Forget the clothes – it’s the shoulders that make the man!

In my line of work, I design a lot of specialization programs to address the weaker points of a given physique. Overall, I’d estimate two-thirds of these requests are from guys who want bigger arms or thicker chests, as well as the occasional wish to turn anemic calves into cows (picking better parents certainly helps with that one!).

On occasion, I do receive more open-ended requests, such as those from trainees who simply send pictures and ask for a routine that addresses what I judge to be their weak points. More often than not, what I send back to them isn’t the latest “pecs and biceps” routine but something to bring up lagging shoulders.

In contrast to today’s obsession with ripped abs, development of wide and full deltoids was priority one in the recent past, so much so that lifters spent more time training shoulders than any other muscle group.

The reason for this is that bodybuilding has always been a sport of illusion. It’s not the biggest knuckle-dragger on stage that wins the prize but the one showing the best balance of muscle size, proportion, and of course, conditioning. Interestingly, the physiques that have this balance often appear much bigger than they really are.

The X-Factor

To create this illusion, bodybuilding coaches often talk about achieving an “X-frame.” The classic bodybuilding X-frame consists of a wide upper body that tapers to a tiny waist and widens again to sweeping thighs and (God-willing) thick calves.

Anne-Marie Swisher has beautifully capped shoulders and that X-frame sought by so many.

Bodybuilding legend Robbie Robinson has the archetypal X-frame, one so impressive that Joe Weider reportedly had his head superimposed onto Robbie’s body for a series of Weider supplement ads. Now that’s high praise!

What if you didn’t win the genetic lottery and instead have a wide waist or narrow clavicles? Although you can’t alter your overall structure, you can make every effort to make yourself appear wider. By emphasizing deltoid development, even “structurally challenged” men can present the illusion of superhero-like width.

Pressing Matters

Another reason why old-time bodybuilders put shoulder training at the top of their lists is that many also competed as Olympic lifters, so there was extra incentive to spend time pressing a heavy bar overhead. However, once the overhead press was dropped from Olympic competition, opinions changed. Shoulder work fell out of favor with the top bodybuilders, and the next generation of up-and-comers saw no reason to emphasize it.

Today, many coaches actually advocate avoidance of direct deltoid work. “The delts receive enough stimulation when training the chest and the back,” is the classic sound bite. At first glance, this makes sense. You can’t do any type of chest press without recruiting the anterior (front) deltoid, and any rowing or chin-up type movements will involve the posterior (rear) deltoids. That just leaves the medial (side) deltoids, which these coaches say require just a few sets of lateral raises. Logical? Sure. But is this effective?

For athletes or lifters who consider aesthetics of secondary importance, I’d say yes. The deltoids will get all the stimulation they need from pressing, rowing, chinning, and power cleans. However, bodybuilders seeking the elusive X-frame should reconsider. Big anterior delts give the shoulders the full, round “bowling ball” look, and these can’t be attained without some direct training–namely overhead work.

You are pretty much going to look tiny next to the shoulders of world’s strongest powerlifter Donnie Thompson (left) and man mountain Paul Childress (right).

Avoiding all overhead pressing also affects width. The medial deltoid contributes significantly to overhead pressing movements, and considering that much heavier loads can be used for presses than lateral raises, narrower bodybuilders seeking maximum width will compromise their potential by avoiding the heavy bar.

As for the posterior delts, the genetically blessed can usually get away with just doing rows and chins, but most mere mortals will need to give their rear delts some direct attention. Additionally, the combination of flat bench-presses and zero posterior delt work significantly increases the potential for shoulder injury or developing a posture reminiscent of the gym douchebag searching the gym floor for his missing cell phone.

So what’s the answer? Lots of shoulder pressing? Tons of lateral and rear delt raises? The answer is “all the above” but separately.

Shoulders Like Boulders

To maximize growth but minimize overtraining, break your shoulder training into blocks: heavy shoulder pressing in one block, lateral and rear raises in the other. Furthermore, during the shoulder pressing block, do not perform any bench presses or bench press variations. Instead, replace them with work for the external rotators. Don’t worry–you can return to bench pressing dominance during the lateral raise phases.

