Best Compound Shoulder Exercises for Mass and Strength

A compound shoulder exercise is any lift where your shoulder joint and at least one other joint, usually the elbow, move together under load. That covers the overhead press and its variations, upright rows, rowing movements that hit the back of the shoulder, and a few bodyweight lifts.

Because several joints and muscles share the work, you can use heavier weights than you can with a single-joint move like a lateral raise.

Yes, the shoulder press is a compound exercise. Your shoulder and elbow both move to push the weight overhead, so it counts as a multi-joint lift.

One note up front: where researchers have measured an exercise, I give you what they found.

Which Muscles Do Compound Shoulder Exercises Work?

The deltoid is the rounded muscle that caps your shoulder. It has three parts: a front (anterior) part that helps lift the arm forward, a side (lateral) part that lifts it out to the side (StatPearls, deltoid), and a rear (posterior) part.

The trapezius, the large muscle across your upper back and neck, helps move and steady your shoulder blade (StatPearls, trapezius).

The triceps on the back of your arm straightens your elbow in every press.

Pressing and rowing hit these parts unevenly. In 2020, Campos and colleagues measured muscle activity in 13 trained men doing a shoulder press, lateral raise, bench press and dumbbell fly at 60% of their one-rep max. The shoulder press produced the most front delt activity of the four, and side delt activity close to the lateral raise (27.9% versus 30.3% of maximum voluntary contraction). The rear delt told a different story: 11.4% during the press compared with 24% during the lateral raise (Campos et al., 2020).

Presses work the front and side of your shoulder well but give the rear much less. That is why this list includes a rowing movement, and why you may want a dedicated rear delt exercise as well. You will find options in our rear delt exercise guide.

The 10 Best Compound Shoulder Exercises

• Barbell overhead press
• Dumbbell shoulder press (including the neutral grip)
• Arnold press
• Landmine press
• Cable shoulder press
• Barbell upright row
• Bent-over barbell rear delt row
• Behind-the-neck press
• Pike push-up
• Parallel bar dip

1. Barbell Overhead Press

The barbell overhead press is the standard heavy shoulder lift. It works your front and side delts, with your triceps finishing the push, and a barbell lets you load it more heavily than most other presses.

Standing or seated? Saeterbakken and Fimland tested 15 men on barbell and dumbbell presses, standing and seated, at 80% of their one-rep max. Deltoid activity was generally lower when seated; for example, rear delt activity was about 25% lower seated than standing with the barbell.

But the men could handle heavier dumbbells when seated: their standing dumbbell one-rep max was about 10% lower than their seated one. The authors concluded that the standing dumbbell press, the version that demands the most balance, produced the highest deltoid activity but allowed the lightest load (Saeterbakken and Fimland, 2013).

Muscle activity is not the same as muscle growth, and I didn’t find research comparing growth between the two positions. In practice, standing asks more of your balance and trunk, and seated lets you push heavier weights.

Barbell or dumbbells? In the same trial, front delt activity was about 11 to 15% lower with the barbell than with dumbbells. Standing barbell one-rep max was about 7% higher than standing dumbbell one-rep max (Saeterbakken and Fimland, 2013). So the barbell is easier to load, and dumbbells ask a bit more of each shoulder.

How to Do It

1. Set the bar on a rack at about upper-chest height. Take an overhand grip slightly wider than your shoulders.
2. Unrack the bar and let it rest on the front of your shoulders, with your forearms close to vertical. If you sit, use a bench with back support and put your feet flat on the floor.
3. Brace your abs, squeeze your glutes if you are standing, and press the bar straight up. Move your head slightly back as the bar passes your face, then bring it forward under the bar at the top.
4. Lock out with the bar over the middle of your body, then lower it under control back to your upper chest.
5. Re-rack the bar before you let go.

Form Tips

• Keep your ribs down and avoid leaning back to finish the rep. If you have to arch your lower back to press the weight, it is too heavy.
• Warm up with one or two lighter sets before your heavy work.
• Do your shoulder presses before triceps isolation work, so your triceps are fresh for the press.

2. Dumbbell Shoulder Press (With the Neutral Grip)

Dumbbells let each arm move on its own path, which helps if one side is stronger, and you can choose your grip. In the Saeterbakken trial above, the standing dumbbell press produced the highest deltoid activity of the four versions tested (Saeterbakken and Fimland, 2013). For a full guide, see our dumbbell overhead press article.

