subject: How To Build Muscle: Shoulders [print this page] A lot of lifters understand how to build muscle in big areas like the chest, legs, and back but they have an incredibly hard time putting any meat on their shoulders. Big numbers on military presses are few and far between, and most people can't even manage to make their shoulders feel sore. Still, even lifters with lackluster genetics for shoulder width can build an impressive set of delts. Here are a few of the most important tips for how to build muscle on your shoulders.
The Military Press A Tried and True Movement
If you look around a gym on a busy day, you'll see plenty of people doing seated presses, dumbbell presses, and random exercises on shoulder machines. But what ever happened to the standing military press? This challenging exercise is by far the best way to build strong, massive shoulders. Big military press numbers will also help your strength on the bench press and other pushing movements. If you haven't figured out how to build muscle on your shoulders, give this fantastic movement a try.
Get Wide with Dumbbell Raises
People who don't know to build muscle often fail to understand that the shoulders have three different groups of muscle fibers. Overhead presses will get your front delts up to snuff, but you'll need other exercises to build the middle and rear portions of your shoulders. This is where raises come in.
There are tons of fancy raises you can perform, but nothing works better than the simple dumbbell. You'll see skinny guys who don't know how to build muscle messing around with cables, machines, and other fancy equipment but the big lifters know that free weights are the ticket to growth. Grab a moderately heavy pair, keep a firm stance, and raise your arms up to shoulder height. Repeat until your shoulder burn and then keep going! You've really got to push past the pain barrier if you want wide shoulders.
Don't Forget Your Back
Remember, you've still got to hit those rear delts to get full shoulder development. After you've done a few sets of side raises, you can move right on to rear raises. Bend at the waist, lead with your elbows, and again raise the dumbbells until they're at shoulder height. Just like the side raises, you're going to have to fight through the burn if you really want this movement to be effective. Make sure your dumbbells are heavy enough to be challenging but not so heavy you can't keep good form!
Keep it Simple for Traps
Some lifters do lots of fancy exercises for traps, but you should keep things simple if you want the best gains possible. Grab a barbell or the heaviest pair of dumbbells you can find, and do three or four sets of shrugs. You don't have to use textbook-perfect form, but make sure you're not using the rest of your body to sling the weight around.
Get Strong!
Remember, moving progressively heavier weights is the most important part of how to build muscle. If your numbers are standing still, then there's no wonder you're not making progress. Get strong on military presses, raises, and shrugs, and your shoulders are sure to grow!
