How to Flex Shoulders: Pose Like a Pro Bodybuilder

If you’re primarily a fan of aesthetic workouts, your main goal in the gym is probably improving the way you look. 

And let’s face it: it’s an admirable thing to work towards! 

Yes, you want to get stronger, of course. But if your main motivator is to get that perfect flex for a photo, we’ve got a simple guide to how to enhance your shoulder muscles. 

First, we’ll give you flexing tips 10. Then we’ll dive into some shoulder anatomy to help you understand how the muscles in your shoulders work and processes go on in your body when you flex your muscles.  

How to Flex Shoulders for Pictures

To flex your shoulders for pictures and make them look more defined, follow these steps:

1. Engage Your Shoulder Muscles

Raise Your Shoulders Slightly: Lift your shoulders up just a bit to activate your trapezius muscles (your “traps”). Avoid shrugging your shoulders too high. This makes you look tense and awkward, which doesn’t photograph very well. 

Contract Your Deltoids: Focus on tightening your deltoid muscles (the rounded part of your shoulder, also called “delts”). You can do this by slightly pushing your arms outward a bit like you’re trying to create more space between your upper arm and your torso.

2. Position Your Arms

Keep Your Arms Slightly Away from Your Body: Hold your arms slightly away from your sides to make your shoulders look broader. If your arms are too close to your body, your shoulders can look smaller. If you want the look of 3D shoulders, a bit of extra space creates the illusion of volume. 

Bend Your Elbows: Slightly bend your elbows and turn them forward, which helps to accentuate the shoulder muscles.

3. Improve Your Posture

Stand Tall: Good posture is key. Stand up straight with your chest out and shoulders back. This elongates your torso and makes your shoulders appear broader and more defined.

Lean Slightly Forward: If taking a picture from the front, lean slightly forward at the waist. This can make your shoulders look more prominent and give your upper body a more powerful appearance.

4. Find the Perfect Angle

Experiment with Angles: Try turning your body slightly to one side instead of facing the camera head on. A slight tilt in one direction can help you show off more shoulder and upper body definition.

5. Relax and Hold Your Pose

Keep Your Face and Body Calm: While you divert your attention to flexing your shoulders, make sure the rest of your body stays relaxed and calm. This way, you avoid looking stiff or unnatural when you take a photo.

On the flip side, we’ve all been victims of working so hard to focus only on holding a pose that we forget what our faces are doing and come out looking a little on the crazy side! 

Think about keeping a neutral or calm face first, then tune your attention to focus on the rest of your body. 

6. Practice! 

Finally, practice makes perfect! The more you practice, the more natural it will feel to flex your shoulders in a way that looks good in photos.

How to Flex Shoulders— Workouts & Stretches 

Are there any exercises or warm-up activities you can do to make your shoulders not only flex more easily but look better when you flex? 

Yes! 

Here are 4 simple moves— two warm-ups, and two weight exercises— to help you learn how to flex shoulders more easily. 

Here's a breakdown of four simple shoulder exercises: two warm-up exercises to get your shoulders ready and two weighted moves to help build strength and definition.

Warm-Up Exercises

Want to build your shoulder for photos? Here are the exercises you can do. Start with warm-ups:

1. Arm Circles

How-To: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and stick your arms out to the sides at shoulder height. Start making small circles with your arms, slowly making them bigger. Start in one direction for 30 seconds, then switch and go the opposite way for another 30.

This exercise will increase your blood flow to the shoulder muscles. It can also help loosen up your joints and improve your range of motion.

2. Shoulder Dislocations

How-To: Hold a resistance band or a long stick (like a broomstick) with a wide grip in front of you. In a pinch, you can use a towel or a T-shirt. 

Some gyms also offer wooden dowels that are great for this type of mobility exercise. Keeping your arms straight, lift your band, stick, or other equipment over your head and move it behind your back without releasing your grip. Bring it back over your head to the starting position. Repeat this movement 10-15 times, making sure to keep your movements slow and controlled.

Pro-Tip: Start with a wide grip! You can always narrow the grip as your shoulder flexibility gets better, but this exercise can be harder than you think, especially if you’re a bit stiff. Over time, shoulder dislocations help improve your shoulder mobility and flexibility, preparing your shoulders for more intense movements, but you don’t ACTUALLY want to dislocate your shoulders! 

Move slowly, and make sure to ease up if you feel any pain or discomfort during this exercise. 

Weighted Shoulder Exercises

Now you're ready to grab dumbbells and do more exercises:

3. Dumbbell Shoulder Press

How-To: Sit or stand holding a set of dumbbells. Bend your elbows to 90 degrees with your palms facing forward. Press your dumbbells overhead, straightening your arms but not locking out your elbows. With control, slowly lower your dumbbells back down to your starting position. Repeat for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

This move works your deltoid muscles, especially the front and side delts, to help you build size and strength. Deltoids are responsible for that “boulder shoulder” or 3D shoulders look. Front delt workouts can be a great targeted way to grow your deltoids. 

