Written by Sam Coleman | Co-founder
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
While the barbell is great for strength gains, dumbbells are all you need for a brutal, hypertrophy-inducing, mass-building shoulder workout.
In fact, if you're not training your shoulders using dumbbells, your delts are missing out on some serious benefits, including exercise and grip variety, muscle gains, and improved mobility and stability.
We're about to get into the 6 best dumbbell shoulder exercises, along with a full muscle-building dumbbell shoulder workout, so you can build the bolder shoulders of your dreams.
Table of Contents:
- Best Dumbbell Shoulder Workout
- Shoulder Muscle Anatomy
- Best Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises
- Shoulder Warm Up Routine
- Benefits of Shoulder Training
The Ultimate Dumbbell Shoulder Workout
First, thing first: Let's discuss the workout. After, I'll include some programming tips and walk you through how to perform each shoulder exercise included in this routine.
For this dumbbell shoulder program, you will perform 3 supersets, which just means you perform the two exercises back to back without rest. Aim for around 90-120 seconds rest between supersets/exercises. If you need more rest, take it. Although it may tempting to take less, taking sufficient recovery time between sets will allow you to use the same load throughout the 3 supersets.
When training your shoulders with dumbbells, it’s better to increase your stability so you’ll drive more engagement to the shoulder and less to the stabilizing muscles that hold you upright. This means that for most of these exercises, you’ll be seated, like the seated shoulder press, or holding on to something stable, so you’ll be able to use more weight and drive more tension to the shoulder.
Where you can, slow down the eccentric (downward motion) to create more muscle-building tension.
Shoulder Workout With Dumbbells
You can perform this workout once or twice a week. Remember to rest 90-120 seconds between each superset.
Superset 1:
- Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Raise: 3x8-15 reps
- Leaning Away Lateral Raise: 3x12-15 reps/side
Superset 2:
- Arnold Press: 3 sets x 8-15 reps
- Stability Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise: 3 sets x 12-15 reps/side
Superset 3:
- Push Press: 3 sets x 8-12 reps
- Dumbbell Pullover: 3 sets x 8-15 reps
Looking for an easy way to save this workout for later? Screenshot the image below on your phone, and you've got an easy way to reference it when you hit the gym!
About This Workout & Programming Tips
It's important to note that the primary focus of this program is not to build strength, as dumbbells are generally not the best tool for strength, except for beginners. Beginners can build up a very solid strength foundation with dumbbells alone. However, as you become more advanced, it'll be important to work in heavy low-rep presses with barbells to increase your maximal strength.
The key things to know about this dumbbell shoulder workout are:
- Focuses on muscle hypertrophy.
- Uses moderate to heavy loads (75-85% 1RM).
- Incorporates moderate sets (between 2 and 4).
- Sticks with rep ranges between 8 and 15 (or more).
- Utilizes supersets to seriously fatigue the muscles.
- Hits the delts from a wide range of angles to fully develop them.
- Incorporates moderate rest between sets (90-120 seconds)
The exercises in the workout above include some compound movements and a few isolation exercises, which are optimal for shoulder hypertrophy.
Anatomy of the Deltoids
The deltoids are large triangular-shaped muscles made up of three heads, the anterior (aka front), middle (aka lateral), and posterior deltoids (aka rear delts). The delts lie over the shoulder joint, which gives your shoulder muscles that boulder shoulder look that almost all lifters desire.
Shoulder Functions & Movements
The shoulder is a shallow ball and socket joint that can move in multiple directions and requires a lot of muscles and mobility to make this all happen. This is why it’s important to strengthen the deltoids from all angles for better shoulder stability.
Here are the main movements for the deltoid with the muscles involved:
| Shoulder Movement | Deltoid Muscle | Exercise Example |
| Shoulder Extension | Posterior | Dumbbell Pullover |
| Shoulder Flexion | Anterior | Front Raise |
| Shoulder Abduction | Middle | Lateral Raise |
| Shoulder Adduction | Posterior | Chin Up |
| Shoulder Horizontal Abduction | Middle & Posterior | Bent-Over Reverse Fly |
| Circumduction | All Three | CARS (Controlled Articular Rotations) |
The Best Dumbbell Exercises For Shoulders
You've got your workout. Now, let's go over the six dumbbell shoulder exercises involved, so you can perform them correctly.
You'll notice we've included multiple overhead press variations on our list, as research shows that using dumbbell overhead press variations does a great job activating your delts, particularly the front shoulders1.
The 6 best dumbbell shoulder exercises are:
- Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raise
- Dumbbell Push Press
- Arnold Press
- One Arm Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raise
- Dumbbell Pullover
Let's go over each.
1. Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press:
The seated dumbbell shoulder press is an essential exercise in our shoulder workout routine. The dumbbell shoulder press can be performed either seated or standing but performing them seated isolates the shoulders more, eliminating any chance of cheating your delts by using your legs for momentum.
This exercise is varied by changing the angle (wide for more shoulder), narrow (more anterior deltoid and triceps), grip width, and even rotation. All options are good, but it depends what other exercises you are doing in your workout. You can learn more about this exercise in our article comparing the Arnold press vs shoulder press.
For the purpose of this workout, we want to use a standard to wide angle. The beauty of all overhead presses is they train all 3 of the deltoids. Yes, even the rear because the posterior deltoid stabilizes the weight when you’re overhead.
How to do Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Presses:
- Clean the dumbbell so they are sitting on your shoulders and sit upright on an incline bench.
- Puff your chest out, brace your core, and find your preferred pressing angle.
- Then press both dumbbells overhead until your elbows lock out.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells back down to your shoulders and reset and repeat.
2. Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises:
The dumbbell lateral raise with a lean gives you increased stability and range of motion as the distance your arm has to travel to perform the lateral raise is further. This greater range of motion with a strong contraction of the lateral deltoid leads to more tension and more gains than the standing or sitting variation.
Performing lateral raises unilaterally helps decrease strength imbalances between sides too. In addition, studies show that when compared to other exercises like the bench press and dumbbell fly, lateral raises have a higher level of muscle activation in your front and side delts2.
How to do leaning DB Lateral Raises:
- Hold a power rack or a pole with one hand and bring your feet close to the rack.
- With the dumbbell resting on your outer thigh, raise the dumbbell away until you feel a strong contraction in your lateral deltoid.
- Slowly lower down and repeat for reps.
- Then repeat on the other side.
3. Dumbbell Push Press:
The dumbbell push press uses a lower-body dip, think quarter squat to push the dumbbells overhead. Push presses use the triple extension of the ankles, knees, and hips, which closely mimics what happens on the sporting field.
The lower body dip allows you to potentially press more weight overhead too. More weight=more muscle. If you are an athlete, you are killing two birds with one stone - bigger shoulders and more overall bodily power. As with most overhead pressing variations, this trains all 3 deltoids.
How to do Dumbbell Push Presses:
- With your feet shoulder width apart, clean two dumbbells to the top of your shoulders and assume an upright torso.
- Dip down 4-6 inches, knees over toes using your legs to press the dumbbells overhead.
- The dip to press is one seamless movement, not two separate ones.
- Lockout the dumbbells overhead and slowly lower dumbbells and reset and repeat.
4. Arnold Press:
The dumbbell Arnold press is named after the great man Arnold Schwarzenegger (check out his training split if you want to train like him). With the rotational nature and the large range of motion, this exercise increases time under tension for all three of the deltoid heads.
Because your pressing in multiple planes of motion this will target more deltoid muscle fibers. And when performed for higher reps it is an absolute shoulder burner.
How to perform Arnold Presses:
- In a seated position on an upright incline bench, kick dumbbells up and rotate your hand until your palms are facing your shoulders.
- In one motion, press the dumbbells and rotate your palms to face forward.
- Lift until your biceps are by or behind your ears.
- Pause and reverse the move slowly and reset and repeat.
5. One Arm Bent Over Dumbbell Rear Delt Raise:
The stability one arm bent-over rear delt raise (aka reverse fly) is a great rear delt exercise, in addition to hitting the muscles of the upper back.
With the increased stability of holding the squat rack, you’ll be able to potentially use more weight and strengthen muscles imbalances between sides for better muscle This is a win-win for your shoulders and upper back.
The video below doesn't use a bench for stability, but you'll be able to see the range of motion you should be using.
How to perform the Stability One Arm Bent Over Rear Delt Raise:
- Stand side on to a squat rack or something solid holding a dumbbell in the opposite hand.
- Hold the squat rack and hinge at the hips keeping your shoulders down and chest up.
- With a light bend in the working elbow, perform a rear delt raise until you feel a contraction in your upper back and shoulder.
- Return to the starting position and repeat.
- Perform the same sequence on the other side.
6. Dumbbell Pullover:
The dumbbell pullover does train the chest, lats, and serratus anterior. But by virtue of training the upper back and lats, it trains the posterior deltoid too via shoulder extension and the anterior deltoid via shoulder flexion.
When the dumbbell pullover is performed correctly it takes your upper body through a large range of motion, giving you more muscle-building potential. This is an old-school body-building move that hits a lot of buttons.
