Dumbbell exercises have always been doing their duty towards the shoulders, they are effective classic exercises and do not require machines or even going to the gym to train the shoulder muscles, and they have proven effective with many and many people have managed to get strong and stable shoulder muscles, but this only happens if you do Doing things the right way.
That’s why in this post you will get your comprehensive guide to dumbbell exercises that will help you hit all the heads of the shoulder and make your muscles gain a three-dimensional appearance and be more coordinated.
You will also learn how to do them, the mistakes that you should avoid and the muscles you target, the benefits and even some variables Which you can rely heavily on to train the shoulder muscles in different and more challenging ways.
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How do I hit all the heads with dumbbell shoulder exercises?
When it comes to hitting the heads of the shoulder, we must first understand the anatomy of the shoulder muscles. The shoulder consists of three deltoids (front, middle, and rear) and there are a few shoulder exercises that target the deltoids together, such as the overhead press. It is a compound exercise.
The lateral raise is also effective in targeting the middle and front deltoid, so the only way that you should take to target all the heads is to do compound exercises that target a group of muscles, as well as doing isolation exercises that target one or two deltoids together, such as the front raise exercise.
This is what we will discover in detail. Follow me to learn about some exercises.
What shoulder workouts should I do with dumbbells?
There are several dumbbell exercises for the shoulder, and most of them are effective in operating muscle fibers and stimulating them to grow.
Dumbbells may sometimes outperform many expensive machines and equipment, so that the fists on the dumbbells play an important role in targeting the muscles in different ways.
So in order to get massive, well-isolated delts, you only need 4 types of dumbbell exercises to achieve this goal.
1- Front raises
Anything you lift in front of you with straight arms, whether with dumbbells or plates, it works the front deltoids and the front lift with a straight arm is an isolation exercise for the front deltoid and it also works other muscles, but secondary, so this is the first type of exercise that you must rely on.
The best exercise is dumbbell front raise, which we will learn about in detail below.
2- Lateral raises
Lateral raises are also one of the strongest shoulder exercises, so when you do side raises with straight arms, you primarily target the lateral delts.
It is an isolation exercise for the posterior deltoids and switching grips from reverse to neutral to the rotation of the shoulder and helps in tearing the fibers well and stimulating the muscles to grow, so this is another type that you should rely on to target the delts.
Among the best exercises that target the hind delts, there is the dumbbell lateral raises exercise, which we have already talked about, but we will go into its details shortly.
3- Rear lateral raises (Dumbbell Fly)
The rear lateral raises are the loop that makes you target the back deltoids and you have completed targeting all the deltoids, so whenever you raise your arms straight to the back sides, you target the back deltoids, and this is the only effective way to isolate the back deltoids with dumbbells.
The dumbbell exercise for rear lateral raises is one of the most powerful isolation exercises for the posterior deltoids so that it works on them and puts pressure on them and stimulates them to grow. This is what we will discover later.
4- Compound lifts
Compound exercises may be the secret behind building harmonious and strong muscles, so you can never ignore compound exercises, because compound exercises target almost all the deltoids and the body and muscles change with greater effort, and this helps to increase muscle mass and stimulate it to grow naturally.
So you can rely on a compound exercise that targets a group of upper body muscles, including the shoulder muscles. This will greatly benefit the muscles and will work well with you. We will also learn about that shortly.
The only 4 exercises you need to build 3D delts
These four exercises are very sufficient to help you build shoulder muscles and target all heads in a safe and effective manner. These exercises are provided by specialized trainers, and there is evidence from experts that support the effectiveness of each exercise with the deltoid that it targets.
Dumbbell Front Raise
The front raises is the most common exercise that engages the front delts, and this has been proven by experts and experiments, and this is what makes it very popular in fitness halls, so that many bodybuilders rely on it.
The front raise with a straight arm helps isolate the front deltoid and keep it under pressure throughout the exercise, and helps increase size and muscle mass.
Utility : Auxiliary
Mechanics : Isolated
Force : Push
Dumbbell front raise Muscle worked:
Target : Anterior Delts
Synergists : Pecs major, lateral delts, Traps (middle, lower), Serratus anterior
How to do a dumbbell front raise correctly:
- Choose dumbbells with a weight that matches your fitness level, try not to go with heavy weights from the beginning.
- Standing straight, hold the dumbbells with straight arms at your sides, keeping your fists neutral at first.
- Push your chest forward and work your muscles well, start raising your arm straight in front of you.
- Stop when your arm is straight with your shoulders or slightly higher. Do not over lift it.
- On each push, move your fist forward as if you were directing a front punch.
- Lift your arm straight and slowly, then return it straight and slowly and do the same with the other arm.
Reminder: Raise your arms straight in front of your shoulders. You should get a full contraction of that front head. This happens when you raise your arm well until it is straight with your shoulders facing forward.
