Finding workouts that strengthen the muscles in your shoulders can feel like quite a challenge. Your back, torso and arm muscles often take up the slack for your shoulders in full body workouts. You must use movements that directly target the muscles in your shoulders to gain strength in that area. Here are three fun exercises to add to your routine to develop strong shoulders in just a few months.

Tetherball

This throwback from elementary school can actually help you tone the muscles in your shoulders with very little effort. Tetherball is a fun, competitive game you can play alone or with others. You will want to isolate your shoulder muscles by performing overhead pitches and quick batting movements. Make sure to solidly plant your feet to avoid losing your balance while making fast upper body movements. Try to tighten up your core muscles while hitting the ball for an increased challenge. Moving toward the outside of the ball’s rotation space can also make it more difficult to send the ball flying at a good clip.

Monkey Bars

Your upper body strength will grow in leaps and bounds after spending some time traversing the monkey bars. You will need to support your full weight while moving from one side of the bars to the other. You can experiment with different grips and speeds to slowly increase the challenge and build strength in your shoulders. Do not allow your weight to hang from the shoulder joints, however. Instead, tighten up your shoulder muscles and use them to propel you from bar to bar. You can also tighten up your core and swing your body a bit to gain momentum. Evaluate how you feel after each pass to see if you should continue back across.

Wall Ball

Bring your own foursquare ball to the playground to play a round of wall ball. You can easily play this game alone to increase demand on your cardio system and upper body muscles. You will need to swing quickly to keep the ball from escaping past you after each rebound off the wall. The harder you hit the ball, the faster it will sail toward you. Brace your lower body and swing your arm firmly using your shoulder muscles to give it a good hit. Make sure to bounce the ball off the ground before it hits the wall to keep the game going.

Honing Your Routine

In order to make sure these activities keep your heart rate up, perform each one at a high intensity. You can start off and end your activities at a slower pace to warm up and cool down, which will prevent injuries from occurring. However, after that, it is important to keep your heart rate in the target range throughout your workout. Always strive to increase the challenge of your routine by changing up the order of your exercises, upping the time you spend working out or improving your speed or effort.