You're here: Home » Articles » Women's Arms Exercises » The Guide to Real Women's Arm Toning 2 - the Shoulders

The Guide to Real Women's Arm Toning 2 - the Shoulders

This is the second part of a our five part series called The Guide to Real Women’s Arm Toning. In part one we looked at some of the basic principles regarding toning your arms. The full series is PART ONE, TWO and THREE, FOUR and FIVE.

In this part we will be looking at the shoulders, specifically:

1. Why training the shoulders is important.
2. How the shoulders work.
3. The best exercises for the shoulders.
4. Tips and facts for toning the shoulders.

Introduction to the Guide to Toning the Shoulders

The shoulders are often overlooked by many women when they are trying to tone their arms. They think that all you need to do to have nice toned arms is firm up the biceps and triceps. While it is true that the bis and tris make up most of the arms, the shoulders still play a vital role in the overall appearance of the arm/body. If you look in the mirror at your arms from the side or back you will be drawn to the shoulder area as that it what is most prominent.

Furthermore, I know many of my readers will be reading this in the hope of getting some strength training tips. For those women, the shouldes must never be overlooked. A lot of the arms power and strength comes from the shoulder area. To skimp on them is to skimp on your total strength development.

Lastly, it is vital that women take shoulder training more seriously for health reasons. If you ignore your shoulders to work on more common areas like the biceps, triceps, legs and abs you whil develop a severe imbalance in your body which will leave you with bad posture and chronic joint pain. I know many women who have been successful in achieving a toned body at the same time as effectively ruining it. Don’t be one of them.

How the shoulders work

The shoulders are actually made up of three muscles called heads. There is the anterior deltoid which is the front part of your shoulders and is used in forward lifting motions. Secondly, there is the lateral deltoid which is located in the middle of your shoulder and is used in all side lifting motions. Finally, there is the posterior deltoid which is locates at the back of your shoulders and is tied into your back.

It is important to learn these three heads and how they work. To keep the shoulders healthy you need to learn to work all three.

The best exercises for women’s shoulders

First up we will be looking at the best exercises for the shoulders. However, I would like to start this section by doing something a little different.

A crazy rant about the shoulders
I have a little bit of a crusade to go on here. You can read it or you can skip to the next section of the article, I don’t care.

The shoulders are just about the most abused area of the body. And women abuse them more than men. You might think I am treading on deadly ground by saying that but it is true. With all my clients I see one common trend - they want to train only the “visual” muscles and forget the rest. This means they want nice biceps, firm triceps, sexy abs and a round butt. That’s all. Forget the back, the neck, the calf muscles and forget the poor old shoulders.

And in the process of focussing on the visual muscles and leaving out the rest they don’t bother to research and practice the technique for training the other muscles. This means that when the time finally comes around for them to do a little bit of non visual training the do it with such bad technique that the poor muscle nearly goes into shock! It is ugly to watch.

So how does this relate to shoulder training? Well, in my opinion the shoulders are the most left out of any muscle group. People don’t like training them because the techniques are a little more complicated and the results are seemingly not as impressive. This attitude and approach to shoulder training, however, can be quite devastating.

I would like to finish this rant by asking all women to take shoulder training more seriously. If you do a lot of weights your shoulders are no doubt under a lot of stress. The shoulder joints are very fragile and it doesn’t take much to do a permanent injury that will cause you a lot of pain. Learn the techniques well, train them regularly and keep them healthy.

Now we can look at the best exercises for the shoulders.

Remember, toning the arms is about losing the fat as well as developing the muscle. These posts on the exercises are concerned with the best exercises for developing that muscle. It will not, in and of itself, tone your muscles. It takes more than that.

1. The military press
The military press is the best exercise there is for total shoulder development. It works all three heads of the deltoid and allows you to use a heavier weight so that you can challenge your shoulders in a healthy way. It is one of the five king queen exercises of bodybuilding.

The military press should be studied well. It takes time to get it right. Importantly, learn where your elbows are supposed to go when you are pushing the bar above your head. Do they stay in, point out or somwhere inbetween? This is something you need to address. Also, make sure you do not lean back when you are pushing the weight. This is bad for your back and takes a lot of the weight off of your shoulders.

2. The lateral side raise
As far as developing the lateral or outer shoulder the lateral side raise is the best. This exercise is important for women who wish to have a smaller waist as many fitness models have talked about the fact that when they developed their lateral deltoid their waist had the appearance of being much smaller. It is all about the illusion.

This is also the exercise that gets mucked up the most. People swing their arms all over the place and never really learn how the muscle needs to be worked. Make sure your keep a slight bend in your elbows, your pinky finger pointing upwards and lean forward slightly. If any other websites tells you otherwise they are wrong.

3. Boxing and martial arts
I know this isn’t really an exercise in the way we traditionally speak of exercise but it is very important as far as developing healthy toned shoulders go. Boxing and martial arts allow you to use your shoulder in a varitey of ways. Punching, blocking, grabbing, stretching… all of this is extremely good for developing your shoulders.

However, if you go too far (like I did) martial arts can be the thing that ruins your shoulders. Hyperextension is a nasty word that I don’t like to use too often but if you don’t take care with your punches you will find your are in for some pain. Go slow.

4. The lying rear delt row
The posterior (rear) deltoid is probably the most under used muscle in the human body. I want all the readers of Real Women’s Fitness to make a concerted effort to hit this muscle next time they go to the gym.

The lying rear delt row is done on the small bench with the barbell underneath you. By laying on your stomach and pulling the weight up to the bench you minimize the risk of injury and make the movement much easier to do correctly. This is one of the best exercises for isolating the rear deltoid and making sure you hit it properly without turning it into too much of a back exercise.

5. The upright row
As far as dangerous exercises go this is the baddest of all the exercises. I reckon more people have damaged their shoulder joint by doing this one incorrectly than any other exercise. The reason being, it allows you to use a lot of weight. People think they are doing everything fine and then a couple of week later it hits you - shoulder pain.

The thing is, if you get this one right it can be an excellent exercise. Make sure you learn where your elbows are supposed to go and how your back is supposed to be throughout the motion. Always train this one with a mirror so you can pick up and mistakes as soon as your eyes see them.

Tips and facts for toning the shoulders

I wanted to finish this article by looking at some of the best tips and unknown shoulder facts. These should help you master your shoulder exercises and take your development to a new level.

1. Stretch them all the time
Stretching the shoulders is so easy. Everyone knows how to do it and it is never hard to get a good deep feeling. You should stretch your shoulders before, during and after a workout and also whenever you remember to do it during the day. It makes for some healthy muscles as well as helping you learn how they work.

2. Keep it light
I have found that it is really important to keep your weight lighter when training the shoulders. It is so easy to cheat with shoulder exercises that when you have a heavy weight it is almost impossible to keep the technique correct for more than two or three repetitions. Until you are truly expert it is a good idea to use a lighter weight.

3. Do your weakest muscle first
If you are aware that your rear deltoid is the weakest part of your shoulder then do the exercises relating to this deltoid first. This allows you to hit them while you are fresh and full of energy. It also means you will be able to handle a bit more weight allowing you to develop it faster than if you did it at the end of your workout.

Learn more about women's fitness in our Women's Community Forum.

Conclusion
The shoulders really are an important part of the arms. They are involved in almost all the exercises you do and as such need to be healthy. They also look great when they are toned and firm.

In the next post we will be looking at all things triceps!

Comments on this article:

Add Your Comments Here: