Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise
How to Do It: Stand with a pair of dumbbells held at your sides, palms facing your body. Keep a slight bend in your elbow and a tightly braced core. Raise the weights out to your sides until you reach shoulder-height. Return slowly to your sides.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.
Standing Dumbbell Upright Row
How to Do It: Stand with a pair of dumbbells resting on the front of your thighs with your palms facing your body. Maintain the same hand position while raising the weight up, leading with your elbows. Keep the weights close to your body. Stop when the dumbbells are at shoulder-height. Your elbows should always be slightly higher than your hands. Return down under control.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets
Seated Dumbbell Front Raise
How to Do It: Sit on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand hanging at your sides with your palms facing each other. Keep your arms straight and raise both dumbbells up and inwards, making a slight curve from your sides up to eye-level. At the top, the dumbbells should be close together but not touching. Reverse the movement and lower the weights to the bottom.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.
Shoulder Workout for Beginners
With the overwhelming amount of information on the web, it’s tough to discern what works and what doesn’t (about everything, let alone shoulder training).

It also seems that everyone has an opinion about how beginners “should” start out whether it’s with the barebones basics, diving right into some complex program, or using something in between. But rest assured, shoulder training doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, all that confusing.

The Basic Beginner’s Shoulder Workout
A beginner’s routine shouldn’t be too complicated, and that’s especially true for the shoulders. The deltoid complex is made up of many smaller muscles that work in concert to function through many planes of motion. Additionally, it can be a vulnerable area when trained incorrectly.

Man in gym performing barbell shoulder press
Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

Beginners need to simply focus on practicing proper form and working the muscles through a full range of motion without worrying too much about loading heavy weights.

Seated Barbell Shoulder Press
How to Do It: Sit on a bench with a padded back grasping a barbell a bit outside of shoulder-width. Begin with the bar held just in front of your chin and push the bar straight up. Once it passes your head, push the bar slightly back so it’s directly overhead and allow your head to travel between your arms. After locking out overhead, lower the weight under control to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.
Wide-Grip Barbell Upright Row
How to Do It: Grasp a barbell with an overhand grip six to 12 inches outside of shoulder-width. Stand with the bar resting against your thighs. Pull the weight up by bending your elbows. Lead the movement with your elbows, keeping them higher than your hands. The bar should travel up your body until it reaches mid-chest level. Lower the bar back down slowly.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.
Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise
How to Do It: Stand with a pair of dumbbells held at your sides, palms facing your body. Keep a slight bend in your elbow and a tightly braced core. Raise the weights out to your sides until you reach shoulder-height. Return slowly to your sides.
Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.
Shoulder Workout for Strength
Building strong shoulders isn’t as simple as hoisting heavier weights with your current routine. It’ll take a bit of a paradigm shift. The goal should be to lift heavier, but only with the right exercises.

Man performing heavy barbell shoulder press
Credit: MilanMarkovic78 / Shutterstock
Stronger shoulders are the hub of all upper body movements. A strong and stable shoulder girdle has the ability to support many of the bigger lifts such as bench presses, rows, pull-ups, and deadlifts.

The Strength-Building Shoulder Workout
Take a different approach to strength here. You’ll need to think about big compound movements, developing some speed strength, and using exercises that can add more foundational stability. This plan is designed to do just that.

Standing Push Press
How to Do It: Stand with a barbell at shoulder-height, holding the bar slightly outside of each shoulder. Begin with a stable core, flexed glutes, and slightly bent legs. Begin the movement by straightening your legs to provide a little push. Capitalize on this assistance by also pressing powerfully overhead. Lockout the weight directly above your head. Brace your core again before controlling the weight down to the starting position.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 5
Rest Time: Two minutes between sets.
Hang Clean
How to Do It: Grasp a barbell with an overhand grip a bit wider than your shoulders. Bend slightly at your knees and hips, allowing the bar to travel down your thighs. Forcefully straighten your entire body while pulling the bar up in a straight line towards your chest. Once it reaches chest-level, quickly bend your knees to drop your body down while fully bending your arms to “catch” the bar on the front of your shoulders.
Sets and Reps: 4 x 5
Rest Time: Two minutes between sets.
Farmer’s Walk
How to Do It: Grab a pair of heavy dumbbells and allow them to hang by your sides. Find a straight path and begin by walking as far as possible while carrying the weights. Keep your arms slightly bent and your shoulder blades pinched back to maintain strong, safe posture. One complete round trip — from your starting point, going out as far as possible and returning to the starting point — is one “rep.”
Sets and Reps: 3 x 1
Rest Time: Two minutes between sets.
Muscles of Your Shoulders
The shoulders, or deltoids, are one muscle composed of three separate heads.

Bodybuilder flexing shoulder and back muscles
Credit: Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock
Each head contributes to overall movement, but their anatomical position allows each to be a larger contributor during certain movements, making the shoulder a relatively complex muscle group.

Anterior Deltoids
The anterior deltoids, or front delts, are in front of the shoulder above your biceps. They connect your upper arm to your clavicle. They primarily raise your arm upwards in front of your body..

Lateral Deltoids
The lateral deltoids, or side delts, are located on the central section of the shoulder and are most commonly associated with the “wide shoulder” appearance. The lateral delts connect your upper arm to the acromion process on your shoulder blade. Lateral delts are significantly recruited to move your arm out to the side.

Posterior Deltoids
The posterior deltoids, or rear delts, connect your upper arm to the flat portion of your shoulder blade. They play a key role in moving your arms backwards, especially during pulling or rowing exercises. Because several muscles of the upper back also perform a similar function, the rear deltoids often require (but don’t often receive) specifically targeted training.

How to Warm-Up Your Shoulders
Skipping a warm-up isn’t good for any body part. Sure, you may quickly warm-up your legs, chest, or back, but many lifters have no good reason for simply jumping right into shoulder training without prepping them for the work to come.

The shoulders are a complex, multi-angular group of muscles that require a proper warm-up specific to their needs. Since their function is to lift the arm to the front, side, and back, it’s best to give these movements attention.