Strengthen your shoulders with two dumbbells and this no-standing workout

It's shoulder day, but you’re feeling a little tired and you’re talking yourself into why you should give this session a miss. But, there’s no need when there’s shoulder workouts like this one. All the moves are performed on the floor, so you can take it (slightly) easier, and using a set of dumbbells will make sure you’ve got some added resistance to sculpt them and build muscle.

As well as looking great in short sleeve tops and enhancing the size of your upper body (making the waist look smaller) shoulder exercises are important for everyday activities. We use them for tasks such as carrying things and strengthening them also contributes towards a better posture. Gold’s Gym (the one where Arnold Schwarzenegger trained) also adds: “Shoulder strength training can reduce your risk of injury by strengthening your core muscles, which makes you more stable and lessens imbalances.”  

As this workout is all floor-based it’s best you grab yourself an exercise/yoga mat first to make sure you’re comfortable and perform the exercises with good form. You only need to pick five out of the eight exercises to complete and you want to aim for 10 to 12 reps on each. Almost all the exercises are performed with one dumbbell, apart from one, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have two. You want to try to complete four rounds in total. Ready? Here’s what you’ve got:

• Plank rotation on knees
• Kneeling reverse fly
• Seated dumbbell press
• Upright row into front raises
• Pullover into chest press
• Lying single arm press
• Seated overhead extension
• Chest press into close grip press

We hope you enjoyed that and that you didn't ditch shoulder day. If you thought five exercises was a nice amount, then we have another five exercise shoulder workout, that'll take you 15 minutes. Or, if it's something super speedy you're after, then give this 10 minute shoulder workout a go instead.