Shoulder Exercises
293 exercises — The deltoids wrap the shoulder in three heads — front, side, and rear — and training all three creates round, capped shoulders and a balanced upper body. Overhead pressing with a barbell or dumbbells builds the front and overall mass, lateral raises isolate the side delts for width, and reverse flyes and face pulls hit the often-neglected rear delts that keep your shoulders healthy and your posture upright. This page gathers every deltoid exercise in the WorkoutX library, each with a looping animation so you can dial in your pressing path and raise angle without guesswork. Open any exercise for the primary and secondary muscles, the equipment required, and detailed instructions. Building a workout app? Pull this exact shoulder-exercise data, including video links, from the WorkoutX API.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best shoulder exercises for size?
Overhead presses — the standing barbell press, seated dumbbell press, and Arnold press — build the most deltoid mass. Add lateral raises for width and rear-delt flyes for balance.
How do I train rear delts?
Reverse dumbbell flyes, cable face pulls, and rear-delt machine flyes target the back of the shoulder. Most lifters under-train this head, so add it for balanced, healthy shoulders.
Are lateral raises necessary?
Lateral raises are the most direct way to widen the side delts, which compound presses don't fully isolate. Use light weight and strict form for the best effect.
Do these shoulder exercises include animations?
Yes. Every shoulder exercise here has a looping animation of the full movement, plus step-by-step instructions, form tips and the muscles worked. Through the WorkoutX API the same animations come as 720p MP4 at 30 fps, with male and female models.
For developers
Building a fitness app?
Get all 293 shoulder exercises from the WorkoutX API: names, muscles, equipment, instructions and 720p MP4 animations, in one REST call.
# Shoulder exercises, 20 at a time
curl "https://api.workoutxapp.com/v2/exercises?bodyPart=shoulders&limit=20" \
-H "X-WorkoutX-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"