6 minutes
The shoulder muscles are the ones you use the most; your training is essential for the whole body. Join us to know the best exercises for them in the gym!
The part that connects your body with your arms is the shoulder. Many people, wanting to focus on the development of their arms, abdomen or legs, do not pay much attention to exercises to train the shoulders.
These provide many benefits in your activities in the gym. From an aesthetic point of view, give proportionality to the upper trunk so that you notice a balanced progress between the arms and the back.
On a physical level, they increase the strength that allows you to lift more weight with your arms, as well as avoid injuries when executing very demanding movements. They also favor the correct position of your shoulders to have a proper posture.
Anatomically, the shoulder muscle is called deltoid and it is important that you know that It is made up of three areas: front, side and back. The exercises that you are going to discover below are designed to strengthen all areas.
Importance of exercises to train the shoulders
For your athletic body to be complete, you need to train your shoulders. Forming the muscle group at the top that you use the most requires personalized attention.
For this reason, three benefits of exercises to train the shoulders stand out:
- Simpler transfers: strengthening the shoulders promotes the ability to hold and carry more load in your arms. At the gym, it helps you lift more weight as you go through your workout. While at home, it facilitates the daily tasks of lifting objects, moving appliances and even carrying more shopping bags.
- Correct posture: correct bad posture practices that you may be adopting in front of your computer, for example. Causes a straight unfolding of your back, neck and shoulders.
- Avoid injuries: resistance movements add strength, which is great for preventing shoulder injuries when executing any movement.
The best exercises to train your shoulders in the gym
Ideally, you should be working with the appropriate weight for you. If you are just starting out in this type of training, start with more reps and less load. Bet on basic movements and respect the technique.
In each exercise in which you use the machines or weights you can set and combine the types of grip, such as neutral, supine and prone.
one. Press military
The press Military is basic in this type of training; you do it standing or sitting. Using the bar, you spread your feet shoulder-width apart, squatting slowly, concentrating your weight on your legs and then holding them with the prone grip.
You raise the bar above your head until your elbows are stretched. Likewise, it can be done with dumbbells; there the distance between the hands changes as they are not fixed on the bar.
two. Press Arnold
This exercise is ideal for working all three areas of the deltoid muscle. His name became popular because he was the favorite of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger during his time as a bodybuilder.
Sitting on a bench, with your back lying down, you take the dumbbells with your hands facing you and with your elbows bent you raise your arms, changing the direction of your hands outwards. It is a simple movement of up and down with the dumbbells.
3. Battle ropes
This name refers to battle ropes or heavy ropes that test the movements of your arms and shoulders. Due to its weight, you work on your strength and you can rotate each limb to tone them with greater precision. Thanks to the boom they have had in the crossfit, This tool is common in gyms.
Four. Press Z
East press It is done sitting on the floor and without supporting the back on any surface. It is advisable to work it on a machine where the bar can rest.
The idea of not supporting your back is so that you gain stability and strengthat the same time that you lift the bar with a weight you can handle. As you perform the repetitions, you will notice how your body acquires skills to take a correct posture that guarantees the execution.
5. Elevations
Those are part of a core group of exercises to train the shoulders in the gym, in which you use a bar or dumbbell. They are executed standing or sitting and the movement consists of raising the arm, this time not above the head, but up to the level of the shoulders.
In addition to the frontal lifts, there are the lateral lifts, which can be practiced on a pulley, machine or rubber ropes available locally. It is worth mentioning that are characterized by promoting a greater number of repetitions, since they are simple to carry out.
6. Bird
The bird consists of an arm lift with a dumbbell in each hand. But this time you will practice it in several ways:
- Standing, but leaning down at an angle approaching 90 degrees.
- Sitting on a surface that supports your body and then getting ready to raise, sideways, your arms up.
7. Inverted push-ups
In this case, you are in a head position, supporting your lower extremities on the wall. With your hands resting on the floor, you flex your arms. Here you will also develop the potential energy of your muscles.
8. Slam ball
Work is intense in the slam ball, since each repetition involves several movements of the body, using a heavy ball that you hold with both hands, feet shoulder-width apart. The starting point is to raise the ball above your head; then bend your knees and, coming down, throw the ball to the ground in a short distance that allows you to hold it again and repeat.
In shoulder training exercises, the key is to avoid injury
As in any exercise routine, there is a risk that you compromise your body. Your shoulders face the possibility of getting hurt.
Given this, it is best to prevent practices that increase these dangers. An example may be routines in which the barbell is raised behind the head. These exercises are called behind the neck and greatly increase the likelihood of injury.
Enjoy and Mix everything you want from each of the 8 variants that we explain to you. But always be aware of changing those forced movements that limit your ability to react to a possible execution error.
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