In the movies, you generally see break down doors one of two ways: they either use their shoulder to ram or they do a weird one legged karateka style kick.
Which is the more effective method for breaking down a door?
Your shoulder did not evolve to be bashed into things from the side. You’ll just injure it.
Kicking is the only viable option in real life.
Don’t forget the battering ram 
Donkey kick, rather than front kick.
If you are really short your shoulder might be the way to go other then that use your foot.
On most doors you want to hit the door as close to the lock as possible. A well placed kick puts the force where you need it and poses little risk of injury.
Hitting the door with your shoulder is going to leave you black and blue when you fail to knock it in.
I disagree. Kicking next to the knob is typically enough to make a door fly open, it’s high velocity with low mass and transfers energy directly where the door is presumably latched. If a kick doesn’t do the job you often have better luck with lower velocity but much higher mass like you get from using your shoulder. Next in line is higher speed and higher velocity, running to slam your shoulder into the door, but when it gives way you’re likely to end up on the ground in a splinter of doorjamb and you’ll likely shoot yourself in the leg in the process. If you’ve tried all three and the damn thing still won’t budge, turn the knob and pull and hope nobody was watching.
Having done both, kicking. It doesn’t hurt, and you’re way more likely to get it in one shot.
Even the movies acknowledge that much. How many times have you seen a guy put his shoulder to the door two or three times before his partner waves him off and kicks it in with a single blow? It’s the same in real life for once.
Consider that kicking a door in leaves one in a better position to fire a gun rather than stumbling through shoulder first like a stooge.
If you made it through my entire comment wondering in what badass scenario I kicked down doors, I never said it was badass. When I was in Jr high, my parents started locking up, but didn’t give me a key. I got tired of being stranded repeatedly for hours, so I shouldered through the garage deadbolted door, and booted the next deadbolted one to get into the house.
IIRC, the Worst Case Scenario Handbook series addresses this question and comes down on the side of kicking.
What’s amusing is that in movies and TV shows, often times you’ll see people who are locked inside a room in a perfectly ordinary house, completely defeated by a locked door … which is surrounded by insanely-easy-to-kick-your-way-through-drywall.
All that’s missing is the smiley face on the end…
Howard tries to break down a door
at about 1:30
Nice one!
I’ve read that kicking is better - it’s more concentrated. Also, my friend claimed he dislocated his shoulder trying this, so I think kicking is safer.
I’ve used a combination of shoulder,hip,knee to open a stuck door. (painful but freed the door without breaking wood)
and I’ve kicked a few doors open when they were locked and time constraints warranted getting them open quickly.
When kicking I aimed my BOS (big ol shoe) to strike just next to the doorknob in order to minimize damage to the door jam.
So, mho -
Shoulder - nicer on the door
Kicking - nicer on the guy opening the door
This is on the list of ‘things I learned in unfortunate accidents’, when I accidentally kicked a hole in a wall. It’s astonishing when you aren’t familiar with construction just how flimsy the non-structural components of the buildings we live in are. They look so solid, but they’re really just one step beyond papier-mâché.
Oh, just to add–this applies to most interior doors as well. That clip from Big Bang Theory was funny, but also absurd; the spindliest nerd in the world, throwing himself like that at an ordinary bathroom door, will not only most likely burst it open, but will also do a lot more damage to the door than to himself. These things are practically hollow cardboard shells–they’re for privacy, not security.
A simple front kick worked pretty well for my aunt. Of course she didn’t kick upwards; she lifted her foot, slight pause, then slammed it forward.
I guess it would depend on the door.
I always thought it was kicking for low locks (like on the knob) and shoulder for high locks (like a secondary lock or a chain)
Basically what was said before. Put the point of impact right at the lock-position.