Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Sam Coleman, Co-Founder
FACT CHECKED
Want to build some boulder shoulders? Need to cap your delts? Obviously, that is why you need to train your shoulders the right way!
The shoulder muscles are unique in that they control arm movements in multiple directions, thanks to the three different muscle heads: front, middle, and rear delts. These heads can work together or individually, depending on the movement. Additionally, the shoulder joint's ability to move in various directions adds complexity when deciding which exercises and how many to incorporate into your routine.
We'll break it all down in this article and tell you exactly how many exercises you should use to train the shoulders weekly.
Anatomy And Function Of The Shoulder Joint
The shoulder may be the most complicated joint in the human body. There is so much going on that it would take much longer than this article to fully explain it.
First, the "shoulder" refers to the area around the "shoulder" joint. When talking about the shoulder joint, there are several structures involved. These include:
- Scapula
- Rotator cuff
- Humerus
The shoulder joint is classified as a synovial ball-and-socket joint. A synovial joint is a fibrous capsule connecting bones or cartilage and extending continuously with the periosteum, or outside, of the joined bones. This capsule forms the outer boundary of the synovial cavity and is filled with synovial fluid.
A ball-and-socket joint is exactly what it sounds like. A ball-like structure of a bone fits into a cup-like section of another bone. The ball-like joint is the humerus in the shoulder joint, which sits in the cup-like portion of the scapula.
Combined, this structure gives the shoulder a large degree of freedom of movement. In fact, it is the most mobile joint in the human body. As such, it requires many muscles to support all of its functions.
The Shoulder Muscles
Multiple muscles help manipulate the arm and provide stabilization. Here are just a few of the muscles involved in the shoulder joint.
- Teres major
- Teres minor
- Supraspinatus
- Infraspinatus
- Subscapularis
With that said, when people talk about the "shoulder muscles," they are talking about your deltoids. The deltoids, or "delts" for short, comprise three different muscle heads on the shoulder joint.
The three shoulder deltoids are as follows;
- Anterior delt (Front delt)
- Lateral delt (Middle delt)
- Posterior delt (Rear delt)
While all three muscle heads have their own unique function when contracted independently, they work together for their primary function. When they contract together, the shoulder muscle extends overhead, reaching the arms.
Front Delt
The anterior delt sits on the front of the shoulder. It works in conjunction with the pectorals to flex the shoulder.
When looking at the shoulders, most people have well-trained front delts simply due to the amount of pressing movements we do. The bench press and push ups are the most popular exercises in the gym, and they both thoroughly train the front delts. Studies show they get high activation from these movements and even more during incline bench presses1.
Middle Delt
The lateral delt sits on the outside of the shoulder. Its function is to perform shoulder abduction when the shoulder is internally rotated and shoulder transverse abduction when the shoulder is externally rotated.
The lateral delts are somewhat unique as they don't get as much indirect training as the front and rear delts. At the same time, they're responsible for giving you that "capped" look as a set of developed lateral delts will protrude outward.
Rear Delt
The rear delts sit on the back of the shoulder and work with lats to perform shoulder extension. In fact, the rear delts are used extensively for many different pulling movements, meaning they get a lot of work from people who don't specifically train them.
Preface: How Many Exercises For Shoulders Per Week?
I'm unable to answer this question accurately without a bit of a preface, so let me start with that...
The shoulders are a bit unique when prescribing a specific number of exercises due to their many movements. For example, while the chest has two different heads that always work together during movements, the shoulder muscles can be more selective. Some exercises target specific heads of the deltoid, leaving others out.
To make things more complicated, as mentioned, the shoulders are involved in virtually every upper body movement. They control the arms, meaning every time your arms move, your shoulders are working. All pressing movements engage the front delts, while pulling movements target the rear delts.
With that in mind, when we prescribe exercises for the shoulders and discuss how many to perform, we are referring to shoulder-specific exercises (as specific as they can be, since multiple muscles are always involved). If it doesn't sound like much, that's because your shoulders are already being worked through a variety of upper body movements beyond just your focused exercises.
Finally, the question is better answered in terms of sets per week, which will make sense as you continue reading.
How Many Sets Per Week for Shoulders?
The general recommendation is 20 working sets per week for each muscle group.
For the shoulders, that means 20 working sets in total, targeting all three heads of the deltoid (front, middle, and rear).
These sets should be spread across exercises that engage the various deltoid heads.
You can break these 20 sets into two sessions, performing 10 working sets in each session for more balanced recovery and performance.
How Many Exercises for Shoulders Per Week?
To effectively target all three heads of the deltoid, aim for 5-7 exercises, totaling at least 20 working sets per week.
These exercises should cover the front, middle, and rear delts to ensure balanced development.
Weekly Breakdown of Exercises:
- Total Shoulder Exercises (Overhead Pressing): 1 exercise
- Front Delts: 1 exercise
- Middle Delts: 2 exercises
- Rear Delts: 1-2 exercises
Explanation:
- As mentioned earlier, the anterior delts are generally well-developed in most people, and they may not always require isolation exercises. However, this can vary depending on the individual.
- The rear delts, while involved in many movements, often need additional focus because they can be overshadowed by larger back muscles.
- And of course, most people tend to pay special attention to their lateral delts. The middle delts need more love as they aren't as involved in other movements of the upper body like the front and rear delts are. So, you'll see some extra emphasis here.
Best Exercises
Below are a few exercises and a breakdown that fit the above recommendation.
