Basic Shoulder Exercises

Welcome back! Hopefully, you saw my last blog which was about basic chest exercises that you can do at home. In this blog, I will be going over some basic shoulder exercises that are great for a home workout. Let's get started!

Shoulder Anatomy

The shoulder muscle is known as the deltoid (or "delt"). It consists of three heads (see diagram): the anterior deltoid (red), the lateral deltoid (green), and the posterior deltoid (blue). These are commonly referred to as the front delt, the mid delt, and the rear delt, respectively. In order to fully train the shoulders, we want to perform exercises that can target all three delts.

Front Raise

Let's start with the front delt, which can be trained through pressing movements, like the chest press that I talked about in the previous blog. However, if you want to perform an isolation exercise that specifically targets the front delt, a great exercise would be the front raise. You can do this exercise with resistance bands, dumbbells, or any weighted object that you can hold in your hands. Start by holding the weights with your hands at the sides of your body. Slowly raise your arms, keeping them straight, until your hands are close to shoulder level. Then, slowly lower your arms back down to the starting position, keeping your arms straight during this movement as well. This is one full repetition of the front raise.

Lateral Raise

To target the mid delt, you can do an exercise called the lateral raise, which is very similar to the front raise, but instead of raising your arms directly in front of you, you raise your arms to the side. Like the last exercise, you want to maintain a slow and controlled full range of motion, starting by your hips, raising your arms until our hands are close to shoulder level, and bringing them back down to your hips.

Overhead Press

Another great exercise that you can do is the overhead press. You can do this with dumbbells, a barbell, or resistance bands as shown in the images to the right. Start by holding the weights with your elbows bent and your hands by your ears. Slowly raise your arms up, so your hands are above your head and your arm is almost straight. Then, slowly bring your arms back down to the starting position. This is an excellent exercise that targets both the front delt and the mid delt.

Face Pull

Finally, let's talk about the rear delt, which you can train through an exercise called the face pull. This exercise can easily be done with resistance bands, which you can loop around something stable at eye level or close to eye level. Start with your arms straight out in front of you, and slowly pull them back. As you pull, your elbows should bend, and your hands should be moving towards your ears. Try to pull your elbows back so they are in line with your back, or even slightly behind your back. Then, slowly bring your arms back to the starting position. You can also easily do this exercise with a backpack. Place some books or binders inside to add weight, and you can do face pulls just as I am doing in the images above.

Those are some basic shoulder exercises that you can do at home: the front raise, the lateral raise, the overhead press, and the face pull.

Thank you for reading this blog! I hope you learned some new information about shoulder training and will be able to apply these exercises to your own routine. Please like this blog post and share it with others who might like to learn about these exercises!

Video version of Basic Shoulder Exercises: https://youtu.be/csmebvRLOTw