Common mistakes while performing front raise exercises:
Mistakes may prevent you from getting good results, so here are 3 common mistakes that you should correct now.
Not maintaining proper tension:
This happens when you are not focusing on lifting in front of you. Your arms may tilt to the sides and this disperses tension and keeps the target muscle in a comfort zone.
So you must keep the movement path constant, and press the front deltoid throughout the exercise and try to keep it as tense as possible.
You can’t control your anchor point:
The reason for this is that you cannot keep your back muscles neutral and straight, and also the reason is that your abdominal muscles are not tightened well and this causes the muscle to oscillate and therefore you will lose strength and the muscles may not benefit from the tension of the exercise.
Try to stay straight and press your abdominal muscles and lift the weight with your shoulders only, so you will have successfully performed the exercise.
Don’t care about your shoulders too much:
It is necessary that the safety of your shoulders is a priority, meaning that you must respect the weights that you must go with, as well as respect the front fist that does not put your front heads in danger of being injured.
Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Lateral raises is the most exercise that works the middle delts, and this is proven by experts and experiments, and this is what makes it very popular in fitness halls, so that many bodybuilders rely on it.
The straight-arm lateral raise helps isolate the middle deltoid and keep it under pressure throughout the exercise, and helps increase size and muscle mass.
Utility : Basic
Mechanics : Isolated
Force : Pull
Dumbbell lateral raises muscle worked:
Target : Lateral Delts
Synergists : Anterior delts, Traps (Middle, lower), Serratus anterior
How to do neutral lateral raises:
- You have the choice to do it sitting on the bench or standing, but we will choose to do it sitting on the bench, which will be better and more effective as well.
- First choose a dumbbell with a weight that matches your fitness level, remember if you are a beginner start with very light weights up to a kilogram in each dumbbell is a good start.
- Sit upright on the bench in a position where your muscles are tensed, your chest is pushed forward, and your back is well straight and a little bent forward 20 or 25 degrees.
- Keep your fists neutral throughout the exercise, your fists looking at each other, your arms straight down.
- As for the shoulder muscles, keep them in their natural position, that is, do not go with your shoulders to your ears or lower them excessively.
- Start by raising your hands straight at your sides (you can leave some slight bending at your elbows, that’s fine, but don’t over-flex for about 10 or 15 degrees).
- Stop when your arms are straight with your shoulders or slightly up, also try to squeeze your shoulders up with each repetition.
- Allow your arms to drop slowly and straight down at a constant speed.
Lateral Raise Guide (Everything You Want To Know)
Dumbbell lateral raises common mistakes
Also, making mistakes may prevent you from getting some fresh fruits so try to avoid the following mistakes while doing lateral raises.
Going with heavy weights:
In fact, the middle deltoid is a small muscle and does not require heavy weights to hit it. It is not like the chest muscles, the traps, or the quadriceps muscles.
What happens while going with heavy weights is that you require the intervention of other muscles, such as traps, in the range of movement, so that the pressure we want does not fall on the target muscle.
Don’t get tension:
Do not let this mistake hunt you while you are trying to target your delts, we have already referred to it with the previous exercise, and this exercise as well.
All you have to do is raise your arms straight to the sides and keep your fists neutral and press your muscles well and keep the movement path.
Shoulders arched forward:
Perhaps this may be your normal situation. You will need some exercises that improve flexibility and help stabilize the bones, but if it is due to the weight of the weight, this will inevitably affect the course of the movement and will not make you hit the middle deltoid correctly.
Push your shoulders back and stand straight and push your chest forward and try to bring your arms straight to the sides of the shoulders and maintain the tension as much as possible.
Rear Lateral Raises
Rear lateral raises is the most exercise that works the posterior delts, and this is proven by experts and experiments, you squeeze your posterior delts back with each rep, and this is what makes it very popular in fitness halls, so that many bodybuilders rely on it.
The straight-arm lateral raise helps isolate the posterior deltoid and keep it under pressure throughout the exercise, and helps increase size and muscle mass.
Utility : Auxiliary
Mechanics : Isolated
Force : Pull
Muscle worked :
Target : Posterior Delts
Synergists : Teres minor, Lateral delts, Traps (middle, lower), Rhomboids
How to do a rear lateral raises with dumbbells
- First, choose a dumbbell with a weight that matches your fitness level, do not go with heavy weights that exceed your capabilities.
- Stand straight, knees slightly bent about 10 degrees.
- Bend your back and keep it straight as well, try to bend it to about 60 to 75 degrees.
- Hold the dumbbells straight with your shoulders down, try to keep your fists pointing back (your palms are looking back).
- Start by pulling your arms straight to the sides, try to keep your fists in that position and also try to pull up, but do not overdo it.
- Also pull without bending your elbows throughout the exercise and keep the speed and path of your movement.