How to do Dumbbell Pullovers:
- Lying perpendicular on a flat bench, upper body on the bench, and holding a dumbbell in both hands above your chest.
- Get your lower body in the hip extension position.
- Engage your glutes to keep your lower back neutral.
- Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, let the dumbbell drift backward behind your head until you feel a stretch in your pecs and lats.
- Once the dumbbell is behind your head, pull the dumbbell back over your chest.
- Pause for a second and reset and repeat for reps.
Shoulder Exercises With Dumbbells: Honorable Mentions
We just highlighted the best of the best when it comes to the ideal exercises for your dumbbell shoulder workout. But, there are many other awesome dumbbell shoulder exercises out there. Once you run the workout above for 8-12 weeks, you can even follow the same format, but use some different exercises in place of the ones there now.
Additional muscle-building dumbbell shoulder exercises include:
- Kneeling Shoulder Press
- Internal & External Dumbbell Shoulder Rotation
- Dumbbell Front Raise
- Dumbbell Lateral to Front Raise
- Dumbbell Halo
- Dumbbell Upright Row
Interested in adding the front raise to your routine? Check out our Front Raise Exercise Guide!
How to Warm Up The Shoulders before working out
It’s always important to get the blood moving through your shoulder region to prepare it for training and to prevent injury. Doing so moves the blood from your abdomen area to your shoulders to lubricate the shoulder joint and to access your shoulder’s mobility.
Just doing a few shoulder circles is not enough. Better to throw in a few low intensity shoulder exercises which target the shoulder area to prepare the shoulder joint for action. Although there are lots of moves, here are several good ones that get the shoulders ready to roll.
Dumbbell Shoulder Workout Warm Up Routine
Do about 5-10 reps for each (both sides/directions where it applies)...
1) Spiderman With Rotation:
2) TRX I-Y-T:
3) Arm Circles:
4) Push Ups:
Benefits Of Training The Shoulders
Besides the obvious vanity benefits of a rippling set of 3D shoulders, there are important performance and health benefits of having strong and muscular shoulders.
The 4 benefits of training your shoulders with dumbbells are:
- Improves your posture.
- Leads to Better Shoulder Stability.
- Improves Your Athletic Performance.
- Increases Your Ability To Perform Other Compound Lifts.
1) Improved Posture:
Strengthening the shoulders helps improve your posture and helps stop the dreaded ape-like posture that comes from sitting too much and playing with your phone.
Looking for a great way to strengthen them while improving joint range of motion? Give the dead hang a go!
2) Better Shoulder Stability/Injury Resilience:
The shoulder joint is a shallow ball and socket joint, which is great for mobility, but this comes with a high risk of injury.
The stability part of this equation is up to you. Strengthening the muscles around the shoulder joint will improve shoulder stability and reduce your injury risk.
3) Improved Performance:
The shoulders play a role important in exercises such as vertical and horizontal presses and rows and chin-ups and pull-ups. In some exercises, they are the secondary muscles allowing the primary muscles to do their job.
Wouldn’t be a shame if your shoulders gave out before maximizing your chest and back gains? Improving your shoulder strength will help improve your performance in sports and life too. After all, you are only as strong as your weakest link.
4) Better Big 3:
You need a lot of shoulder mobility to perform the squat, deadlift, and bench, but this needs to match by shoulder stability also. Balanced shoulder training that focuses on all three deltoids will improve your shoulder stability and improve your performance with the big 3 too.
Continue Progressing Your Shoulder Workouts With Dumbbells
If you're ready for some variety after performing this routine for 8 to 12 weeks, try pairing your shoulders with a large muscle group and following a strength and hypertrophy-based circuit routine.
You can do this by following a split that has a back and shoulder workout, or even by combining your biceps, triceps, and shoulders into one killer arm routine. You've got plenty of great options, so pick one and grab those dumbbells!
Interested in more great shoulder routines? Check out our Back And Shoulders Workout or this Ultimate Shoulder Workout Routine! You can also give your entire arm some extra attention with these Dumbbell Arm Exercises.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
References:
- Dicus JR, Holmstrup ME, Shuler KT, Rice TT, Raybuck SD, Siddons CA. Stability of Resistance Training Implement alters EMG Activity during the Overhead Press. International Journal of Exercise Science. 2018;11(1):708-716. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29997723/
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Campos YAC, Vianna JM, Guimarães MP, et al. Different Shoulder Exercises Affect the Activation of Deltoid Portions in Resistance-Trained Individuals. Journal of Human Kinetics. 2020;75(1):5-14. doi:https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2020-0033
Sam Coleman
Author