How to Do It

1. Sit on a bench with back support, or stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
2. Hold the dumbbells at shoulder height with your palms facing forward and elbows bent to about 90 degrees.
3. Press the dumbbells up until your arms are straight above you. They can come slightly closer together at the top.
4. Lower them under control to shoulder height.

Neutral-Grip Variation

In the neutral-grip press, your palms face each other instead of facing forward. Many lifters find this more comfortable on the shoulders and wrists, and it is a common swap for people whose shoulders feel pinched with palms forward.

I’m not aware of research comparing the two grips, so treat that as practical advice rather than a research result. Set up and lift the same way as above, keeping your palms facing in the whole time.

3. Arnold Press

The Arnold press is a dumbbell press where you start with your palms facing you and turn them forward as you press. It is named after Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it is often said to work all three parts of the deltoid. I could not find research that supports the claim about all three.

What I did find is one small experiment: Raizada and Bagchi recorded muscle activity in 10 healthy, weight-trained men doing 5 reps each of the Arnold press and a standard dumbbell press.

The Arnold press gave higher readings in the front delt (1346.4 versus 1043.4 microvolts) and side delt (827.5 versus 725.4) (Raizada and Bagchi, 2017). They only measured those two parts, so the paper says nothing about the rear delt. With 10 men and a single comparison, it is a hint and not proof that the Arnold press builds more muscle.

For more variations, see our delt exercises guide.

How to Do It

1. Sit on a bench with back support and hold the dumbbells at chest height, palms facing you and elbows in front of you.
2. Start pressing the dumbbells up while turning your palms outward.
3. By the time your arms are straight overhead, your palms face forward.
4. Reverse the turn as you lower the dumbbells back to the start.

Use lighter dumbbells than you would for a standard press until you can control the rotation.

4. Landmine Press

In the landmine press, one end of a barbell is anchored on the floor or in a landmine attachment, and you press the free end up and forward. The bar moves along an arc instead of straight overhead. That is why many coaches use it when a straight overhead press is uncomfortable.

It works the shoulder, triceps and upper chest, and holding the bar steady asks your trunk to work as well. Read more in our landmine press guide.

How to Do It

1. Wedge the end of the barbell into a landmine attachment or a corner so it cannot slide.
2. Hold the free end at your shoulder with one hand. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, or kneel on one knee.
3. Brace your abs and press the bar up and slightly forward until your arm is straight.
4. Lower the bar back to your shoulder under control. Finish your reps, then switch arms.

5. Cable Shoulder Press

The cable press swaps free weights for a cable machine, which makes it easy to change the load in small steps.

No research compares the cable shoulder press with other presses, as far as I can tell, so use it for variety and for how easily you can adjust the weight, not because it has been shown to work better. See our cable shoulder press guide for more.

How to Do It

1. Set both pulleys at the lowest position and attach a handle to each.
2. Take a handle in each hand and bring them to shoulder height with your palms facing forward. Stand close to the machine, with one foot slightly in front, so the cables don’t pull you backward.
3. Keep your chest up and press both handles overhead until your arms are straight.
4. Lower the handles back to your shoulders under control.

6. Barbell Upright Row

Schoenfeld and colleagues describe the upright row as an exercise aimed at the middle deltoid and upper trapezius (Schoenfeld et al., 2011).

The grip matters. McAllister and colleagues tested 16 weight-trained men using three grip widths: half, equal to and double their shoulder width. Deltoid and trapezius activity rose as the grip got wider, while biceps activity fell (McAllister et al., 2013).

The shoulder risk is real, so the height matters. Schoenfeld and colleagues say that the traditional upright row lifts the arms above shoulder height while the shoulder is turned inward, which they link to subacromial impingement, a pinching of tissue under the bony roof of the shoulder. They advise lifters without pain to stop just below 90 degrees, which is shoulder height (Schoenfeld et al., 2011).

Full guides: barbell upright row, dumbbell upright row and Smith machine upright row.

