatly enhances the appearance of a good-looking physique.
Now, how do we develop those big round shoulders?
The shoulder is one of the most complex muscles for growth. Moreover, most people train their shoulders in the wrong way, which makes it much harder to develop shoulders properly. You should never use heavy weights when training shoulders. Shoulders are not a very big muscle group, so if you use heavy weights, you mostly end up taking assistance from other muscles like traps, back, legs, etc. Which will be a suboptimal approach to growing the deltoids.
In this article, we will discuss the best shoulder exercises to grow a round, good-looking shoulder.
Before we discuss different shoulder exercises, you need to know how shoulders or delts function. Delts can be categorized into 3 parts, which are called heads.
Front Delt/Anterior Head: The front delt helps you move your arms upright motion. Placing your hands in front of your head are the activities of the front delts.
Side Delt/Lateral Head: lateral heads help you raise and lower your arm sideways.
Rear delt/Posterior Head: It sits on the back side of your shoulder. It helps you move your hands backward.
Among the 3 delts, the most undertrained delt head is the lateral head. When we train our upper chest, our front delts are also trained as supporting muscles, and when we train our upper back, the rear delts are also trained as supporting muscles. So, we suggest emphasizing lateral delt training, as it mainly creates the illusion of a big, round shoulder.
Without further ado, let’s discuss the best exercises for each delt and how to perform them.
Contents
Best Front delt exercises
Though we train our front delts exclusively during the upper chest pressing movements, teaching them separately can help you have a more defined front delt. However, if you already have a big enough front delt, you can minimize the training of the front delt by training them once a week.
The exercises we would recommend you perform are:
OVERHEAD PRESS:
Overhead presses are an excellent exercise for developing the front delts.
There are different variations of the overhead press. You can use dumbbells, barbells, or machines to do overhead pressing. Each variation is effective; try all of them for 2 weeks, and you will find the best choice. However, we recommend doing the overhead pressing seated, as it will increase the stability.
How to perform:
- Take a moderate-weight dumbbell or barbell, or set a moderate weight in the machine. Keep your back straight and embrace your core.
- Hold the weight at shoulder level.
- Press the weight up straight until your arm extends fully. Hold on for a second at the top.
- Lower the weight slowly. Take at least 2/3 seconds to lower the weight.
- Perform 8–12 reps for 3 sets.
Cable Front Raise:
One of the best exercises to develop the front delt is cable front raises.
It trains the front delt from a different angle and is performed in a way that fulfills the core activity of the front delt, which is raising the arm in front of the body.
How to perform:
- Grab the rope or straight bar attachments of the cable machine.
- Put the machine at the lowest setting.
- Put the straight bar or rope between your legs and grab it in a pronated grip (palm facing downwards).
- Lean a bit forward.
- Raise the weight from that position. Raise till your shoulder flexibility allows.
- Lower the weight slowly. Perform 8 to 12 reps for 3 sets
Best Side delt exercises
Lateral heads are the hardest to grow, as most lateral head training is performed incorrectly. The lateral delt is a small muscle that does not need much weight to grow.
The common mistakes when training the lateral head are using excessive weight and using momentum with the assistance of the trap muscle.
The best exercises for the lateral head are:
Lateral Raise:
The lateral raise is one of the most popular and go-to exercises for developing the lateral head.
You can perform this exercise using dumbbells, cables, or lateral raise machines. As dumbbells are the most convenient method, we will discuss how to perform it using dumbbells.
How to perform it:
- Grab a pair of lightweight dumbbells and position them on each side of your waist.
- You can bend a bit or remain straight to perform the exercise.
- Lift the weight at least to your shoulder level. If you have good shoulder mobility, you can even raise further.
- To make the exercise more effective, lower the weight slowly till it reaches waist height. It will put constant tension.
- Go for higher reps, like 12 to 15 for 4 sets
Cable Y-raise:
Cable Y-raise is an excellent option to isolate the lateral head of the shoulder.
It puts great emphasis on both the concentric and eccentric phases, which provide stimuli for growing delts.
How to perform:
- Put the cable at the lowest setting and grab the cable.
- Hold the machine’s bar for more stability. Take 1 or 2 steps sideways. If you are doing one hand at a time, lean on the side a bit.
- You must use light weights to get the most benefits. The form is king here.
- Raise the weight sideways so that your body forms a Y-shape in the top position.
- Lower the weight slowly and contract as much as you can.
- Perform 10 to 12 reps for 4 sets.
Best Rear delt exercises
Usually, upper back exercises train the rear delts as a supporting muscle. However, to grow them optimally, you should incorporate some exercises that train the rear delts separately.
The best rear delt exercises:
Cross cable rear delt fly:
It is one of the finest exercises for developing your rear delts. The only downside is that if you use a public gym, the queue for the machine might be long.
How to perform it:
- Put the machine at the highest setting and grab both cable handles.
- Hold the cable over your head.
- Use a moderately lower weight.
- Pull the cable and bring it behind your shoulder.
- Slowly bring your hands forward, controlling the weight.
- Perform 10 to 12 reps for 3/4 sets
Machine rear delt fly:
Performing the machine rear delt fly is simple, so it can be considered a beginner-friendly exercise
Almost all gyms have this machine, so you can perform this exercise if you have access to a gym.
It is a great rear delt builder, and as the machine’s path is fixed, maintaining proper form is relatively easy in this exercise.
How to perform:
- Sit on the machine. Arch your back and keep your core steady.
- Use moderate weight
- Grab the handle of the machine
- Pull the handle back behind the shoulder level
- Control the weight on the way back
- Perform 8 to 12 reps for 3 sets
Face Pull:
Face pull is one of the most popular exercises for rear delts and is also very beginner-friendly. You can perform it both standing and seated, but we recommend the seated variations as they provide more stability.
How to perform:
- Grab the rope attachment and put the cable at face height or over that.
- Arch the back.
- Pull the cable to your face
- Slowly control the weight back
- Do 12 to 15 reps for 3 sets.
These are our top picks for growing boulder shoulders. If you do not have gym access, then you can perform dumbbell shoulder workouts at home also to develop boulder shoulder.
Tell us in the comments which are your favorite shoulder exercise.
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