If you were allowed to train just one area of the body, you’d be hard pressed to choose a more important area than the shoulders and traps. That said: As any baseball pitcher can tell you, overworking the shoulders is a very real possibility, so we’ll be careful to open and stretch as part of any shoulders workout.

After all, the shoulders not only carry a huge workload in everyday life—they call it “shouldering a burden” for a reason—but also play a key role in overall posture and alignment. That’s especially a concern in our modern, sedentary culture, when all of us spend too much time hunched over computers and behind steering wheels. We need to take preventative action to keep our shoulders from rounding permanently, thus contributing to muscle dysfunction from head to toe. Plus, a pair of powerful, properly aligned shoulders gives you a strong overall look. And unlike most people, who lose height over time as they shift forward, you’ll literally stand tall with a big, functional set of shoulders.

We’re going to do five supersets of two exercises each. Do one set of the first exercise, then move to the next exercise without resting. Rest only after the second exercise in each superset. Do each superset twice in total before moving on to the next superset.

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