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By David LaMartina
Though many weight lifters often focus on building their chests and arms, one of the most standout muscle groups is the shoulders. A full, rounded set of shoulders can give a thick, powerful, and strong look to any physique. Given the difficulty of many deltoid exercises, this body part can also be very difficult to develop. For this reason, you want to use the exercises that give you the most bang for your back, namely, overhead presses. Here are 3 variations of overhead pressing that will help you build a massive set of shoulders to complete your strong, muscular body.
1. Standing Military Press
The classic, basic, standing military press may still be the best all-around shoulder-builder out there. The heavy weights that you can use with this movement, along with the stabilization and coordination that it requires, will help you build a massive set of delts, huge triceps, and a strong core. While it is a more physically taxing exercise than any other overhead press variation, its rewards are worth the extra effort.
You can perform the military press either out of a power rack or from the floor. If you opt to use the floor, you will have to perform a clean at the beginning of every set to get the weight to shoulder level and ready to press. If you are a relative newcomer to weight lifting, the energy expenditure for that clean will probably not make a different to your pressing strength. However, if you are going to be using 200+ pounds for the press, you may want to take the weight out of a rack to make sure that you do not waste energy getting it into position.
If your goal is to work mainly shoulders, you should use very strict form. This means minimal to no leg drive, and a slight hip thrust to get the weight moving. Go all the way to lockout on every rep; do not sell yourself and your results short by doing half reps. To ensure that your shoulders and rotator cuffs stay healthy, take a fairly narrow, shoulder-width grip on the bar.
If you do this exercise, it should come first in your shoulder or upper body routine. Perform 1-2 working sets of 6-8 reps. Heavy weights are key on this exercise, and you should constantly strive to increase the poundage that you use. You can do presses all day long, but your shoulders will never grow without a large strength increase.
2. Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
This is my personal favorite pressing exercise for shoulders. Using dumbbells ensures that both sides receive equal stimulation, and the seated position keeps the movement very strict and difficult. I tend to alternate between this movement and the military press as my primary free-weight movement for building shoulder strength and size. However, my progress on this particular movement over the last year or so has probably produced my gains ever.
The hardest part of the seated overhead press is getting the dumbbells into position. You have to essentially kick them up to your shoulders one at a time and perform a first rep with an extremely long range of motion. For this reason, I tend to stay in a rep range of 10-12. This allows me to more easily get into position, while still using a heavy enough weight to tax the shoulders and produce new growth. If you have a consistent spotter or training partner, you can have them do most of the work of the first rep for you, so you dont waste energy on an exaggerated range of motion.
3. Smith Machine Overhead Press
Many gurus and experts like to trash the smith machine, but it definitely has its benefits. While I never use it for the basic squats, bench presses, and deadlifts, I have found it to be a great tool for overhead presses. The strict, linear bar path in which the machine places you allows you to concentrate solely on pressing the weight. As many good bodybuilders will tell you, it is extremely valuable to have exercises in your arsenal that allow you to put everything you have into producing muscular tension without having to worry about balance and coordination.
The best way to set up this exercise is to place a bench set at an extremely steep incline (at least 80 degrees) in the smith machine. If the bar path is slightly angled, set the bench so that you will be pressing outwards, away from your face. Your range of motion should be roughly from eye level to lockout.
As far as sets and reps go, my favorite way to perform this exercise, as well as many machine exercises, is to use the rest-pause technique. This involves performing a set of 8-10 reps to complete failure, taking 30-40 seconds rest, performing another set to failure, taking another 30-40 seconds rest, and finally doing one more set to failure. An example set might be 8 reps, rest, 3 reps, rest, 2 reps. Your goal is to get more total reps the next time, use a heavier weight next time, or both.
About the Author: David LaMartina is a competitive powerlifter who currently sits at a solid 250 pounds and has achieved a 590 squat, 315 bench, and 635 deadlift. If you found his muscle-building tips helpful, visit
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