Those Broad & Powerful Shoulders...
Shoulders mainly constitute three muscle groups : Anterior, posterior and middle deltoids. Muscles which add to good looking shoulders nad get worked in compound exercises are arms, chest and back muscles. Due to the nature of shoulder joint (its a ball and socket joint), its range of movement is more then other body parts and so are the risks of injury. When you do free weights, in some exercises you need to lift it overhead and then lower it; if your form is not ok, you may end up hurting your shoulders and back. So the first step to injury prevention to do lots of stretching and warm up exercises prior to actual weight training.
The various compound exercises are :
Parallel Bar Dips : It is suggested by people but I think its too compound for shoulders. Leaning forward while doing them works much on the delts and pecs and probably thats why it is included in shoulder exercises. I don't recommend this for shoulders and included here just for the sake of completionThe isolation exercises are :
Press Behind Neck : This is a good but injury prone compound exercise. It works on upper back and traps too (just a little). The way to do is very simple. Lift a barbell with grip a little wider than shoulder width and lower it in a controlled manner to the base of your neck. Than press back to the starting position. Don't lock your arms. You MUST wear belt for this. I've injured myself while doing this because of too much weight and not enough stretching. So, do warmup and stretch and try to do one or two warmup sets (15-20 reps) before staring. Also, don't lower the barbell any low than the base of the neck. There is no way to avoid injury if you do that, and that injury will bug you for months to come. If you have/had some shoulder problem, you shoid avoid this exercise as the next exercise is more then a substitute to it.
Military Press : This again is a compound exercise. Its is done just like the behind press, the difference being, you lower the barbell to the collar bone. Thats it. Just remember that going any low than that will invite injury. Also don't lean back (see what that looks like?...inclined bench ofcourse!!). Sit or stand, always use a back belt. This is safer for shoulders and is a must for every shoulder routine.
Machine Press : This is truly good compound exercise .Here you use a machine with pulley mechanism (Smith machine ofcourse). This makes doing them lot more easier but I like to use free weights and if you are new you too should try to avoid those machines. Still as I've said in other sections too, they let you concentrate more on the specific muscles. Using them is very simple, wear a belt, sit and grip the bar with a shoulder wide (or a trifle more) frip and do up and down. Don't lower it any low (yeah you can adjust them) than collar bone and lower neck and stay cool. The mechanism removes all that balancing movement so, you won't hurt your shoulders while doing these and it is a good substitute of the above two if you want to avoid risks.
Dumbell Press : This is what I like the most as a compound exercise. Because of free weights, you get good workout of all the supporting muscles. Doing is is again very simple. Wear a belt, sit/stand with moderately heavy dumbell in your hand. Your palsm should be facing forward. Press the dumbells overhead in a controlled manner. Don't lock arms. Come down with a steady pace. This constitutes one set. Don't lower the dumbells any lower than shoulder level (if you must). Ideally you need to lower them just enough to have your upper arms (biceps part) parallel to floor.
Dumbell Side Laterals : This is an isolation exercise and is a must for a complete routine. But unfortunately not many people do it right. And to top it, there are too many mutually contradictory views available. How I do it is as follows : I hold the dumbells with palms facing each other in front of my thighs. With arms slightly bent, I raise them to shoulder level, ie, where my arms become more or less parallel to floor. I wait for a second and lower them with a steady pace. And I never rotate wrists or forearms anywhere in a rep. Quite simple, isn't it? What you do need to take care of is to avoid swinging the arms. If you are doing something of the kind, you need to lower the weights. Negatives are good test for this.For complete shoulder workout, you need to do exercises that work all the deltoids (supporitng muscles get their share automatically). The exercises which must be included in a minimal shoulder routine are presses and lateral raises. For presses, I suggest milatary press or smith machine as behind the neck press is injury prone. For raises, you should do side lateral and rear lateral raises. Front raises are not that important as you are already doing presses, but the side and rear are very much important and should not be negelcted. As before, you may do 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps each and pyrmaid from 50 to 80 for presses and to 60-70 for lateral raises.
Rear Lateral Raises : This is again an isolation exercise and is very important. In this, you need to bend/lean at the waist (you should be more or less parallel to the floor). Support yourself with your free hand using some bench, table etc. Now with your arms bent a little, raise the dumbell to about shoulder height and lower slowely. The other version that works triceps and posterior delts more is done by raising the dumbell back instead of sideways. The only problem with this is that it puts much strain on your lower back. So, always wear a belt if you want to avoid injury. Again watch out that you don't swing the weight. And to help your back further, suck your tummy in.
Front Raises : This works your anterior delts superbly. The procedure is again quite similar to the other lateral raises, you just need to raise the dumbell in the front. Here too avoid swinging.
With Pulleys/Cable : Again when it comes to proper isolation, cable raises are far better. How to do part is quite obvious once you know how to do them with dumbells.