Keep in mind, when training shoulders, it's important to manage the overall load, which will dictate how many exercises you can perform effectively. You will want to start with the bigger exercises. So we will go in order of the exercises you should be prioritizing earlier in your workouts.
1. Overhead Pressing
Overhead pressing is an obvious movement, and there are many options. However, we want to bring special attention to the push press. The push press is ultimately a power movement and utilizes a quick dip followed by powerful hip extension to help propel the barbell overhead. Doing so allows more weight to be pushed, which must be stabilized at the top of the movement. At the same time, you will still need to use control during the eccentric portion.
Other movements include:
- Military press
- Dumbbell press (seated or standing)
- Z-Press
- Arnold Press
Your weekly session should include at least 1 overhead pressing movement. Think about this like your "total shoulder" exercise. This will be your heaviest exercise and used to increase strength and overall mass.
During the week, you only need 1 or 2 exercises. However, if you do 2, consider the push press, as even though the mechanics are still similar, it trains a different system.
Assuming you're doing some bench press or pushups, your overhead pressing will be sufficient for your front delts.
2. Middle Delt Exercises
The lateral delts are used during overhead pressing movements, especially dumbbell pressing2.
However, and as mentioned, the lateral delt should get some extra love.
Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of options to train it optimally.
Our favorite is the cable lateral raise, as it allows constant tension across a greater range of motion. Another choice can be an upright row using a rope attachment. These are two great options for muscle growth. In any case, you want to include some upright rows and lateral raises with a variety of equipment (dumbbells, bands, cable machine, shoulder lateral raise machine).
Aim for 2-3 exercises. Regarding weekly sets, you can aim anywhere from 6-12 sets.
3. Rear Delt Exercises
Now, it is true that the rear delt gets hit indirectly due to its role in pulling the arm back with shoulder extension. However, you need to use some specific exercises and correct form to get it to grow. Remember that the shoulder is a complex joint with a lot going on. As such, slightly altering the biomechanics can alter the muscles being used.
We recommend at least 1 exercise per week for rear delt isolation, but 2 exercises with 6-8 sets is ideal.
The face pull is one of our favorite rear delt exercises. It trains the entire upper back and rear delts and improves overall shoulder stability. However, there may be a better way to perform it to isolate the rear delts more.When you perform them standing, your traps will be heavily involved as they're your body's primary posture muscle. Therefore, to limit the involvement of the traps, face pulls are performed while lying down.
Other exercises include:
- Rear delt fly
- High barbell row
- Reverse cable fly
When performing reverse flys, due so with a neutral grip to further isolate the rear delts3.
Related: 3 Shoulder Exercises Your Routine MUST Include
Example Of Weekly Shoulder Training
We're now going to run through how this might play out. Instead of blindly saying "Do these 5 exercises,” we would like to walk through how we would arrive at the answer.
We start with the minimum. As mentioned, you get a lot of shoulder training with other movements. Everyone should have at least one overhead pressing movement. In fact, this could be the only shoulder-specific movement some may need.
Now, since we are going to choose more, we're going to choose two.
The first will be a push press, which is due to the power and eccentric overload we mentioned earlier. Our second pick would be the dumbbell shoulder press. This takes care of a unilateral movement, which will cause more activation growth and may be better for muscle hypertrophy.
- Barbell Push Press
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
The next major movement you need is at least one lateral movement. The most obvious choice is the cable lateral raise.
- Barbell Push Press
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Cable Lateral Raise
However, if you want to concentrate on the lateral delts, add an upright row. The other choice is to just add more sets of lateral raises.
- Barbell Push Press
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Cable Lateral Raise
- Upright Row (Optional)
The last part is to use at least one exercise to isolate the rear delts.
- Barbell Push Press
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Cable Lateral Raise
- Upright Row (Optional)
- Face Pull (On the floor) Reverse Fly Or Both
You could add one more exercise: the farmer's carry. This exercise requires your shoulders to not only hold the weight but also hold the weight away from the body so it doesn't hit your legs. It could be a great addition to your weekly training.
Now, if we were to divide these exercises up, we would do the farmer carry-on back day and then split the shoulder exercise across two sessions.
Session 1:
- Barbell Push Press
- Lateral Raise
- Face Pulls
Session 2:
- Farmer Carry
Session 3:
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Upright Row
- Reverse Flies
Take our Workout Quiz to find the right program for you!
Training The Shoulders: Final Say
Training the shoulders can be a little weird as they’re used in every upper body movement. Further, many people perceive them as being small and may even group them with training arms. The truth is the shoulders are an essential muscle and training them should be one of your priorities.
In terms of how many exercises, this will vary depending on the person. Minimalists may only use one while bodybuilders may use 2 or 3 for the lateral delts alone. Regardless, this article laid out the general guidelines that you can use to build your own shoulder training.
Related:
References:
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274010566_Influence_of_bench_angle_on_upper_extremity_muscular_activation_during_bench_press_exercise
- Saeterbakken, A. H., & Fimland, M. S. (2013). Effects of Body Position and Loading Modality on Muscle Activity and Strength in Shoulder Presses. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(7), 1824–1831. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0b013e318276b873
- Schoenfeld, B., Sonmez, R. G. T., Kolber, M. J., Contreras, B., Harris, R., & Ozen, S. (2013). Effect of Hand Position on EMG Activity of the Posterior Shoulder Musculature During a Horizontal Abduction Exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(10), 2644–2649. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0b013e318281e1e9
Garett Reid
Author