Stand straight with your feet together and hands by your sides. Jump up, spread your feet and bring both hands together above your head. Jump again and return to the starting position. Repeat until the set is complete. Keep the knees slightly bent and land softly on the balls of your feet. Engage your core and glutes and maintain your knees in line with your hips and feet. Keep your arms extended and your elbows loose during the entire exercise and maintain a steady and smooth breathing pattern.

Start in a squat position with your knees bent, back straight, and your feet about shoulder-width apart. Lower your hands to the floor in front of you so they’re just inside your feet. With your weight on your hands, kick your feet back so you’re on your hands and toes, and in a pushup position. Keeping your body straight from head to heels, do one pushup. Remember not to let your back sag or to stick your butt in the air. Do a frog kick by jumping your feet back to their starting position. Stand and reach your arms over your head. Jump quickly into the air so you land back where you started. As soon as you land with knees bent, get into a squat position and do another repetition.

Using a pronated grip, grasp the pull bar with a wider than shoulder width grip. Take a deep breath, squeeze your glutes and brace your abs. Depress the shoulder blades and then drive the elbows straight down to the floor while activating the lats. Pull your chin towards the bar until the lats are fully contracted, then slowly lower yourself back to the start position and repeat for the assigned number of repetitions.
To decrease bicep involvement, use a false (thumbless grip). Try to keep a neutral head position (looking straight ahead or slightly up) as hyperextending the neck can lead to compensations throughout the spine. If the bar is high enough, keep the legs straight and in front of the body in a hollow body position. Avoid falling into overextension of the lumbar spine by squeezing your glutes and bracing your abs. The pullup is completed when the lats are fully flexed, don’t continue pulling and compensate with the pecs. When this occurs, the elbows will flare up behind the body, the shoulder will round forward, and you’ll begin to feel pressure in the front of your shoulders. A lifter’s segment length will determine whether or not they can actually get their chin over the bar, it’s not an absolute for everyone. Lower to almost full extension of the elbow but avoid locking out completely as this can place excessive strain on the ligamentous structures within the elbow and shoulder. If you can’t complete a single bodyweight pullup, start with slow negatives (add weight when these can be accomplished under control) or flexed arm hangs in the top position. Ditch the straps and kips, neither one is necessary or recommended.

Get down on the floor in a prone position holding two bottles of water or the bars of your dumbbells. Your arms are extended at your sides and to the back and are about 45 degrees angle to your body. Lift the arms up towards the ceiling, hold for a second and put them down. Repeat. Try to squeeze the back muscles as much as you can when performing the exercise.

Start by standing with feet shoulder width apart and holding two dumbbells at shoulder height, palms facing toward each other. Raise both dumbbells, ending with arms extended overhead and then slowly return to start position. This exercise allows you to get your elbows out in front of your body into that scapular plane so you can press overhead more safely without risking impingement of the shoulder. It also allows you to effectively overload the shoulders with dumbbells, but keep in mind that you’ll be able to make smaller jumps in weight with dumbbells than you would with a barbell.

This is called the Superman Back Extension. Get down on the floor in a prone position, holding a bottle of water or the bar of a dumbbell with both hands extended in front of your body. Extend your arms lifting them off the ground. Keep your core tight

Anchor: Not required. Attach a handle to each end of the band(s). Stand on the band(s) hips width apart. Now grip a handle in each hand and stand up straight with your back straight, head straight, chest up, and stomach tight. Your arms should be straight with palms facing your thighs, on top of your thighs Raise your arms up, until your hands are at eye level. Keep your hands 6 inches apart as you raise your arms.

Perform the exercise lying prone (face down) on a bench or over a stability ball. This will enable you to focus on muscle movement and limit injury during the exercise. This exercise is done with external rotation, which means with thumbs up. Start by doing series with no weight, then add dumbbell plates in your hands, but make sure you are doing it with thumbs up in order to activate those mid-traps.

Perform the exercise lying prone (face down) on a bench or over a stability ball. This will enable you to focus on muscle movement and limit injury during the exercise. This exercise is done with external rotation, which means with thumbs up. Start by doing series with no weight, then add dumbbell plates in your hands, but make sure you are doing it with thumbs up in order to activate those lower traps.

Instead of pushing straight up and down with our chest doing most of the work, we can make our shoulders do more of the work by pushing away.

Start in the Superman position - lying on the floor in a prone position, arms extended forward and holding two bottles of water or the bars of your dumbbells. Extend the arms lifting them up in the air, bring them all the way down to your hips, then rest them on the floor. Now lift them again, bring them all the way up in front of your body back to starting position and rest them on the floor. This is one rep.

Start position is standing with dumbbells in each hand at shoulder level. Explosively push the dumbbells straight overhead and lower, pushing the glutes out and hinging at the hips. Repeat with controlled, fast explosive motion. This exercise allows you to apply extra power by using the legs to drive from the ground up. Effectively loading the hips will help you apply force, strength and speed to the movement because you will utilize the biggest muscles in your body (legs and glutes).

Anchor: Not required. No adjustment required. Lay the band(s) on the floor and stand on the band(s) with your feet hips width apart. The length of the band on each side from the outside of your foot to the clip or handle should be about 6 inches. Now grab the band right below the clip or handle and and get into a squatted position. Keep your knees bent, buttocks back, back straight, head straight, chest up, and shoulders back. Your arms should be straight down and the band should be starting to stretch. Pull the band up and back until your hand is by your hip. Return to the starting position (controlling the resistance). Repeat. Keep a light grip on the band(s) just tight enough so you do not let go. Pull through your elbow.

Anchor: Secure the band(s) to the door with the door anchor at top of the door. Attach each end of the band(s) to a handle. Grip a handle with each hand and kneel down on one knee, 3 to 4 feet from the door while facing the door. Keep your back straight and head straight. Your arms should be pointed towards the anchor with palms facing up and hands about 6 inches apart. Pull the handles down until your hands are below your chin. Return to the starting position (controlling the resistance). Repeat. Grip the handles loosely, just tight enough so that you will not let go. Push your shoulder blades down as you pull the handles towards your chin.

You’ll have that little reprieve when the dumbbell is closer to your chest, which will help you keep these going until you rep out. As soon as you’ve reached failure, you’re finally finished with the set. That is a great option with dumbbells only to create an incredible metabolic effect that’s going to help you achieve hypertrophy in the shoulders.

Begin in a normal pull-up position with a palms-away grip and hands shoulder-width apart. From a full, nearly passive hang (shrugged shoulders), draw your scapula down and together, thus raising your body slightly but without bending your arms as in a regular pull-up. The best learning cues are: Try to “bend the bar” and think about doing a reverse shrug (i.e. shoulders drawn downward). Do this, and you’ll feel your head shift backward and your chest raise upward, as your scapular pinch together. Hold the top position for one second, then return to the starting position. The range of motion is only a few inches. Do six to twelve reps, keeping nearly straight arms and tight spinal erectors and glutes throughout. At first, you may find this to be a difficult exercise (a sign that you’ve found a critical weakness to correct!), but resist the urge to overdo it.