It is important to warmup your shoulders before every shoulder workout. This 5 exercise sequence will help to hit every head of the delts while making sure to warm up the shoulder joint through all three planes of motion. Just 8 reps of each move will have your shoulders feeling loose and ready to roll in less than a minute.
The first thing we need to do is understand a little shoulder anatomy and function. The muscle group is comprised of three individual heads; the front delts, middle delts and rear delts. Each of these heads is capable of moving the shoulder through all three planes. These are the sagittal (front to back), frontal (side to side) and transverse (clockwise and counterclockwise).
To kick off this 5 exercise shoulder warmup sequence we have an exercise called the halo. Simply grab a plate that you can handle but make sure it’s not too light. It is important that the weight you use has enough weight to assist the joint in moving through the motions to achieve a better warm up.
Here you want to grip the plate with both hands opposite of each other, at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Now, just circle the plate around your head trying to keep it as close as you can to your face. The arms will have to move quite a bit around your head in order to maintain this relationship throughout. This is a good thing. This will make the shoulder have to go through external rotation which is a fast and fluid way to warm up the rotator cuff muscles. Aim for 8 reps clockwise and 8 reps counterclockwise to start out this warmup.
From here, move immediately into the plate 8 exercise. With the same hand placement as you had from the last exercise, you are going to raise the plate out in front of you and imagine that there is a figure 8 laying on its side. The goal is to simply trace out that eight left to right and right to left. This will start to hit both the front delt and side delts to get them loosened up and ready for your shoulder workout. Perform 8 complete reps here before immediately moving onto the next exercise.
That next move is called the plate shovel. Imagine throwing a shovel full of dirt over your shoulder. Be sure to lean forward a bit here to ensure the focus is shifted to the rear delts and get that plate up and over the shoulder like you’re throwing dirt to get some added work for the rotator cuff. As with the rest, 8 to each side is the goal.
Next we move right into the plate press out. This starts transitioning us to the elevated arm position we’re going to ultimately need in our shoulder workout. Try to press the plate out and up at an angle to really warmup the shoulders. At this point again, we are going to start moving towards the overhead pressing motion that we are going to ultimately need in our shoulder workout. 8 quick reps is what you’re shooting for once again.
Finally, we wrap it all up with the rocking press up. Even though you’re starting to fatigue the rocking momentum of this one will help to get your arms fully overhead to prep you for that overhead pressing while at the same time having your entire shoulder joint feel much looser and ready to roll.
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31 comments
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I need a warm up for the warm up
Great stuff as always Jeff! Thank you for sharing as much as you do! I hope one day you’ll write a book or several with the wealth of wisdom that you have collected from your years of experience!
Very important to do lots of warm ups, especially for senior citizens like jeff.
Should you do each of these in both directions? Or just as you showed?
I thought he was next to a giant ice cream sundae in the thumbnail
My left shoulder hurts doing these with no weights…
It's meta sign (Plate 8), this man already knew
These videos are great – keep them coming! Thanks
Jeff can u do me a favor. Leave some ladies for the rest of us brotha!
Don’t forget. Don’t just grab a plate ! Grab one you can handle
Thanks for everything
what if i use a 25 pound plate and do these as circuit training? that ll be a complete shoulder workout eh?
Had shoulders today, defo doing this before next shoulder day thank you Jeff ✌🏻
Thanks Jeff!
This looks great but unfortunately I'm here after injuring my shoulder pretty bad wish I saw this before
This is so dumb if the muscle is under more stressed that is a workout
Make more of these please like for chest
Looks good
Only problem is it'll make whoever is doing it look awkward at the gym
How do I save these shorts???
I love comparison to everyday movements, like "imagine throwing dirt", "imagine doing 8's", it helps me a lot to actually focus on the movement as it should be every rep
How many reps or time for each one?
To warm up my shoulders, I do 3 x 100 reps light facepulls. I then move onto my main workout of 4 x 100 rep sets of medium facepulls. To finish, I do 10 drop sets of facepulls. On off days, I just do a few hundred light facepulls throughout the day. I also dream about doing facepulls nightly on weekdays to really condition those rotator cuff muscles.
Your work out face makes it look like you smelled a fart and kinda liked it
Keep reppin for us older men. Yes sir been doing this always start slowly
Shut up
Wow
Mr. Jeff to the rescue haha right on saving our shoulders to keep the gains coming 💪
I'd rather use a band
Enough to give me a pump
Do you use the same weight plate for all 5 exercises?