The Best Shoulder Exercises, Ranked
Seven shoulder exercises covering the front, side and rear delts, in the order worth trying them, plus every other shoulder exercise in the library.
By Jobri Fitness
The short answer
Cover all three parts of the delts: an overhead press for the front delts, a lateral raise for the side delts, and a rear delt exercise such as face pulls or reverse flies. Chest presses already work your front delts a lot.
The 7 best shoulder exercises
Seated Shoulder Press
DumbbellThe back support lets you press heavy without your lower back taking over, and dumbbells let each arm find its own path.
How to do it: Seated Shoulder PressAlso with: Barbell, Smith machine
Lateral Raise
DumbbellThe main exercise for the side delts, which give your shoulders their width. Use light weights and strict reps.
How to do it: Lateral RaiseAlso with: Machine, Cable
Face Pulls
CableTrains the rear delts and upper back that pressing leaves out. A rope on a cable at face height is all you need.
How to do it: Face PullsCable only
Standing Shoulder Press
BarbellThe overhead press: a full-body strength lift that's easy to load and track.
How to do it: Standing Shoulder PressAlso with: Dumbbell, Cable, Kettlebell
Reverse Fly
DumbbellBent over or chest down on a bench, it isolates the rear delts with light dumbbells.
How to do it: Reverse FlyAlso with: Cable
Shoulder Press
MachineA guided press for when you want to push sets hard without balancing the weight.
How to do it: Shoulder PressMachine only
Arnold Press
DumbbellA dumbbell press that starts with your palms facing you and rotates as you press, which adds range at the bottom.
How to do it: Arnold PressDumbbell only
How these are ranked
The order favors exercises that are easy to set up and load in small steps, and it mixes presses with raises and pulls so the top picks cover all three parts of the shoulder. Side and rear delts get their own picks early because presses barely reach them. If a lower pick feels better on your shoulders, use it.
How much shoulder work you need
The number of hard sets you do each week matters more than which exercise you pick. How many sets per week to build muscle covers the numbers. The training volume calculator counts your weekly sets per muscle, and the workout plan generator builds a week around them.
All 49 shoulder exercises
- 90 Degree Handstand Push Up
- Arnold Press
- Ball Slams
- Band Face Pull
- Band Front Raise
- Band Lateral Raise
- Band Overhead Press
- Band Pull-Apart
- Battle Ropes
- Behind the Neck Press
- Bent-Over Wide Grip Row
- Burpee
- Clean and Jerk
- Clean and Press
- Cuban Press
- Elevated Pike Push Up
- External Rotation
- Face Pulls
- Front Raise
- Handstand Push Up
- Hindu Push Up
- Incline Reverse Fly
- Internal Rotation
- Jerk
- Kettlebell Halo
- Landmine Press
- Lateral Raise
- Lu Raise
- One-Arm Reverse Fly
- Pike Push Up
- Planche Push Up
- Push Press
- Rear Delt Row
- Reverse Butterfly
- Reverse Fly
- Seated Lateral Raise
- Seated Shoulder Press
- Shoulder Press
- Snatch
- Standing Shoulder Press
- Straddle Planche Push Up
- Thruster
- Tuck Planche Push Up
- Turkish Get-Up
- Upright Row
- Wall Ball
- Wide Grip Row
- Windmill
- Y Raise
Log your sets in GymEvo
Log every set, see what you lifted last time, and follow your estimated one-rep max on the free progress chart.