Plus, check out our guide to the Greek God workout. This type of workout routine helps you build massive and strong shoulders along with a perfectly balanced lower half for total body harmony and aesthetics. 

4. Lateral Raises

How-To: Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, arms by your sides, and palms facing your body. Keeping your arms straight but not locked, lift the dumbbells out to the sides until they reach shoulder height. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps.

Lateral raises focus on the side deltoids, creating width and definition in your shoulders, which helps them appear more pronounced when you flex.

Why Can’t I Flex My Shoulders? 

Flexing your shoulders isn't as straightforward as flexing other muscles like your biceps or abs. 

Your shoulders are a complex joint (the glenohumeral joins) that involves many muscles,  including the deltoids, trapezius, and rotator cuff muscles. 

Here are a few reasons why it might feel tough to learn how to flex your shoulders :

1. Complex Muscles

The shoulder muscles aren't as easily isolated as others. When you try to flex your shoulders, you often engage multiple muscles, making it harder to get a clear "flex" sensation.

2. Lack of Muscle Awareness

Shoulders have a lot of capacity for movement, and if you haven't specifically trained your shoulder muscles, you might not have the mind-muscle connection you need to flex them properly.

This is a fairly simple mindfulness issue that you can remedy by taking note of where your shoulders are sitting as you do certain workouts. More spatial awareness or proprioception around how your shoulder muscles feel in certain scenarios or how they are taking up space will help you gain control and awareness of your shoulder muscles. 

3. Range of Motion

The shoulder joint has a wide range of motion, but without practice, it’s tricky to position your arms so your shoulder muscles pop. 

Focusing on shoulder warm-ups can help you do this. 

4. Body Fat

If you’re carrying a little extra body fat, it’s possible that you may have the definition you need to look good when flexing— you just can’t see it! Reducing your overall body fat percentage may be the best way to help your shoulder muscles show through.

How Can I Get Better at Flexing My Shoulders? 

Here are some tips to help you get better at flexing your shoulders:

1. Build Shoulder Strength

Focus on exercises like shoulder presses, lateral raises, and front raises to strengthen your shoulder muscles. Not only is this useful in terms of your practical strength, but stronger shoulders typically come hand in hand with more muscle definition. 

2. Practice Your Posing

Stand in front of a mirror and practice moving your shoulders around to hit different positions. Try lifting one arm to the side, then rotating it slightly forward or backwards to see which position makes your shoulders look the most defined.

It can feel awkward and silly, but practicing is the only way you get better. 

That goes for the work you do in the gym and your posing technique! If you’re looking to pose at the gym or for an outdoor photoshoot, you may want to bring a friend along to help you look for your best angles. 

If you’re holding back due to insecurities, having someone else in your corner to ease some of the awkwardness goes a long way. 

3. Increase Muscle Awareness

Work on your mind-muscle connection by focusing on the sensation in your shoulder muscles during workouts and stretches. How do your shoulder muscles feel at each part of a pose? 

If you’re an expert at tuning in with muscular sensations and gauging how each muscle feels in a pose, you’ll have an easier time replicating it each time you need to strike a pose. 

You can also put this to good use if you’re ever considering something like a bodybuilding competition. 

Pro-Tip: Try flexing during an exercise. 

Take a look at this: 

TikTok user Munzfitness demonstrates his ability to flex his right shoulder vs. his left. On the struggle side, he suggests practicing while doing a lateral raise. 

Why is it effective to flex during an exercise? 

If you’re already working on a move where you know the shoulder muscles are engaged and you feel them at work, flexing harder feels more natural. It’s the logical next step! 

This can feel a bit easier than starting from zero if you’re really struggling with the mind-muscle connection that lets you appreciate and feel how your muscles are working. 

Big Picture

Flexing your shoulders for a more aesthetically pleasing and filled-out silhouette— whether in pictures or just for fun— is a skill in and of itself! 

It’s one you can’t train entirely in the gym. It comes with confidence and practice. 

There are, however, certain exercises you can do to make your ability to flex on command a lot easier. 

How to flex shoulders and engage your muscles efficiently for the best appearance requires a lot of muscular awareness. 

You’ll want to do a few shoulder exercises— both strength work and stretches including: 

• Arm circles
• Shoulder dislocations
• Dumbbell shoulder press 
• Lateral raises. 

On top of this, making sure to actually practice posing while engaging your muscles is essential! Yes, it can feel cringy and silly to take so much extra time in the mirror. 

But if you want to look great, practice your poses while concentrating on building up your overall strength, taking a few minutes per day to try flexing your shoulders can be empowering and a great way to prepare for fitness competitions or events.