Shoulder exercises for the gym and home

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These are the 15 shoulder exercises in our library. Each one includes the correct technique, the muscles it works and alternatives if you lack the equipment. You can generate a free routine that includes them based on your level and goal.

Muscles you work when training your shoulders

The deltoid has three heads with different functions: anterior (shoulder flexion, heavily involved in presses), lateral (abduction, the one that adds most width) and posterior (horizontal extension, the most neglected). Overhead presses mainly cover the anterior head, so lateral raises and rear-delt work usually need extra dedicated volume.

How to train your shoulders: sets, reps and frequency

For muscle growth, the meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger (2017), covering 15 studies, found a dose-response relationship: more weekly sets per muscle lead to more hypertrophy, and the practical benchmark usually drawn from it is around 10 or more sets a week. Splitting them over two sessions works better than doing them in one (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2016), and light or heavy loads give similar hypertrophy when sets end close to failure (Schoenfeld and colleagues, 2017).

The front delt already works hard on every press, so direct volume is best spent on the side and rear delts, with lateral raises, face pulls and reverse flyes. They tolerate high reps well. If you are starting out, stay at the low end of the sets and build up gradually. We explain it in how many sets per muscle you need.

Which deltoid head each exercise works

Campos and colleagues (2020) used electromyography to measure the three deltoid heads in 13 trained men who did four exercises at 60% of their max:

The shoulder press is the best for the front delt; the lateral raise activates the side delt the most, and the rear delt too; and the bench press barely touches the side and rear heads. Electromyography measures activation during the set, not long-term growth: it helps rank exercises, it is not a verdict.

Blog guides: Shoulders

• Deltoids: the best exercises for each head — The best exercises for all three heads of the deltoid according to science: presses, lateral raises, rear delts and how many sets to do each week.
• Push Pull Legs: the most efficient hypertrophy split — Push pull legs split: how to run it on 3, 5 or 6 days, how often each muscle gets trained, which exercises go in each session and who should choose it.
• Movement patterns: the 5 basics of strength training — The 5 movement patterns of strength training (and the extended 7-pattern version), which exercises belong to each and how to balance your routine.

The 15 shoulder exercises

Compound exercises (7)

Isolation exercises (8)

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