The Best Shoulder Workout Routine

In this article, I’m going to show you the best shoulder workout routine to build strong, sculpted, and defined shoulders.

But firstly, let’s talk about why it’s important to build your shoulders.

Most people think that the “secret” to getting strong and sculpted arms is to do an endless amount of biceps and triceps exercises.

While yes, that can help, these aren’t the muscles that are going to make your physique really pop.

(Think about the size of the shoulders versus the biceps and triceps. The bigger the muscle, the more real estate space it’s going to take up on your arm.)

Let’s take a trip to good ol’ Google…

If we searched “fit woman” and “fit man”, what do we find?

Take a look at every single physique.

Let’s ignore all the crazy abs and just focus on the arms. Here’s the thing most people glance over…the shoulders.

They all have round, sculpted shoulders. And when you possess this, it does three things for your physique:

1. Makes you appear more commanding and powerful
2. Gives your waist a slimmer appearance by comparison
3. When trained properly, it strengthens all of the musculature around your shoulder joint for stronger and pain free shoulders
4. (BONUS) Most people don’t know how to properly train to build their shoulders so you’re going to stand out and get a bunch of compliments 😉

So now you know why it’s important, let’s go over the how.

We’re are going to break it all down so be sure to read through it all. You can expect to learn:

• Anatomy & Physiology Breakdown Of The Shoulder Muscles
• Why You Need To STOP Doing Your Shoulder Exercise This Way…
• Exercises And Movements To Target Specific Shoulder Muscles
• What A Sample Workout Looks Like

So without further ado, let’s dive in.

Anatomy & Physiology Behind The Best Shoulder Workout Routine

As you can see, there are a ton of muscles that support and assist the shoulder joint.

However, we don’t really need to pay too much attention to this because if you’re following a properly programmed shoulder workout routine (like the one I’m going to show you in this article 😏), you’re going to be strengthening all of these muscles all while improving your physique.

Function and aesthetics. How’s that for efficiency?

But really, the primary muscle you need to concern yourself with when building sculpted shoulders is the deltoid or “delts” as may have heard it be called.

The deltoid is then further separated into 3 “heads” or sections that all perform different functions and movements.

When you get full development of all three sections, this is what gives your shoulders the “capped”, round, or full look.

Now that you know what they look like, let’s talk about what they do to get a better understanding of how we can program to work them.

The Best Shoulder Workout Routine – Why You Need To STOP Doing Your Shoulder Exercises This Way…

But before we dive into this, I wanted to take a quick detour to introduce the concept of the “scapular plane.”

This is important because doing a lot of shoulder exercises in this plane of movement is going to save you a lot of time, effort, and pain for overall shoulder development and health.

What Is The Scapular Plane And Why Is It Important?

The scapular plane, for most people, is the plane of about 30-45 degrees of shoulder abduction.

So think about bringing your arms out directly to your side, the scapular plane should be about where if you were to bring your arms 30-45 degrees in front of you.

This is important because this plane of movement is where you get the most amount of authentic movement between your humerus (upper arm bone) and your scapula (shoulder blade) without excessive stress on the soft tissue like your tendons, ligaments, etc.

It also allows you to line up your exercise resistance better.

So more gains and fewer pains? It’s pretty obvious.

So STOP doing your shoulder press like this…

And start doing them like this.

Do this and I promise that your shoulders will thank you for all the gains they’re going to get and how much better you’ll be able to move 🙂

Anterior/Front Deltoid

Contrary to what a lot of people say…you should and do need to work your front delts to the same degree as any other muscle in your body.

Just because you’re doing a lot of bench pressing and shoulder press (which a lot of people do incorrectly for proper shoulder development), it does not mean you can neglect your front delts.

Besides, this muscle is going to give you biggest first impression when people look at you from the front.

So let’s talk about what function the front delts do.

Their main function is going to be shoulder flexion or the movement pictured above.

To best target the front delts, you want to use a combination of pressing and raises.

Exercises To Target The Anterior/Front Deltoid

Points of Performance:

• Set high incline 45ish degrees
• Press while in scapular plane
• Push up and back, path of dumbbells should be an “arc motion”
• Keep wrists and elbows stacked (directly in line over each other)

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Points of Performance:

• Palms facing inward
• Have arms about 45 degrees away from body
• Think about squeezing your head with your biceps
• Don’t twist shoulders or wrists

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-15

Points of Performance

• Neutral grip with *slight* internal rotation
• Use a weight that you can pause at the top

Sets: 2-4

Reps – 12-15

And that’s it for your front delts. Now, let’s move on.

