A Recipe For Beautiful Shoulders!

Tonight, I'm going to share strength-training exercises that will help you build nice rounded shoulders, which will enhance and provide great proportion to your frontal physique. As discussed in my post A Lesson in Anatomy - Know Your Muscles, I am providing you with many exercises to work all of the major and supporting muscle groups of the body.

Over a series of posts, you will have everything you need to build many different strength-training routines, adding variety to your workouts and yielding quick strength gains as a result. So far, we've looked at the chest and the abs, so let's move on.

The front shoulders are called the deltoids. Exercises for the "front deltoids" include:

1. Barbell shoulder press
2. Dumbbell shoulder press
3. Twisting dumbbell press
4. Machine shoulder press
5. Front dumbbell raises

Exercises for the side deltoids include:

1. Dumbbell lateral raises
2. Cable lateral raises
3. Machine lateral raises

Between the neck and the shoulders are the upper trapezius muscles. Exercises that work the upper traps include:

1. Barbell shrugs
2. Dumbbell shrugs
3. Machine shrugs
4. Upright rows
5. Straight bar pulldowns

While we are at it, let's finish off from the shoulder to the neck with the frontal neck muscle, the sternocleidomastoid (SCM). Exercises that work this supporting muscle are:

1. Weighted neck flexion
2. Neck machine flexion

Many people have neck-shoulder pain because of weakness in some of the muscles mentioned above or from injury or tightness. Keep the weight manageable and consider massage as an integral part of your strength-training regime.

The name of each of the above exercises describes the exercise itself. However, if you are new to strength-training or are not quite sure how to perform any of the exercises above, then comment on this post. I will gladly describe the exercises in detail.

Have a great night!

Sandy Huard, President, Women's Health Supply International