What are the Main Shoulder Dumbbell Exercises?

Shoulders are a very important group of muscles. First, having strong shoulders just looks great, and no other muscle group will transform your look more than shoulders. Second, this is one of the most crucial parts of our bodies, responsible for so many of our day to day activities. Hurting your shoulder is something you should avoid at all cost, and to do that, you should make it stronger by doing shoulder gym exercises. For a total shoulder workout, you will only need a pair of (light) dumbbells and no other exercise equipment. Read our article to find out more.

Dumbbell shoulder press, also known as the military press, is the essential compound shoulder movement that will hit all of your shoulder muscles + triceps. So if you can only do one weight exercise, this is the one you do. It is very simple to perform - you start off holding dumbbells at shoulder level, then you vertically press hard, extending your arms above you, and you return to the starting position. Push press is the same movement, but you start with your knees slightly bent. You explode from your knees, using force generated by your legs to press the dumbbells up.

You can use push press as a finisher - you first do regular military press, and once your shoulders get fatigued, you switch to push press, which will allow you to perform a couple of extra reps,  boosting muscle growth.

Front raise targets your front delts. The movement is simple - you stand up straight, holding two dumbbells. While keeping your elbows straight, raise one dumbbell at a time, until it is parallel to your chest, and slowly reverse the movement. Repeat with the other hand for the prescribed number of reps.

Lateral raise is the same as the front raise, with one difference - you are not raising the dumbbells in front of you but to your side. This will hit your middle (side) delts, which will widen your frame, making you look more appealing.

Last, in the raise group, we have the rear lateral raise, which targets the rear delts, often neglected and underdeveloped muscle group, crucial for shoulder health. To hit these, you need to bend from your hips, until your back is parallel to the floor. Now, from this position, you essentially do a lateral raise, by lifting your completely straight arms to your sides. But, because you are bent over, gravity will do its magic, hitting your rear deltoids.

To build up your traps, shrugs are your best friend. Take a heavy pair of dumbbells and stand straight up. Now shrug like you are trying to touch your ears with your shoulders (without bending the neck of course). Make sure you pause at the top for one second, before slowly lowering your shoulders down.

There you have it folks, a complete dumbbell shoulder workout routine, straightforward but effective. And you only need a pair of dumbbells of all exercise equipment, making this routine home-gym friendly. With just a couple of dumbbells, you can hit other muscles too, such as back, biceps, and triceps, performing a full dumbbell upper body exercise workout, at the comfort of your home.