The Best Shoulder Exercises For Mass And Size

Article by Jared DiCarmine

So what are the best shoulder exercises for mass? Oh man, to be honest there are a ton of them and it really depends on your body and your characteristics. It also depends on what parts of your shoulders is lacking muscle mass. For example a lot of people have over developed front deltoids, but lack lateral deltoid mass and rear deltoid mass. The reason for this is because we tend to focus on a lot of the pressing movements without focusing as much attention on the lateral deltoids and rear deltoids. When equally developed, you will have a look that no one would want to mess with and an awesome set of broad shoulders. Now when it comes to which exercises you should perform, I feel there are some staples that you should always try and keep into your routine.For example one of the best pure shoulder exercises for mass is the push press. The push press is just like the military press except you get to use your legs a little bit in the initial portion of the lift. This allows you to lift more weight overhead. When you do this exercise, it’s best to do them as fast and explosively as possible. The pressing muscles of the upper body respond best to high volume, high intensity, and heavy weighted workouts so the push press would be a perfect choice if you want to develop some mass. Another great exercise that does not get touched upon a lot that would give you a nice set of shoulders is rack dead lifts. Rack dead lifts are traditionally seen as an upper back exercise, but they are brutally effective in hitting your traps, thickening up your neck, and add mass to your rear deltoids and entire upper body region since a lot of these major muscles have to isometrically contract to keep everything in place. Rack dead lifts are the same as regular dead lifts except you pull the weight from a set of pins so the weight is off the ground. It shortens your range of motion, allowing you to traditionally lift heavier weights. By pulling and pressing heavier weights over time, you will no doubt build an impressive physique and a large pile of mass on your upper body. Now that we have taken care of the heavy mass builders, let’s start focusing on the smaller muscle groups such as the lateral head of your deltoids and the rear head. Now the next exercise that I’m going to recommend is something that you definitely have seen before, but possibly never attempted this way of executing it before. So the next exercise that I would recommend is one arm lateral raises. The big difference is that you are going to be using a much heavier weight than normal and a little body English. A lot of people only use light weights for this exercise, which I don’t understand why because it’s a muscle just like any other. I remember hearing a big time top pro bodybuilder specifically using only these in his workouts to really bring up his delts and even out his shoulders. He said they worked perfectly. So this what you’re going to do is pick up a heavier than normal dumbbell that you would usually use for this exercise, hold it by your side then dip with the legs slightly and raise the dumbbell all the way up to shoulder level. Try and pause for a brief second to get a maximum contraction and slowly lower the weight back down emphasizing the negative portion of the rep. The last exercise that I would recommend to really develop your rear deltoids is face pulls. So what I want you to do is set up the rope attachment inside of the pulley system and raise it to around eye level. From there, take an overhand grip with your palms facing down and your hands all the way at the end of the rope by the knot. Slowly step back until the weight plates are off the sack and pull the rope towards your chin splitting it at the end of the contraction where you feel it the most in your upper back and rear deltoids. Slowly return all the way down and repeat the sequence. All in all I hope you enjoyed these 4 shoulder exercises for mass. It might be a little different than what you might have been assuming but they definitely work and they’ll pack on the mass in a short amount of time. Just make sure to press heavy and fast with a lot of volume. Don’t always go to failure and make sure to really hit the targeted muscle.

More Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises Articles