The 8 Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises to Grow Your Upper Body

Using dumbbells is one of the most effective tools to create the stimulus for muscle growth. There are a large variety of exercises that can be done with dumbbells to grow the shoulders, here we provide 8 that you can add into your workout routine.

4 min read
Sean Klein
Written by
Sean Klein
Published on
07/06/22
Last updated
12/01/23
In This Resource
  • The 8 Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises to Grow Your Upper Body
  • Benefits Of Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises
  • Improved Sports Performance
  • Improved Aesthetics
  • Improved Shoulder Stability
  • Training Considerations
  • Sets
  • Repetitions
  • Unilateral vs Bilateral

The 8 Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises to Grow Your Upper Body

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Benefits Of Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises

Improved Sports Performance

  • There are many sports where having large shoulders will be important for performance. This includes contact sports like American football and track and field events like shot-put. These exercises can be used in training programmes to improve sporting performance.

    • Improved Aesthetics

  • If you’re preparing for a physique contest or bodybuilding show then having large shoulders will be crucial to your success. These movements can all be used to increase the muscle mass of your shoulders.

    • Improved Shoulder Stability

  • Doing repetitions of shoulder exercises will increase your shoulder stability if they are done through a full range of motion.

    • Training Considerations

    Sets

    Muscle Maintenance = 4-6 Sets

    Muscle Growth = 8-12+ Sets

    Repetitions

    For repetitions working sets will be near to failure. This might mean a 1-3 reps in reserve.

    Unilateral vs Bilateral

  • Bilateral exercises should be used predominantly for muscle growth as they have much less of a stability based component to them, meaning more weight can be used and the stressor created is much more specific to the shoulder muscles rather than the core musculature.

    • If you enjoyed this resource you can find more below or try Programme, a fitness app that plans every workout for you – based on your progress, equipment and lifestyle.

    This resource was written by Sean Klein. Sean Richard Klein has thousands of hours of coaching experience and a BSc in Sports Science with Management from Loughborough University. He owns a gym in Bayonne France, CrossFit Essor, which runs group classes and a Personal training studio.

    Sean Klein

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