Building impressive shoulders is not as easy as it may seem. All too often when I am in the gym, I see people performing their shoulder exercises the wrong way, which can either lead to a lack of shoulder development, or in the worst cases, shoulder injuries. In order to build impressive, full and round deltoids, you need to really focus on isolating each head of the shoulder group during your shoulder workout routine, all while maintaining perfect form.

The following shoulder workout routine will help you to isolate all three heads of the deltoids, leading to new muscle growth, fullness and strength. First and foremost, always do a proper warm up for your shoulders and rotator cuff by stretching and loosening up the joints, and be sure to use perfect form with every exercise and rep.

Military Press (in front of your head)

2 warm up sets of 15 – 20 reps with very light weight

5 work sets of 8 – 12 reps

Combine the following three lateral raises with one another to perform giant sets:

Front Lateral Raises

3 sets of 12 – 15 reps

Side Lateral Raises

3 sets of 12 – 15 reps

Bent Over Rear Lateral Raises

3 sets of 12 – 15 reps

Note: During front laterals, the dumbbell should be raised to the level of the top of the head. During side laterals, the elbow should be higher than the hands while bringing the dumbbell up to about eye level. With rear laterals, try to touch your elbows together in the middle of your back. You may hold the dumbbell at about a 45-degree angle. Never, ever swing the weights around on any of these exercises.

Shrugs (You may either use barbells or dumbbells. When using a barbell, keep both palms facing toward your body. Never roll your shoulders!) 4 sets of 8 – 10 reps

Machine Shoulder Press Using about 40% of your normal weight, perform 2 sets of maximum reps to failure

This shoulder workout routine should help to stimulate new growth into lagging deltoids. I cannot stress enough how important proper form is during this workout. If you really want to isolate each deltoid head, perfect form is a must. This will also help you to avoid injury, as the rotator cuff and shoulder joint are very susceptible to injury.

Give this shoulder workout routine a try for about 8 weeks. At the end of this period you should see some significant deltoid improvement. As usual, it is vitally important to incorporate proper nutrition and protein intake in order to fuel new muscle growth. If you want your shoulders to develop into massive balls of solid muscle, you need to feed them with the proper nutrients and blast them from a variety of angles.