It doesn’t matter if you’re in the gym for aesthetics or athletics‐your shoulders matter. Healthy, strong, good-looking shoulders are the product of smart training and smart planning.

The problem with shoulder training, though, is that the effective exercises can grow stale. You can only do so many front raises and military presses before you start to feel like a wind-up toy.

Dreading shoulder day from sheer boredom? Add some new twists! These four shoulder exercises are unique and effective. You can throw one or two of them into your normal routine or do them all in one workout.

Either way, they’ll help you add some boulder to your shoulders!

EXERCISE 1 DUMBBELL SIDE SWING
(3 SETS OF 8-12 REPS TO FAILURE)

Stand with two dumbbells at your sides. Bring the right up like you would for a traditional lateral raise motion and the left arm up and across the front of the body. Alternating sides for each rep. Keep the arm that is crossing your body tight to the torso.

EXERCISE 2 KNEELING SINGLE-ARM BARBELL SHOULDER PRESS
(3 SETS OF 8-12 REPS TO FAILURE)

Wedge an Olympic bar in a corner like you would with a traditional T-bar row and add weight to the free end. Kneel in front of the bar with the right knee down. Hold the bar with your right hand. Press the bar off the shoulder moving the bar in front of your face. Return with a slow negative to the starting position.

When the target rep range is reached with the right hand, put the bar down and set up with your left knee on the ground. Press with your left hand. Complete the appropriate rep range and that completes one set.

EXERCISE 3 LYING CABLE UPRIGHT ROW
(3 SETS OF 8-12 REPS TO FAILURE)

Lie down in a cable row machine with an EZ bar attached to the cable. Place knees against the foot platform and your feet flat on the floor.

With a wide grip, pull the bar to the bottom of your chin and hold at the peak contraction point. Slowly hit the negative rep with a good stretch at the bottom. The back of your head should remain on the pad throughout the movement.

Repeat until target rep range is reached.

EXERCISE 4 SEATED SIDE LATERAL RAISE WITH A TWIST
(3 SETS OF 8-12 REPS TO FAILURE)

TRY DROPSETS, GIANT SETS, SUPERSETS, PRE-EXHAUST TRAINING, OR USE REST-PAUSE.

Sit holding two light dumbbells at your sides. Hold the weight with your palms facing forward and slowly perform a lateral side raise with a slight bend in your elbows.

Don’t stop when your arms are parallel to the floor, but continue until your hands are over your head.

When you near the top of the movement, rotate your hands so the back of your hands face each other.

On the way back down, rotate your wrists back so your palms face forward and finish where you started.

Continue until you reach the desired rep range.

NEW MOVES, NEW TECHNIQUES

You can change up more than your shoulder exercises; you can also add some variety to the workouts themselves. Be creative and use different techniques. Try dropsets, giant sets, supersets, pre-exhaust training, or use rest-pause.

I like to use the dumbbell side swings to pre-exhaust my shoulders before doing dumbbell shoulder press. I also like to superset lying upright rows with barbell shrugs.

This article by Vinny Russo was originally posted on bodybuilding.com