Village Gym’s Beginner’s Guide On Shoulder Workouts For Women

The muscle groups surrounding the shoulders are often the trickiest to tone and strengthen as a beginner. Most of this difficulty falls down to having a lack of equipment, or a lack of knowledge, as to what constitutes a great shoulder workout.

Thankfully, at Village Gym, our local gyms across the nation have both the equipment and expertise to aid you on your fitness journey.

If you’d rather workout at home, that’s fine too! This article will cover a mix of shoulder exercises for women that can be completed at home or at the gym. However, with that being said, you will need basic training equipment (such as dumbbells) for these workouts.

Let’s begin;

The Shoulder Exercises For Women We’ll Cover:

1. Push Ups

2. Dumbbell shoulder press

3. Lateral Raises

4. Front Raises

1. Push Ups

Push ups are an incredibly useful workout to include in your routine, primarily because they workout a range of upper body muscle groups. As well as the upper arms, such as biceps and triceps, push ups excel at working the muscle groups around the shoulder joints. 

For those looking to get into a workout routine for the first time, or are coming back to working out after a long timeout, push ups are ideal. They do not require equipment of any kind and will help you tone your shoulders using nothing but your own bodyweight.

How to do push ups:

Step by step instructions:

• For a push up, you might want to employ the use of a workout mat, yoga mat, or other padded surface to protect your hands.

• Start on your hands and knees. Place your hands in line with your shoulders with your palms facing the floor. You may want to place your hands slightly wider than a shoulder width, depending on what position is most comfortable for your body.

• Extend your legs downwards and hold your body in a position parallel to the floor. Keep your shoulders aligned and back straight, this will help prevent injury and make your workout more effective. Avoid arching your back towards the ceiling or sagging your stomach towards the ground. 

• When in this position, gently hinge your arms at your elbow joint to lower your body towards the ground. 

• Continue this motion and lower your body until your nose is almost touching the floor. Hold this position briefly.

• Push towards the floor through your palms and raise your body up until your arms are fully extended.

• Repeat the desired amount of times for your routine.

Top Tip: if normal push ups are too easy and you are looking to tone your shoulder muscles more than other muscle groups, widen your push ups stance. This will require your shoulders to do far more work than any other muscle group.

2. Dumbbell Shoulder Press

The dumbbell shoulder press is a fantastic way for beginners to workout their shoulders. In particular, this exercise is one of the most popular deltoid exercises for women due to the fact it is low-intensity and relatively easy to do.

The joy with choosing to include this exercise in your routine is that Village Gym have specialised machines that can help you progress your fitness goals and work the deltoid muscles in much the same way the dumbbell shoulder press does; just with a greater efficiency.

How to dumbbell shoulder press:

Step by step instructions:

• For this exercise it is best to sit down for balance and improved arm stability. It is best to sit on a bench to avoid any arm obstruction.

• Choose an appropriate weight for your fitness goals. For beginners this is usually between 1-3kg. With your selected dumbbell, hold one in each hand and keep them at shoulder level.

• Press the dumbbells up overhead until your arms are fully extended upwards. Don’t extend your arms too quickly and take care to grip the dumbbells tightly, to ensure you have a firm hold on them.

• Lower the weights down to shoulder level, then press them back upwards until your arms are fully extended.

• Repeat this for as many repetitions as required for your fitness routine.

Top Tip: to improve deltoid endurance, use a lighter weight and perform a high number of reps. For building deltoid strength, use a heavier weight and perform a low number of reps.

3. Lateral Raises

This next exercise, the lateral raise, is focussed on toning your side deltoids and is one of the most effective female deltoid exercises.

It is vital when toning shoulder muscles to adopt a holistic approach to building and maintaining muscle for the deltoids. For this reason, it is important to incorporate workouts that target specific deltoid regions as well as workouts that focus on all deltoid regions (such as a push up).

How to do lateral raises:

Step by step instructions:

• This exercise is performed while standing, using dumbbells. Choose your appropriate dumbbell weight and stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart.

• The dumbbells should be held one in each hand by your sides with your palms facing inwards towards your thighs.

• Maintain a firm grip on the dumbbells and hinge your elbows ever so slightly.

• Gently raise the dumbbells upwards while keeping your arms locked in place - remembering to keep your elbows bent ever so slightly. Continue this movement until your arms are parallel with the floor. This usually happens around shoulder height. Your body should look like the capital letter T.

• Lower the weights at the same gentle rate you raised them.

• Repeat for your desired amount of repetitions.

Top Tip: it is vital that when doing this exercise that you adopt good posture and keep your back straight. This will prevent other back muscle groups from supporting the dumbbells as well as prevent injury.

4. Front Raises

Our last essential shoulder workout for women is the front raise. This is an exercise that has a primary focus of working the front deltoids. Much like other workouts included in this guide, this exercise can be completed at home or in one of Village Gym’s exceptional facilities.

Much like the lateral raise, this exercise will require a dumbbell, and is designed to be used in conjunction with other deltoid exercises for a comprehensive approach to shoulder workout routines.

How to do front raises:

Step by step instructions:

• This exercise is also performed while standing like the lateral raises. Choose your appropriate dumbbell weight and stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart.

• Hold one dumbbell in each hand, keep a slight bend in your elbows, and ensure your palms are facing your thighs.

• Lift your arms up and forwards out in front of you, keeping the arms steady, until your arms are fully extended. Your arms should be parallel to the ground. Hold this position briefly.

• To finish one repetition, slowly lower the dumbbells back to their starting position.

• Repeat the desired amount of times for your fitness goals.

Top Tip: if you are struggling to do both arms at the same time, it is perfectly fine to alternate shoulders and do one arm at a time.

Introducing Village Gym;

While there’s nothing wrong with working from home, exploiting all the benefits that a Village Gym membership can provide for your fitness journey and workout goals is a great way to progress. Our machines and tailored personal training packages can help you succeed with an attentive, specialised focus on what’s important to you.

Find a Village Gym near you today and have our experienced staff give you a tour of everything we have to offer - shoulder workout machines included!

FAQs About Women’s Shoulder Workouts

Should Women Do Shoulder Workouts?

Yes, absolutely! Toning and strengthening the shoulders is a critical part of any well-balanced, attentively curated workout routine. At the very least, shoulder workouts should be included to tone the shoulders if you aren’t looking to build too much muscle.

How Long Does It Take To Shape Shoulders?

There’s no exact amount of time for everyone; things like level of fitness, the intensity of your workout routine, and your discipline to maintain a workout all play a role. However, with consistent routines, you can expect to start seeing results anywhere from 8-12 weeks into your fitness journey.

How Often Should Women Train Shoulders?

General guidance and best practice for those who want to specifically train the shoulders is to include at least one shoulder intensive workout or ‘shoulder day’ in a weekly workout routine.