Boulder Shoulders: How to Build Strong Round Shoulders Fast

Strong well-rounded shoulders are not only great for achieving a strong and sculpted physique but they are also essential for all types of athletic/sports movements and daily activities. But whether you want strong round shoulders for sports training or simply for aesthetic reasons, how and what you use to train your delts counts. Below is a list of 4 shoulder training tips guarantee to help you develop fully strong capped” shoulders.

1. Start with compound movements first

Start your workout with a multi-joint compound move such as barbell or dumbbell or overhead press, after you sufficiently warm up your shoulders. These types of movements not only stimulate all three heads of the shoulders sufficiently for greater overall development but they also allow to use heavy weights at the beginning of your workout to overload your shoulders muscles for maximum strength. Choose one or two compound moves such Barbell overhead press or dumbbell overhead press and select the proper weight to start your shoulder workout. Go heavy with a resistance that causes muscle failure at six or fewer reps to focus on strength, and go just a little lighter to target optimal muscle-building, which occurs when you reach muscle failure within the 8-12-rep range.

2. Add isolation movements second

Add single-joint moves after your heavy compound exercises to hit each of the three delt heads individually for optimal development. Single-joint exercises eliminate assisting muscle groups, so here’s where you can focus on each delt head thoroughly. Perform at least one exercise for each head. Do two sets of 6-8 reps to build strength if that is your goal, then two sets of 12-15 reps to pump the muscle and improve muscle separation. Otherwise, train toward the upper end of the muscle-building rep range by choosing a weight with which you can do 10-12 reps per set to hit the muscle fibers properly.

3. Build in variety

Variety is important in your workout to keep the mind fresh and to keep the muscle from adapting to a particular workout. If you do the same thing over and over again, your body becomes accustomed to it and muscle growth stagnates. Add variety to increase the intensity of your workout and shock the muscle in a new way by changing one or more variable(s). For example, vary exercises (cables and dumbbells), their order, the number of repetitions (in relation to the weight) and intensity techniques (such as drop sets) to take a muscle past failure.

4. Work all heads equally

The key to strong rounded shoulders is balance and equal development in all three heads. Muscle imbalance can result in muscle and joint injuries. Include an exercise that targets each of the three delts in your routine. And always focus on your weakest delt first. If your rear delts are lagging, by all means, move a rear-delt move up in your workout or rotate the order in which you train them from one workout to the next to give each delt its due for nice full delts.

The Workout

Use these two workout routines as a part of your workout program. Train shoulders twice a week using workout A on day 1 and workout B on day 2, after 2-3 day rest in between. Workout A has you doing as few as six reps for your compound moves and workout B 10-12 reps, so you’ll grow not only stronger but bigger as well. Then we add single-joint moves to thoroughly work the delt heads in an effort to completely fatigue them and deliver a significant muscle pump. Furthermore, variety has been built in to keep your muscles growing. You will train shoulders a bit differently each time changing from workout to workout to ensure that your shoulders get worked from somewhat different angles. Exercise alternatives are incorporated every other workout. For example, after doing dumbbell the first day on workout A, you’ll switch to the smith machine overhead presses version next time on workout B.