Killer Shoulder Workout at Home - 9 Exercises for Shoulder at Home

Who doesn't want well-defined and strong shoulders? We all want that strong posture and shoulders help a lot for attaining that posture.

Broad shoulder and a wide back also give an illusion for a narrow waist, however, it is always suggested that you work on your fat percentage to make sure your waist doesn't go out of proportion.

Now, the problem is we want to work on shoulders but some of us don't have the time to visit the gym or due to some personal reasons, a lot of people cannot really join a gym.

That shouldn't stop you from working out and developing strong shoulders as we are here to guide you and provide the best shoulder workout at home.

Here we are going to mention 9 shoulder exercises at home that you can do with and without equipment. Here's what we will be covering in this shoulder workout at home routine:

1. Bodyweight shoulder workout at home
2. Shoulder exercises with just dumbbells
3. Shoulder exercises with resistance bands

For equipment based, we will be using resistance bands and dumbbells, if you don't have a pair of dumbbells and resistance bands, we would suggest you to grab one as it can help you in doing a lot more than just shoulder exercises.

The Shoulder Muscle Anatomy

Before we jump onto to the "At Home Shoulder Exercises", we should know how the shoulder muscles look like. It's never a good idea to just start working out without understanding the muscle group and how the movement occurs in that particular muscle and joint.

Why is it important to know the shoulder anatomy and movement? It reduces the risks of workout injuries and you can easily know which exercise you have to opt for an over-all shoulder muscle development.

 This is how the shoulder muscle looks like:

There are 3 major groups that we have to train while performing shoulder exercises:

1. Front Deltoid (Anterior Deltoid)

2. Lateral Deltoid (Medial Deltoid)

3. Rear Deltoid (Posterior Deltoid)

There are specific exercises that target all these muscle groups and we are going to list them all here.

 Now for an effective shoulder workout, we have to include all the exercises in our shoulder workout routine that target all these 3 heads of our shoulders.

The best part is, you can target all these shoulder heads with these at home exercises with the below shoulder exercises.

Shoulder Exercises at Home - With Dumbbells

If you can get your hands on a pair of dumbbell, then it will make your workout easier in terms of exercise selection and targeting each head of shoulder specifically. If you cannot, then you may skip to the next section where we have mentioned some bodyweight exercises for shoulders at home and some with resistance band.

 These are the top-most and best exercises that you can perform at home for developing strong and balanced shoulders. 

It is fairly possible to list 10 more exercises with just shoulders but it will confuse you and you might get injury if you have no experience in lifting. So, let's stick to the basic and most-important exercises that you will advanced and experienced lifters doing even after 10 years of their training.

1. Shoulder Press-

You will find a lot of people doing this exercise, almost every individual has included this exercise in their shoulder workout routine either with dumbbells or with barbells.

Since we are limited to dumbbells only, we will use dumbbells only.

This is how you do Shoulder Presses:

Apart from that there are multiple ways you can perform this exercise: standing and seating.

If you have a seating arrangement that can support your back, then go for it else let's do it in standing position, just make sure that your feet placement is good and supportive enough to not put excessive pressure on your lower back.

2. Lateral Raise:

It's time to hit the medial head or as we say "Lateral" delt part of our shoulders. Hitting lateral delts is very important as it gives you that well-developed and rounded shoulders that we all crave for.

This is how you perform Lateral Raises:

Worried about the form? Yes, a lot of people struggle in developing the form in lateral raise exercise for shoulders at home since they don't have anyone to guide them, but don't worry, just watch the video and practice, you will get better at it.

Make sure you start with a weight that you can control because it's very important to perform the exercises in correct form for maximum benefits and low-injury risks.

3. Rear Delt Fly:

It's time to hit the posterior delt or as we normally "Rear" delts of our shoulders. You would want to develop the shoulders from all angles, it makes no sense to have dumbbells with you and still not training the posterior head of our deltoids.

A lot of people who have access to the gyms perform this exercise at Pec Dec fly machine or at cable station but we have got dumbbells, and that's exactly what we are going to use here.

This is how you do Rear Delt Fly with Dumbbells:

 4. Front Raise:

This exercise targets the Anterior delt of your shoulders. This part of the shoulder already gets trained when we perform Shoulder Presses and when we perform chest exercises, but if you believe that you need some isolate exercise to particularly focus on this part of your shoulder, then feel free to add "Front Raise" to your shoulder workout at home.

This is how you do front shoulder raise:

Important Note: A lot of people make a mistake of choosing a weight that they cannot control. Since we are using dumbbells here, make sure you select a weight that you can control. 

Remember the goal is that you control the weight, weights shouldn't be controlling you. Focus on the part of the muscle that you are targeting. Your exercise form might not be perfect initially but it will get better with time. Be patient and perform safely.

These are the 4 exercises that you can add to your shoulder workout routine at home.

Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises at Home

Now that you have got your list of dumbbell shoulder exercises at home, it's time to list down some exercises that you can perform with your bodyweight for shoulders.

These might be a little hard for the beginners, so be perform these exercises carefully and don't try to act like an advanced lifter. Slow progress also comes under progress.

These 5 shoulder exercises can be done at home without any special equipment, but some exercises like wall walks and decline push-ups might need some assistance of walls or a normal bench and we hope your home has got walls ( yeah it was a bad joke).

 1. Handstand Push-up

This is going to explode your shoulders. It is one of the few bodyweight shoulder exercises at home that can target the shoulder to a great extent but it is equally difficult, so, for those who are starting working out or have an issue with mobility and stability, please stay away from this exercise.

Those who have some experience in doing other bodyweight shoulder workout exercises can try it if they feel confident enough.

Do you know about handstand and normal push-ups? Handstand means standing on your hands instead of feet and then performing push-ups. YES! It is difficult and should be done with care and caution.

2. Pike Push-ups

For someone who cannot really do handstand pushups (it's absolutely okay if you can't), they can try pike pushups, it's a little easier that that but equally effective.

It creates a good tension in your shoulder muscles which is more than  enough to train shoulders. You still might need a good balance to perform this correctly. Start with just 1 pushup and increase it gradually, you will slows & gradually learn the balancing and your muscles will become stronger every time you practice. Remember, strength is a skill.

This is how you do Pike-Pushups:

3. Decline Pushup

Another variation of pushup that you can perform to target your shoulders. This will not only target your deltoid, but it will also target your chest (Pectoral) muscles.

As you can see in the above image, decline pushups require bare minimum equipment, you just need a flat surface where you can put your feet like shown in the above image. It can be a bench, a stepper, a stool, a sofa or even your bed.

The more the height of your bench, the more shoulders it will target but make sure you do it in a form that doesn't hurt your joints in an abnormal way. The goal is to get fit not become unfit.

 4. Normal Push-ups

You must be thinking "How many pushups are there actually?" or "Dude, just stop it with pushups" but the truth is push-ups is an amazing exercise, it target multiple body parts. It also targets your Triceps muscles.

For those who don't know, normal pushups are like the above mentioned decline pushups, but with a small change, there won't be any additional surface required. It's just you, your bodyweight and the ground you will be placing your feet on.