BUILD STRONGER SHOULDERS WITH THESE EXERCISES

As you go about setting up and designing your upper body workout session, one muscle group that you must make sure you aren't forgetting to include is the shoulders. Having strong shoulders is going to serve to benefit you in a number of different ways as first, strong shoulders are very functional. This means that they will help you execute everyday action patterns with ease, making it easier to go about day-to-day living.

In addition to that, those who have great muscle tone and definition in the shoulder region are also going to create the illusion of a slimmer waistline since they will be a bit more broad up top. Again, this is going to be very appealing to a number of people, especially women.

So all of this said, how do you create strong and sexy shoulders?

Let's go over the top shoulder building exercises that you should get into place to help you achieve this goal.

Powerful Shoulders

The Incline Bench Press

The first shoulder building exercise is the incline bench press, which is going to help to not only work the shoulders very well as you're lifting a heavier amount of weight during this movement, but also help to hit the chest muscle as well.

Start your workout off with this (if doing chest in the same session) and you'll be on your way to a stronger upper body.

The Shoulder Press

After the incline bench press, you can hit the shoulders more directly with another compound movement, the shoulder press. This one can be done with either a set of dumbbells or a barbell, so the choice is yours, whichever you prefer to use.

When doing the shoulder press, the important thing to remember here is to make sure that you keep the bum squeezed, which will help keep your spinal column in proper alignment and prevent lower back pain from occurring.

Also be sure that you avoid hyperextending the elbows, which will place great strain on this joint and set you up for an injury very quickly.

You can also perform a shoulder press standing on one leg if you want to integrate your core muscles into action to a larger degree, getting an ab workout as you do it.

The Lateral Raise

The lateral raise is the next shoulder building exercise to consider adding to your workout routine. This exercise is an isolation exercise meaning that you're only going to hit the shoulder muscles while doing it.

The other two exercises worked both the triceps and chest (with incline bench press), so were compound in nature.

A lateral raise is a great way to put more total focus on just the shoulders, making sure they see optimal strength gains.

Perform this exercise by lifting the weights straight out to the side of the body and holding briefly at the parallel position for a second or two.

This will increase the total strain on the muscles, helping you see faster overall results.

The Front Raise

Finally, don't overlook the front raise as well. This one should be performed in unison with the lateral raise as it will hit the front deltoid while the lateral raise hits the side.

By doing both, you perform a more well-rounded shoulder workout that will produce optimal strength gains.

So there you have the top exercises to make sure that you include in your upper body workout session. If you do these, you will be on your way to seeing better looking shoulders and greater strength gains.