Keep your shoulders healthy with this....

This routine is a great way to maintain overall shoulder health. Heavy weights are not needed at all, 2.5-5 lb dumbbells work just perfect. Make sure you do all of these exercises under control for best form.

Do this sequence non stop for 10 reps of each exercise.

Lateral raises ( palms up )

Lateral raises ( thumbs up )

Lateral raises ( thumbs down )

Front raises ( thumbs up )

***Cross overs ( palms facing away from you )

Military press


*** The cross overs-have your palms face away from you and your arms out in front of your hips. Then bring your arms up and over your head like you were going to do jumping jacks ( minus the jump ). Cross your arms in front of your head and then bring them back towards the hips.

4 Common mistakes when training the shoulders

1) Going too heavy- You often see those guys in the gym with horrible form when doing military presses. They look like they are working the legs as much as they are the shoulders. Drop the weight and focus on the proper form and you will get better results!

2) Forgetting about your rear delts-Everyone does shoulder presses and blasts their front delts but tend to neglect their rear delts. To better improve your shoulder health and posture you should add rear delt work to your routines. Bent over raises and reverse flys are two things you can do.

3) Doing chest and shoulder days back to back-When you do chest workouts your shoulders are heavily involved as a main stabilizer and get a good amount of workload especially if your doing incline presses. Make sure to give yourself more rest between days if you plan to work the shoulders.

4) Not working the shoulders at different angles-Hit your shoulders from numerous angles to target all the fibers of the deltoid. Do front raises, lateral raises, and bent over raises. Try lifting your arm at a different angle when doing the basic lateral raise. I like using the cable pulley machine for this.

E.O.M- Reverse fly with dumbbell

The exercise of the month for June is the reverse fly. This exercise should be a part of every ones back routine. Your main focus on this exercise is the rear delts. You can set yourself in many different positions.

A) Lie on a elevated bench face down

B) Take a incline bench and stand behind it. Rest your head on the top of the bench trying to let your weight onto the bench. make sure to keep your back straight. This is will look like the classic position of a bent over row.

Execution: Use lighter weights and hold your arms straight out to the sides. With palms facing down, raise your arms until your elbows are parallel to the ground.

Building the rotator cuff: Cuban Press

The Cuban press is an external rotation exercise to help build your rotator cuff strength up. This exercise can be done either standing or sitting. Heavy weight is not needed at all for this exercise to be effective.

Start by having your arms bent at 90 degrees, having your elbows at shoulder height, and your palms facing behind you. Lift the weight up by rotating your shoulders, so that your forearms become parallel to the floor and palms should be facing down. Keeping your arm in the same fixed position, continue to rotate your arms until your forearms are now vertical, hands in line with your ears, while still keeping a 90 degree bend in your arms. Keep your head up through the whole movement and take your time and do not rush each rep. This exercise is meant to build strength in smaller weaker muscles, weight is not important here.

If you are having a hard time understanding the form on the Cuban press try Youtube for an actual video.