Blast those Shoulders!

Well defined shoulders are another group of muscles that adds definition to the arms (and for the ladies is a great natural accessory to a strapless dress!) There are three muscle groups you want to target when working your shoulders.  Basically the front, side and rear "deltoids."  A word of caution about the shoulders.  They are what is considered a "ball and socket" joint.  The hips are also a ball and socket joint. The difference in the two is that the "socket" part of the shoulder is shallow when compared to say the hip socket.  So focusing on form and appropriate weight will keep you pain free with beautiful shoulders. So that we strengthen those small muscles surrounding the rotator cuff let's start with a simple, short move for you to do with light weights or a resistance band:

Start with hands a few inches apart with palms up either holding light weights or a resistance band. Keeping elbows locked in at your waist rotate your forearms out until you feel your shoulders engage and then move back in.  Repeat this 10 to 12 times.  This will work those small muscles that protect your rotator cuff.

Building strong shoulder muscles is the best way of course to protect your shoulders from injury plus giving you added strength to do the everyday activities or sports that call upon your shoulders.

As noted above there's a front, side and rear muscle and we want to include all three in our work out so let's start with a side or "lateral" raise. Test your strength by starting with a light weight say a 5 lb dumbbell in each hand. Palms facing in and arms at your side.  Keeping elbows soft but not bent lift your arms straight out to your side . Go for 15 raises and do 3 sets before
moving on to front raises:

Once again start with a light weight as you want to be able to execute each of these moves 15 times with perfect form. Hold a weight in each hand with palms facing toward you and arms straight down to your sides.  Lift weights straight out and to the front stopping a shoulder height. If executing the move with 5 lb dumbbells is a piece of cake increase the weight and complete as many as you can with perfect form . Once you feel your form slipping stop and stay at that weight until you have progressed to 15 reps with perfect form and then continue in that pattern - slightly increasing weight, stop when form falters, stay at the weight until you've mastered it for 1 reps.

One last move to give you a complete shoulder workout and that is a rear fly to work, you guessed it, the rear deltoid. Sit on a bench or chair and bend from your hips as if you want to touch your chest to your thighs.  With a weight in each hand and palms facing each other raise your arms straight out from your shoulders.  Bending your elbows will make this move easier so start with elbows bent and if  you want more straighten them.

One last comment on weights.  Your last three reps should be intense.  If you breeze through 15 reps then the weight is too light. It's those intense moves that are the ones to break down muscle fiber so that they build back stronger and give definition. It's more important to go for those few intense reps than to do 3 sets of an exercise. Do only 2 sets but make the last 3 reps of each INTENSE!