I workout to move, feel and look my best.

So when an exercise not only helps with mobility and stability but also strength and hypertrophy….

I’m going to be using that exercise every chance I get!

And I’m not going to lie…I love the look of strong defined shoulders and arms!

That’s why I want to share one of my favorite and often underutilized shoulder exercises..

The Snow Angel.

This move is deceptively challenging and a great way to work on not only shoulder strength and stability but even your scapular control.

It will help strengthen your overhead press as well as your pull ups while helping you build strong, defined shoulders.

But you’re going to have to check your ego with this move and start light!

So how do you do the Dumbbell Snow Angel and what are some variations you can use to match your needs and goals and even target different aspects of your shoulders and upper back?

I like to do this standard dumbbell snow angel move seated.

It forces you to brace your core and avoid seeking out mobility from other joints.

It also makes you start lighter and really focus on the movement of your shoulder blades as you lift out to the sides and overhead.

By having your palms facing forward as you hold the weights to do the snow angel movement and lateral raise all the way overhead, you put your shoulders into slight external rotation.

This helps you stabilize that shoulder joint and focus on the movement of your shoulder blades.

Have you ever felt sort of stuck pressing overhead? Like you almost run out of room to really press straight up toward the ceiling?

This posture and grip during the snow angels can slightly posteriorly tip your shoulder blades so that you have better mobility and stability overhead.

This shoulder blade positioning is actually what we often lack when pressing overhead because we spend so much time hunched over our technology or driving in a car.

It’s why we can end up with neck, shoulder or upper back aches and pains with overhead pressing.

Our hunched, rounded posture not only restricts our movement but causes us to overuse smaller muscles, like our rotator cuff.

So by having our palms face forward and doing this move seated to properly brace our abs, we help create the posture that allows for better movement of our shoulder blades as we press overhead to avoid injury and overload.

The snow angel also includes a greater range of motion than your standard lateral raise.

While you will raise your arms up and out to your sides, you won’t stop at shoulder height.

Sweep your arms all the way up and overhead to have the dumbbell ends meet overhead.

This full raise overhead strengthens your upper back as well as your shoulders. It will even work your serratus anterior which is such an important muscle for shoulder health.

While it is a press, learning to control this movement and feel your shoulder blades move as you lift will pay off for exercises like your pull ups as well!

Really focus as you do the snow angels on keeping your chest wide as you sit tall and feel the bottoms of your shoulder blades lift out to the side of your back as you raise up and out and overhead.

Move slowly with this move and focus on that control and engagement over going heavy.

This exercise is best included as an accessory move in a compound burner set, circuit or even burner and done for higher reps of 12-15 even up to 20 reps while staying light.

It complements a bench press or barbell overhead press where your focus may be more on lifting heavy for lower reps.

Now the dumbbell variation isn’t your only option.

A prone snow angel done with bodyweight may be a great activation exercise to include in your warm up routine and more stability focused.

Lying face down on the ground to do this move or even modifying it by doing a standing variation facing a wall can help you focus more on your shoulder mobility, upper back engagement and posterior delt.

If you are using it as activation, consider just 1-2 rounds of 20 reps.

You can also do a more upper back and posterior delt strength focused variation by changing the type of resistance you use with the seated version.

Instead of using dumbbells, if you use cables or a band anchored in front of you, you can make the exercise more back intensive.

You’ll have to pull back on the resistance as you lift out to the sides and overhead.

We have to remember that we can adjust moves to match our needs and goals by shifting postures, positions, loading placements and even types of resistances.

You may even find over time you have fun progressing this move through the same but different performing it kneeling, standing or even chest supported.

There are so many options to tweak and adjust based on our movement patterns and goals.

Just make sure you start light, focus on what you feel working and the range of motion you’re able to perform.

Adding more resistance needs to be earned and progressed into slowly.

For amazing workouts to help you build your leanest, strongest body ever, check out Dynamic Strength.

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