Rear lateral raises common mistakes
It is easy to make mistakes with this exercise, and it is also easy to target muscles that we do not want to target, so you must be careful with this exercise and try to avoid the following mistakes.
Not keeping track of movement:
Some people tend to push their elbows back or below the shoulders and this works the lat muscles, but we don’t like this, because the focus of the exercise becomes ineffective.
Keep your arms sideways straight and aligned, and try to keep your fists looking back.
Do not bend your back enough:
Also, this is a common mistake that you should avoid because when you keep your stump bent for less than 45 degrees, it will definitely hit the lateral functions more, so try to bend your stump to a semi-horizontal shape with the ground.
Keep your knees bent and your back straight as well.
Shoulders arched forward:
Perhaps this may be your normal situation. You will need some exercises that improve flexibility and help stabilize the bones, but if it is due to the weight of the weight, this will inevitably affect the course of the movement and will not make you hit the posterior deltoid correctly.
Push your shoulders back and stand straight and push your chest forward and try to bring your arms straight to the sides of the shoulders and maintain the tension as much as possible
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Dumbbell shoulder press is a complex exercise for the muscles of the upper body, it works more than one joint and targets the front and middle deltoid at the same time.
Bodybuilders rely on dumbbell shoulder press exercises to add a boost of strength and stimulate muscles to grow and gain muscle mass.
It is important that you exercise like this once a week or at least twice, it is important to strengthen and build muscles.
How to do a dumbbell shoulder press correctly:
- Choose dumbbells with a weight you can handle and that matches your fitness level.
- Sit on the bench, keeping your back straight on the pillow, push your chest forward.
- Put the dumbbells on your knees as you start the exercise, this is in order to maintain the energy.
- Lift the dumbbells with your arms, turn the elbows to the sides and keep them slightly in front of you.
- Your fists are flexing forward, then begin to squeeze the shoulder until your arms are straight.
- Make the center of your shoulders your pressure point, from there the pressure is released and there the pressure returns.
Shoulder Press Guide Here (Everything You Want To Know)
Common mistakes while doing shoulder press:
You should not make mistakes with compound exercises because their effect is more than isolation exercises and can spoil a group of muscles that you want to work on, and the rate of exposure to injury increases.
Do half repetitions.
This is a common mistake that many beginners make while doing shoulder press exercises, so that they do not take advantage of the range of motion available to them and do not extend and reduce their arms well, and therefore this does not hit the heads in the right way.
For this, you should extend your arms up well and reduce them and feel the pressure of your shoulders, and try to be slow and take advantage of the space you have to compress your muscles well.
Pushing the shoulders back excessively.
When you push your shoulders back, it is not comfortable, and you press the shoulder on a bench, which will hinder your movement and you cannot target the muscles.
So you should push your elbows forward a little bit, it will be a comfortable position and this will allow you to target the deltoids more strongly because it allows you to have more control over the movement.
Carrying heavy weight with poor control.
You must know your level of fitness, but before that you must learn how to do the movement professionally before moving on to carrying heavy weights.
In order to avoid injury or making mistakes, you must make your muscles get used to the exercise and gradually load the weights and adjust the movement path more.
How to include lateral raises to your training program?
This is easy. In every upper body training session, you can do lateral raises to target the shoulder muscles as well.
Example:
- 1- Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise —-> 3 Sets / 5 reps.
- 2- Dumbbell Lateral Raise —-> 3 sets / 12-15 reps.
- 3- Dumbbell Front Raise —–> 3 sets / 12-15 reps.
- 4- Dumbbell Shoulder Press —-> 3 sets / 6-10 reps for max.
How heavy should you go on dumbbell shoulder exercises ?
In general, the ideal weight a male can lift with lateral raises to target the middle deltoids is 15 kg.
For muscle hypertrophy, it is recommended to go with weights with resistance up to muscle failure during repetitions 6 to 8, while the limit that you must reach is 12 repetitions.
For starters, if you do not exceed 3 or 4 repetitions with a certain weight, this is not the right weight for you. Try going with lighter weights, and if it is too easy you can add weights gradually.
Useful Links
These links may be useful to you if you are a fan of building fitness and strength or gaining muscle at home, these links contain the most powerful CrossFit exercises that you can rely on mainly.
If you are a fan of strength workouts for the upper body, you can rely on these workouts at home, believe me, you may not need anyone to build strong fitness only at home.
If you are interested in targeting your lats here’s the best alternatives to rely on
The lat pulldown wide grip guide for max gain
Target your delts with the most powerful exercise for shoulders (full guide)
Strengthen your forearm to improve your performance with weightlifting
Also, if you want to focus on the muscles of the lower body, you may find these links very useful, you can rely on them to learn the correct movements and ways to build muscle.
Rear elevated squat guide for achieving the max gain
8 Best Romanian deadlift alternatives for max gain
