Want to learn my women fitness training secrets for a flawless figure?
Female fitness model Flavia Del Monte reveals another women fitness
model workout to get ripped up shoulders that will turn heads!
shoulder exercises for women
If you're like me, shoulders are one of your toughest body parts to
develop. So I've to develop effective ways to really hit my shoulders
hard and get the best results possible.
This exercise is one of my favorites for building strength and explosive
power in the shoulders. I've found it to be VERY effective for hitting
the lateral delts as well, which is critical for building shoulder
width.
How To Do It:
To perform this exercise, you'll need a barbell and a power rack. That's it!
Instead of pressing the barbell from inside the rack, though, and taking
a "traditional" grip on the bar, you will be standing OUTSIDE the rack
on one side, facing in. You'll be pressing one end of the bar, using the
other end as a pivot point.
shoulder exercises women
First, you'll need to set one of the safety rails up near the top of the
rack - about forehead level is good. The other rail should be set at
just about shoulder height.
Set an Olympic barbell across these rails so that it's sloping down to
one side. Load the high end of the barbell with at least one weight
plate (45 or 35 lbs) to counterbalance the end you'll be pressing.
Load the lower end of the bar with weight - start with a weight that is
fairly light (if you can do dumbell presses with 50 lb dumbbells, start
with just a 45 lb plate on the bar) until you get an idea of how the
exercise works. Then you can start adding plates. Also, be very sure
you've got good collars on both ends of the bar - you don't want any
plates sliding off.
Now you're ready to start the exercise.
Stand at the low end of the bar (outside the rack) facing in towards the
rack. Grip the end of the bar with both hands (not overlapping but
butted up so they're right beside each other on the end of the bar). One
will be closer to the end than the other - you can switch that grip on
the next set to keep things even.
Stand a little off to one side to start with here. When you do the
exercise, you're basically going to be doing a press with one hand
(using the other hand for guidance and balance), bringing the bar up and
overhead then lowering it down on the other side. Then you'll repeat,
going back over to the other side.
This is why I call it the "Side-To-Side Shoulder Press." You start with,
for example, a left-hand one-arm press, bringing the bar overhead and
across then performing a right-hand one-arm press. You go back and forth
until you've done as many reps as you can.
When you're doing the press (especially at the bottom of the movement),
be careful to use the other hand primarily for guidance and balance, not
to try and pull up on the bar for help. That other shoulder will be in
an awkward position to exert force and you don't want to risk injury.
If you want to REALLY finish off the shoulders (I like to do this on my
last set), when you're done with the side-to-side movement, you can
continue with a two-arm press directly to the front.
Overall, this exercise is an excellent alternative to barbell and
dumbell presses. It's a novel yet EXTREMELY functional shoulder exercise
that has the potential to build excellent power and strength in the
shoulders.
The positioning of the bar, the side-to-side movement and the fact that
you're gripping on a MUCH thicker portion of the bar all contribute to
the overall effectiveness of the exercise.
shoulder exercises for women