How to Do it

1. Stand holding a barbell in front of your thighs with an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders.
2. Bend your elbows and lift the bar up the front of your body, leading with your elbows and keeping the bar close to you.
3. Stop when your elbows reach about shoulder height.
4. Lower the bar under control to your thighs and repeat.

If your shoulder pinches or hurts, lower the height or choose another exercise, such as a press or a row.

7. Bent-Over Barbell Rear Delt Row

This is a barbell row with a wide overhand grip and your elbows pulled out to the sides, which is the usual coaching cue for shifting the work toward the back of the shoulder. It also works the upper back and the muscles around your shoulder blades.

I know of no research that measured rear delt activity in this exact exercise, so the emphasis comes from coaching practice. Given the Campos findings above, a rowing movement is a sensible way to train the rear delts that presses leave behind. More options are in our rear delt row guide.

How to Do It

1. Stand holding a barbell with an overhand grip wider than your shoulders.
2. Bend your knees slightly, hinge forward at your hips until your torso is close to parallel with the floor, and keep your back flat.
3. Pull the bar toward your upper chest, with your elbows going out to the sides, and squeeze your upper back at the top.
4. Lower the bar under control until your arms are straight.

Use a weight you can row without jerking your torso. If the weight is too heavy, your lower back and hips end up doing the work instead of your upper back.

8. Behind-the-Neck Press

The behind-the-neck press is a barbell press where the bar goes down behind your head instead of in front. It is the most debated exercise on this list, so here are both sides.

In favor: Coratella and colleagues tested 8 competitive bodybuilders. The back barbell press produced greater activity in the side and rear delts than the front barbell press, and greater activity in the front and side delts than a back press on a machine. The front press, on the other hand, favored the pectoralis major. Upper trapezius activity did not change (Coratella et al., 2022).

Against: Kolber and colleagues examined 159 men, 123 of them weight lifters. Doing exercises that put the shoulder in the “high-five” position was associated with signs of anterior shoulder instability on clinical tests. The examples the authors gave were behind-the-neck lat pulldowns and the military press, so the finding is not specific to this lift. Training the external rotators was associated with fewer signs (Kolber et al., 2013). These were associations, and the authors called for trials that test whether changing training changes the risk.

So the muscle activity data and the injury data point in different directions, and neither shows what happens to a person who does this lift for years.

My advice: only try it if you can lower the bar behind your head with an upright posture and without pain, use a light weight and a rack with safety pins, and stop if your shoulders pinch or feel unstable. If you can’t, skip it. The standard presses above give you most of the benefit with less risk.

How to Do It

1. Sit on a bench with back support and unrack a barbell from a rack set slightly above head height. Use a grip wider than your shoulders.
2. Lower the bar until it is just behind your head, level with your ears or slightly below, without bouncing it off your neck.
3. Press the bar straight up until your arms are straight.
4. Lower the bar back to the same point under control, and re-rack it when you finish.

9. Pike Push-Up

The pike push-up is a push-up with your hips raised so your body forms an upside-down V. It turns the push-up into a pressing movement that works the shoulders more than a regular push-up, and it needs no equipment.

Hands on the floor and feet raised on a bench make it harder. Hands raised on a bench with feet on the floor make it easier. Read more in our pike push-up guide or these shoulder push-ups.

How to Do It

1. Start in a push-up position with your hands slightly wider than your shoulders.
2. Walk your feet toward your hands and lift your hips until your body forms an inverted V, keeping your arms and legs as straight as you can.
3. Bend your elbows and lower the top of your head toward the floor between your hands.
4. Press back up until your arms are straight and you are back in the V.

10. Parallel Bar Dip

The dip is mainly a chest and triceps exercise, but your front delt is involved too. McKenzie and colleagues compared bench, bar and ring dips in 13 experienced men.

The bar dip produced greater peak activity than the bench dip in the pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, triceps, upper trapezius, serratus anterior and latissimus dorsi (McKenzie et al., 2022). The authors of that paper note that reported injuries from dips are limited to a couple of case reports of pectoralis major rupture.

The same research group has also published a review that flags one risk. In the bottom of the dip, the shoulder is pulled back into extension, a position the authors call vulnerable and possibly overlooked (McKenzie et al., 2021). I couldn’t find injury rates for dips, so I won’t put a number on the risk.

