Top 10 Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises + Bonus Workout!
Are you trying to get big shoulders but do not have access to a gym? Or are you simply getting tired of weights? This article is going to give you all the exercises that you will ever need to build big shoulders while working on functional strength.
The exercises are roughly sorted by difficulty, and there are going to be three different shoulder workouts from beginner to advanced in the bottom section!
List Of The Essential Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises
Thumbs Up
To perform the thumbs up, begin by laying on your belly. Then bring each arm to one side while keeping it straight. Lift your chest off the floor and make a fist with your hands while your thumbs are going to point up.
Hold the position for 1-2 seconds and then slowly lower your chest down; repeat the exercise.
Push-ups
To perform a push-up, place your hands at shoulder-width apart; while your body should be in a straight line.
Slower lower your entire body down by bending your arms, it is essential that your elbows stay close to your upper body to avoid injury. Also, focus on engaging your core, lower back, and legs to make it easier to stay in a straight line. Focus on your head being straight (not looking up/towards your belly), as the posture of your head has a significant influence on your posture.
How To Make It Easier:
- Do it on your knees
- Put your hands on a higher surface
- Only do the negative part of the motion (going down)
Elevated Push-ups
Once you can do 10-12 Push-ups with clean form without cheating, you should begin doing elevated push-ups. Find a low box/object at knee height and place your feet on it. Then perform a regular push-up; this position is going to target your shoulders a lot more.
Leaning Push-ups
One of the best ways to turn push-ups into one of the most challenging bodyweight shoulder exercises is by simply leaning forward. Since this exercise can be quite a bit of an impact on your wrists, it is essential to warm them up; alternatively, you can also slightly turn them outwards to make it more comfortable.
Begin in a push-up position but try to have your hands below your waist, and perform the push-up while slowly going down. It is essential to lean forward as much as you can during the complete push-up to make it more engaging for your shoulders.
Pike Push-up
The Pike Push-up is one of the best overhead press bodyweight exercises for beginners. Begin in a push-up position and then walk your feet as close to your upper body as possible while your legs remain straight.
You should be in a V-shape, before starting to perform a push-up. Once again, remember to keep your elbows in and do not arch your back!
Handstand Push-ups
Once Pike Push-ups are comfortable, you can start working on wall-assisted Handstand Push-ups; if you want to train for freestanding handstand push-ups, it makes a lot more sense to face the wall with your belly. Walk your feet up to a wall and then slowly go down, while avoiding to let your elbows go outwards.
It is okay not to be completely overhead while keeping a couple of inch distance from the wall with your hands.
Diver Push-ups
Begin in a Pike position, while keeping your legs and upper body straight. Start performing a push-up but bend your hips at the same time, while pushing forward. End in a position where you look ahead, and your back is slightly curved. Watch the video at the side for visual reference!
Skin The Cat
One of the healthiest shoulder exercises in terms of mobility and strength is called skin the cat. Start by hanging on a bar; then bring your knees towards your chest while keeping your arms entirely straight.
Begin turning your body until you're upside down and then keep going as far as you can. Slowly rotate all the way back and perform the exercise again. Your arms must be entirely straight throughout the movement!
Tucked Planche Push-ups
If you're more advanced, you can try to do tucked planche dips; begin in a tucked planche position on low parallel bars. (If you don't know what a tucked planche is, check out the Statics section below!).
Your knees have to be above the bar in the starting position, then slowly lower your body down by bending your arms.
Your hips have to stay up even while going down. Once you're at the lowest point possible, begin pushing yourself up again. Even if the bars are very low you should never touch the floor with your legs!
Statics:
In fact, there are quite a lot of static elements out of calisthenics, gymnastics & street workout, which are excellent ways to have more fun with building up shoulder strength.
Handstand
Without a doubt, the most famous shoulder static exercise is the handstand. Your body has to be in an entirely straight line, with particular attention to not arching your back.
To learn the handstand begin by doing a chest wall handstand and slowly start to move your hands closer and closer to the wall. This is going to help you to understand the shape that you should be in when performing a handstand.
After that, you can start facing the wall and practice kicking up into a handstand; try to focus on touching the wall as little as possible with your legs when kicking. Then focus on slowly bringing your feet away from the wall and back to it. The balance in a handstand is primarily controlled by the motion of your fingers, which is also why they should be widespread!
Front lever
With a front lever, you are going to be hanging on a bar (arms straight!!!), with your entire body parallel to the floor. To practice this skill, it helps to work on "skin the cat," while focusing on extending your legs further and further out. Remember that it takes a couple of months to get a decent front lever if you're a beginner!
Back lever
The back lever is similar to the front-lever, but your belly is going to face the floor. Once again, try to improve your skin-the cat and focus on extending your legs further out.
The progressions to learn a back lever are:
- Tucked Back lever
- Advanced Tucked Backlever (legs slightly further out)
- Single Leg Front Lever (only one leg straight)
- Straddle Front Lever
- Full Front Lever
Begin with the first skill; once you're able to hold it for 5-7 seconds, you can move to the next progressions.
Planche
The Planche is the hardest static shoulder exercise on the list and overall one of the most challenging skills to acquire. A planche position is the same as a regular push-up position, but your legs are going to be entirely off the ground, whereas your entire body is straight and parallel to the floor.
To be able to perform a planche, you need to lean forward a lot to make it as easy as possible. Still, you are going to need to perform a lot of drills to learn this skill which are:
- Leaning Push-ups
- Pseudo Planche Hold (Get into Push-up shape and lean forward as much as you can)
- Tucked Planche (Get your knees close to your chest without touching the floor with your feet)
- Advanced Tuck (Legs further out)
- Single-Leg Planche (One leg entirely straight)
- Straddle Planche (both legs out but spread apart)
- Full-planche
It is gratifying to learn the Planche, even unlocking one of the progressions, which makes it a fun exercise to get incredible shoulder strength! But remember that it isn't a skill that you can learn in a couple of weeks, it takes at least half a year of regular practice!
Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises - The Workout:
Try out one of these simple bodyweight shoulder workouts & remember to chose a workout according to your level!
Do 3 sets of each exercise while performing at least 8-12 repetitions. If you can do more than 12 repetitions, you should move to harder exercises!
Beginner
- Thumbs Up
- Negative Push-ups (use at least 3 sec to go down!)
- Elevated Push-ups
Intermediate
- Pike Push-ups
- Skin The Cat (4 repetitions)
- Thumbs Up
Advanced
- Tucked Planche Push-ups
- Skin the cat (stay in advanced tuck!)
- Handstand Push-ups
Conclusion:
The shoulders can be targeted quite well without any weights at all if you know enough exercise. The only downside is that many of the activities can be quite a lot of impact on your wrists, which is why you should warm them up as much as possible with stretches & rolling.
If you want to learn how to target other muscle groups only by bodyweight exercises, you should take a look at our bodyweight training articles.
Share this article with your friends if they might find it helpful! Also, feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or doubts about the exercises!
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