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The Hardest 6 Minute Shoulder Workout

If you never felt sore on your shoulders, now you will.

If you feel your shoulders need extra attention, you have come to the right place. This is the hardest 6 minute shoulder workout that will make you feel your muscles depleted at the end.

Jeff Cavaliere was the head physical therapist of the New York Mets for 3 years and is now a YouTube sensation. He delivers clear information without noise on his ATHLEAN-X YouTube channel.

“The shoulder joint it’s one of the ones that could be hurt the most easily because it’s one of the most mobile joints in your body,” Cavaliere says. So the idea of this hardest 6 minute shoulder workout is to make the muscle sore, but not the joint.

For this series of exercises, you will need two sets of dumbbells, two very light and another heavier pair.

Hardest 6 Minute Shoulder Workout

Make sure you are using a light set of dumbbells for all exercises, except the last one.

  • Front delt raises on an incline bench
  • 60 seconds

The first exercise of the hardest 6 minute shoulder workout will target the front of the delt. Make sure you choose a relatively light set of dumbbells (Cavaliere uses 15 lbs).

Set up an incline bench, sit back on it and your arms should hang on the side and the front delts should be getting a lot of stretch.

Follow immediately by:

  • Crossbody dumbbell raise (45-degree angle from the body) on an incline bench
  • 60 seconds on each side

Immediately after 60 seconds, twist your body to one side and lean with your hand on the incline bench. Your body should be around 45 degrees with the floor and parallel to the incline bench.

This exercise targets the middle delt.

Follow immediately by:

  • Bent-over lateral raise leaning on the back of incline bench
  • 60 seconds on each arm

Without changing the inclination of the bench, lean on the back of the bench with one arm. “Now the angle is going to be this horizontal adduction here,” Cavaliere explains. Make sure you twist your torso to allow your arm to stretch across your body.

This exercise targets the rear delt.

The final exercise is the classic shoulder press, but this time with heavier weights. Cavaliere was using 15 pounds dumbbell on the previous exercises, but to make this the hardest 6 minute shoulder workout you need to finish with a heavy set and the fitness coach chose  40-pound dumbbells.

Hardest 6 Minute Shoulder WorkoutSource: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

“That whole combination combined with the eccentric overload is going to make you sore,” Cavaliere concludes.

Read More: 10 Shoulder Exercises to Build Strength and Conditioning

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