Looking for a quick and efficient way to build out your shoulders? In this article we will take a look at 4 of the best and most popular compound shoulder exercises which will tone up and build your shoulder muscles as well as develop your upper body.
When performing compound shoulder exercises it is vitally important to follow correct technique in order to avoid injury, start with light weight and make sure that you feel the intensity of the exercise in your muscles and not your shoulder joints. If the exercise does not feel good check with a personal trainer or physical therapist before continuing as shoulder injuries can be common and unpleasant. Alright let’s get into the 4 best compound shoulder exercises.
1. Seated dumbbell overhead press
Otherwise known as a shoulder press, the dumbbell overhead press comes in at number 1 in this ‘4 best compound shoulder exercises’ article as this exercise is great at building overall shoulder muscle. Being seated during the overhead press increases stability so that you can put more focus and emphasis towards your shoulders. Using dumbbells forces each shoulder to work individually thus reducing any compensation from a stronger shoulder. This is a great exercise for increasing strength in your shoulders and really targets the front delts making it one of the most popular compound shoulder exercises.
2. Dumbbell Lateral Raises
Dumbbell Lateral raises are great for targeting and engaging the side delts thus giving you broader shoulders and that wider look. Most people prefer and tend to find it more comfortable to have their elbows slightly bent whilst performing lateral raises. Concentrating on having your pinky fingers slightly higher than the rest can really help target and activate your side delt muscles.
Bowflex Adjustable Dumbbells
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3. Reverse Dumbbell Fly
The Reverse dumbbell fly can be done standing bent over or seated like shown in the image above as well as able to be performed resting your chest against the back of an incline bench. This exercise is very similar to the reverse pec deck and targets the rear delts. Make sure you drive with your pinky fingers whilst performing this exercise in order to really target the rear delts otherwise you will be targeting the mid/upper back which also makes this exercise a great back exercise if you are wanting to also develop your back.
4. Dumbbell Arnold Press
The dumbbell Arnold press targets all three sides of the deltoid muscles by adding rotation to the classic overhead press making it the king of shoulder exercises. Rightly so being named after the bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. The dumbbell Arnold press makes a great warm up exercise for the shoulders by targeting all three sides of the delts and aids mobility with the rotation. This exercise is also great as a final shoulder exercise to end your shoulder workout with a good burn having targeted all three sides.
Other great compound shoulder exercises
More great compound shoulder exercises that didn’t make my top 4 are:
– Front dumbbell lateral raises
– Dumbbell rows
– Dumbbell shoulder shrugs
Conclusion
That concludes our four of the most popular effective and efficient compound shoulder exercises that can make up an essential part of any comprehensive workout routine for building strength and mass in the shoulder and trapezius muscles. By targeting multiple muscle groups at once compound shoulder exercises provide a much more efficient way to train than solely focusing on isolated exercises. Try incorporating these 4 compound shoulder exercises into your workout routine and find out which ones are your favorite.