The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (70 page)

The shoulders can be a very stubborn body part, especially if you don’t know how to train them correctly. Even a slight variation in an exercise’s proper form can mean the difference between no results and major results. Some women have the ability to train incorrectly and still create beautiful looking results. There are usually many reasons for this occurrence, including genetics: some people have a body part or two that simply don’t need isolation or intense exercises to allow them to develop. In most cases, however, the shoulders have a tendency to lag behind other muscle groups. Understand that most upper body exercises include the shoulders as a secondary muscle group, which could inhibit results for the shoulders because of overtraining. What it comes down to is this: If you don’t learn how to train the shoulders correctly, you will not get the results you desire. If you learn what we teach and implement the material into your shoulder training, you can definitely expect to receive the results you’ve desired.

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Dumbbell Shoulder Press

This exercise is a wonderful exercise for developing the shapely, lean shoulders many women strive for. Strong and toned shoulders make you look confident and secure. What good are toned triceps if the attached shoulder areas are flabby? No good at all. Work on creating muscle symmetry and your entire body will look completely balanced. The dumbbell shoulder press will focus on all of the muscles of the shoulder for complete shoulder muscle development.

PROPER ALIGNMENT

Set your bench setting to a 90-degree angle (fully upright position), unless of course you already have access to a 90-degree angle seat.

Pick up your dumbbells and place them on your thighs.

Align your body from the bottom up.

Make sure that your feet are flat on the floor facing straight ahead throughout the exercise. Your knees should also be facing straight ahead.

Make sure that your whole back region is flush against the upright bench’s back support. You must also concentrate on letting your chest relax. When you sit upright, it is natural that your chest will rise and move into the same upright position. This is bad because your chest muscles become the primary muscles working during the exercise and will take the focus away from the shoulders. You want to focus on keeping your back straight against the back pad while completely relaxing your chest. This will help direct all of the stimulation onto the shoulder muscles. If you see your chest rise or feel your chest muscles handling the majority of the work or helping to lift the weights, stop and correct yourself. You are either going too heavy or you just need to practice your form without weight.

Once you are seated in a fully upright position with the dumbbells on your thighs, thrust up one leg at a time. Let momentum help to lift the dumbbells into your starting position.

Make sure that both dumbbells are held with your palms facing in front of you and level with the top of the shoulders.

Relax your chest while keeping your back totally upright and your head and neck as relaxed as possible. Please note that you must never turn your head while doing any of these exercises. Position your body into the proper alignment, keeping your head straight, and stay that way throughout the exercise. If you don’t, you could end up seriously injured!

Keep your elbows as wide as possible as if you were trying to touch your elbows behind your back.

Keep your upper arm horizontal to the floor; don’t let the biceps and triceps sink below your shoulder height—this is the ideal level for a full range of motion for this exercise.

Keep your forearms in a perpendicular position while keeping your forearms pointed directly towards the ceiling at all times.