Practically, don’t sink lower than your shoulders feel comfortable, and stop when your upper arms are about parallel to the floor if you have any shoulder pain. See our parallel bar dip guide.

How to Do It

1. Grip the parallel bars with your palms facing in, lift yourself up and straighten your arms.
2. Lean your torso forward a little and keep your chest up.
3. Bend your elbows and lower your body until your upper arms are about parallel to the floor.
4. Press back up until your arms are straight.

If bodyweight dips are too hard, an assisted dip machine lets you do them with less of your body weight.

How to Program Compound Shoulder Exercises

The research on sets, reps and rest comes from general muscle-building trials and not from shoulder-specific ones, so use it as a guide and not as a rule.

How Many Sets Per Week?

A 2017 analysis of 15 trials by Schoenfeld and colleagues found that people doing more weekly sets per muscle group tended to gain more muscle. Each additional weekly set was associated with a small extra gain, around 0.4% (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).

Comparing the higher-volume and lower-volume groups within each trial, the higher-volume groups gained about 3.9% more. When the researchers instead split the trials into three bands (fewer than 5 sets, 5 to 9 and 10 or more), the difference only reached a trend.

A reasonable starting point is about 10 hard sets a week for your shoulders, and you can add sets if your progress stalls. That number is a coaching rule of thumb, not a research finding, and your chest presses already give your front delts some work.

How Heavy Should You Lift?

In a 2017 analysis of 21 trials by Schoenfeld and colleagues, heavy training (above 60% of one-rep max) produced bigger gains in one-rep max strength than light training. Muscle growth, however, was similar.

In those trials, all sets were taken to momentary muscular failure (Schoenfeld et al., 2017). So if strength is your goal, include heavier sets in the 5 to 10 rep range. If size is your goal, a wide range of loads can work as long as you take your sets close to failure.

How Long Should You Rest?

In a trial of 21 resistance-trained men over eight weeks, those who rested 3 minutes between sets gained more squat and bench press strength than those who rested 1 minute.

They also gained more thickness in the front of the thigh, and the difference in triceps thickness was close to significant (p = 0.06) (Schoenfeld et al., 2016). The trial was small and did not test shoulder exercises, but it suggests you should not rush your rest on heavy compound lifts. Two to three minutes is a sensible range.

Do You Need a Slow Lowering Phase?

Probably not. A 2015 analysis of 8 trials found similar muscle growth for repetitions lasting anywhere from half a second to 8 seconds. Very slow reps, over about 10 seconds each, may be worse, though the evidence is limited (Schoenfeld et al., 2015). Control the weight on the way down and don’t drop it, but you don’t need to count to six.

Example Compound Shoulder Workout

This is an example built from the exercises above, not a researched program. It comes to about 12 sets, which is enough for most people to start with. Add weight when you can complete all the reps with good form.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell or dumbbell overhead press	3	6 to 10	2 to 3 min
Arnold press or landmine press	3	8 to 12	2 min
Bent-over barbell rear delt row	3	8 to 12	2 min
Parallel bar dip (skip if your shoulders dislike it)	3	8 to 12	2 min

For more ideas, see our shoulder exercises and workout and chest, shoulder and triceps workout.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the shoulder press a compound exercise?

Yes. Your shoulder and elbow joints both move during the press, and several muscles work together to lift the weight. That makes it a compound, or multi-joint, exercise.

What is the best compound exercise for the shoulders?

There isn’t one that research has shown to be best for everyone. The overhead press, in barbell or dumbbell form, is the standard choice because it works the front and side delts and lets you progress the weight steadily. The best option for you is the one you can do without shoulder pain and keep improving at.

Are compound exercises enough for shoulder growth?

They cover a lot, but not everything. In the Campos trial, the press produced much less rear delt activity than a lateral raise (Campos et al., 2020). Many people add a rear delt exercise and a side delt exercise to round things out. Try our lateral deltoid exercises and front deltoid exercises.

Can beginners do compound shoulder exercises?

Yes. Start with light dumbbells or an empty bar, learn the movement, and add weight slowly. Seated dumbbell presses are a good starting point because you don’t have to balance a barbell.

Video: More Shoulder Exercises

Our video, 10 Best Shoulder Exercises To Build Muscle, shows more ways to train your shoulders.

References

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