Shoulder joint allows a wide range of movements because it is flexible in nature and due to this; it is very unstable in nature. Shoulder health is very important in our everyday life and also is of prime importance in bodybuilding. There is no upper joint exercise that employs shoulder joints except the one for abs.

Apart from the fact that shoulder joint is unstable; there are two other reasons that make unhealthy shoulders. One of them is a poor technique while doing body pressing movements. Normally it happens due to bench pressing too high up on the body or letting the elbows to flare out during overhead press and bench press. So you need to make your technique right.

Second reason is imbalance between external and internal shoulder rotation strength in all of us. Mostly we are stronger in internal rotation strength and therefore the need is to have stronger external rotation strength. L-fly exercise is a good one to have it. Below is how you can perform this exercise:

Take a light dumbbell and lay down on the bench on your side. Keep in mind that if you are doing the right shoulder, lay on the left of your side and vice versa. Now your upper arm should be tight against your side and keep your forearm at 90 degrees to your upper arm. Now lift the dumbbell and keep your upper arm against your side and at the same time rotate the hand that is holding the dumbbell away from you. Now do not force this and take extreme care while adding weights to the dumbbell. Once you have lifted the dumbbell as high as you could, start taking it back to it’s initial position and this becomes your one step. This exercise should be done at the end of your workouts and once a week with two sets containing eight reps a side would be sufficient.

This is it!! How to keep your shoulders healthy in less than five minutes a week for bodybuilding is as simple as that. However you should keep in mind that this exercise must be done slowly and deliberately without forcing it because shoulder joint is very unstable and any wrong thing done can put undue pressure on it and this may result in a shoulder injury.