1) Supinated Dumbbell Bicep Curls – The biceps are predominantly known for flexing the elbow, but they are also responsible for rotating your forearms. Simply straighten out your right arm with your thumb at the ’12 O’clock position, placing your left hand over the out stretched biceps. Rotate your forearm clockwise so that your thumb is now 3 O’clock position and you’ll subsequently feel a shortening or contraction of the muscles.

If the biceps can be worked by both flexing the elbow and rotating the forearm then we need to reflect this fact in our training by adopting the supinated dumbbell curls. To get the most out of this exercise you have to maximise the contraction of the forearm as well as curling the dumbbells which flex the elbow.

The most effective way of doing this for optimum muscle stimulus is to rotate your forearm as you flex the elbow so that your little finger is raised higher than your thumb. You’ll be surprised by the accumulative effect this small alteration has over each rep, of each working set!

2) Side Lateral Dumbbell Raises – This exercise is absolutely paramount to shoulder width that can achieved through building up your side deltoids. However, this movement is possibly in the top 3 exercises regularly done badly – and it’s such a simple movement.

As you raise the weights from in front of you, be sure to keep the handles of the dumbbells parallel with the floor, right upto the point that you reach “eye level” – then raise your little finger as you raise the weights several inch higher. This will create a greater muscular contraction and therefore squeeze more blood into target area – capping off your shoulders nicely.