Medial/Middle Deltoid

Moving on to the next section, the medial/middle delt.

Developing this muscle is what gives it your shoulders the most “roundness” or sculpt? Sculptness? Sculptedness? Anyways, you know what I’m trying to say…

This is because this muscle extends out directly to the side.

This middle delt is primarily involved in shoulder abduction or raising it out to the sides.

It looks something like this.

Spoiler alert: Lateral raises are pretty much going to be the best and only movements to efficiently and effectively train your medial delts. There aren’t going to be any new or revolutionary exercises in this article.

The tried and true basics are still what works. The only thing I’m going to be incorporating is proper biomechanical setup and execution to help you do things optimally and efficiently.

However, if we take a look at this picture again…

We can see that the muscle fibers of the medial delt don’t run directly out to the side. They run slightly out in front. This means that we again don’t want to perform our lateral raise movements directly to the side like this…

Instead, we’re going to be doing them in the scapular plane again for…you guessed it, more gains and fewer pains.

Exercises To Target The Medial/Middle Deltoid

Points of Performance

• Stand far back enough so the cables don’t run into you when performing movement
• Start with arms slightly in front of you
• Push hands up and back towards back corners of wall

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-15

Points of Performance

• Set cables to low setting
• Lean slightly forward with arm slightly out in front working in scapular plane
• Push hand “out” rather than “up”

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-15

Points of Performance

• Work in scapular plane, lean slightly forward and have hands slightly out in front to accommodate this
• Think about pushing hands “out” rather than “up”
• Pause at top to load short position

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 10-15

Posterior/Rear Delt

Now, I won’t go into too much detail about my reasoning behind my exercise setup and execution for rear delts because I’ve already got into extension detail in my other article The Best Exercises To Build A Strong And Defined Back.

But simply put, this is the rear delt’s main function: shoulder extension.

Exercises To Target The Posterior/Rear Delt

Points of Performance

• Arms out to side where you can drive your elbows back the farthest (for most people, this is about 45 degrees)
• Bench angle where you can drive your elbows back without gravity pulling the dumbbells too much towards your legs
• Focus on drive your elbows back hard

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

Rear Delt Cable Pulls (Mid)

Points of Performance

• Arm path should be about 45 degrees away from body
• Set cable height to accommodate arm path (cable should stay in line with arm the entire time)
• Keep elbows locked
• Drive elbows back as far as you can

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

Rear Delt Cable Pulls (Lengthened)

Points of Performance

• Reach for the opposite ear
• Maintain that arm angle and drive elbows back
• Keep torso stable to prevent twisting

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

The Best Shoulder Workout Routine – Putting It All Together

Now, after knowing all of this, here’s how I would put a sample shoulder day together.

Personally, I like to put rear delt work along with my back days because all of the rear delt movements involve “pulling” and other back muscles. However, you can totally throw rear delts into your “push” and shoulder days if you want to. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Sample Shoulder Day With Rear Delts:

1. DB Shoulder Press – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
2. Cable Lateral Raises – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
3. Rear Delt Cable Pulls – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
4. Triceps Isolation Work – 3 sets of 8-15 reps

Sample Shoulder Day Without Rear Delts:

1. Dumbbell Front Raise – 3 sets of 12-15 reps
2. Cable Front Raise – 3 sets of 8-15 reps
3. Cable Y Raise – 3 sets of 8-15 reps
4. Dumbbell Lateral Raise – 3 sets of 10-15 reps
5. Triceps Isolation Work – 3 sets of 8-15 reps

The Best Shoulder Workout Routine – Final Thoughts

Aaaaand that’s it!

You might see the workouts I’ve written above and go, “Wow, that’s it? That doesn’t seem like much…”

But I promise you, these workouts will work as long as you do.

When you bring proper intensity to your sessions, you don’t need to be doing 20+ sets per workout. In fact, it’s actually counterproductive and can hinder your progress as explained in my other article, How Many Sets And Reps To Build Muscle And Lose Fat.

Anyways, thank you so much for making it through this article. Give these workouts a try and let me know how they go or if you have any questions or comments for me (seriously, here’s my email).

And if after you’re reading this, you’re like, “Austin, this was a lot. I’d rather you show and tell me exactly what to do.” Then it sounds like you might be a good fit for my online coaching program.

Hope this helps and please do not hesitate to reach out!

Until next time,

-Aus