There are shoulders, and then there are Markus Ruhl BOULDERS!

Interestingly, upon returning to bench pressing, your poundages may initially be lower, but should then soar to new heights after a few weeks. This is due to the shoulder contribution to the bench press. A stronger shoulder press means a stronger bench press. The catch is that the inverse is NOT true.

Injury Side Note

Another cause for the untimely demise of the shoulder press is the myth that shoulder pressing hurts the shoulders. Let me be clear – it’s not the shoulder press (not even a properly performed behind the neck press) that hurts the shoulders. Piss-poor flexibility, imbalances between the external rotators of the humerus, and way too much bench pressing is what hurts the shoulders.
If you lack the flexibility to perform a decent shoulder press, consult a good Active Release Therapy practitioner. You should see results within a treatment or two.
A note on tempo:

I’ve borrowed (stolen?) this tempo prescription from strength coach Charles Poliquin. I highly recommend his excellent PICP courses for learning more about proper program design and exercise methodology.

Here’s how the four numbers work, using 3211 as an example:

• The first number is the eccentric tempo, or lowering phase. In this example, the lifter would take three full seconds to lower the weight.

• The second number is the isometric pause at the end of the eccentric. In this example, the lifter would pause for two full seconds; a zero indicates no pause is taken.

• The third number is the return or concentric phase. This example has a one-second concentric; an X would indicate an explosive return, or pulling the weight back up as fast as proper technique allows.

• The fourth number is the isometric pause at the end of the concentric phase or before the start of the next rep. In this example, the lifter would pause one full second before lowering the weight again.

Don Howarth was once considered to have some of the best shoulders in the game.

Heavy Pressing Block

Do this routine every five days. I suggest pairing the shoulder pressing with a chin-up variation for the same number of sets and reps. Add weight to your chin-ups if possible. Your other workout days should be lower body specific and arms – no chest!

Workout 1-4

A1) Seated dumbbell press
Sets: 4
Reps: 6-8
Tempo: 3010

Hold the dumbbells in a semi-supinated (palms facing each other) grip and lower until the ‘bells touch your shoulders. Press the dumbbells straight up overhead – resist the urge to bring them together. Think of that dumbbell clinking sound as the international mating call of the dork gym rat.

A2) Wide-grip pull up
Sets: 4
Reps: 6-8
Tempo: 31X1

Rest for 90 seconds between these lifts, during which you should stretch the pecs, lats, and deltoids.

B) Cuban press
Sets: 4
Reps: 6-8
Tempo: 4020

Grab a LIGHT barbell and perform a wide-grip upright row until the bar is just below the clavicles. Next, externally rotate the bar as if you were trying to touch it to your forehead. Finish by pressing the bar overhead. Lower the weight along the same path.

Workout 5-8

A1) Seated barbell overhead press
Sets: 5
Reps: 5
Tempo: 30X0

Make sure that the index fingers are positioned just outside the medial deltoids in the start position. Start the exercise from the bottom position. The classic Bill Starr “5 sets of 5 reps” with 90% 1RM is perfect here. Perform near-perfect reps and resist the urge to hit failure. Rest for two minutes before performing an antagonistic exercise, such as medium-grip chin-ups.

A2) Medium-grip chin up
Sets: 5
Reps: 5
Tempo: 31X1

B) Low pulley external rotation
Sets: 3
Reps: 10-12
Tempo: 3022

Set the low pulley handle at about knee height and stand with the nonworking side next to the weight stack. Grasp the handle with your working arm and pull it across your body until it’s at upper thigh level. This is the starting position.

Now, externally rotate the arm while trying to keep the elbow close to the body. Hold for a two-count at peak contraction and slowly reverse.

Workout 9-12

Standing press

Sets: 6
Reps: 3,3,3,1,1,1
Tempo: 30X0

Perform six sets of this exercise: three sets of three, then three singles. . Start the exercise from the bottom position, and gradually increase the weight for each set. Rest for two minutes before doing the antagonistic exercise; rest another two minutes before returning to the original exercise. Be mindful not to lean back excessively, thus turning this into a standing incline bench press. Also, keep the legs out of the exercise – this is not a push press.

A2) Neutral-grip weighted pull-up
Sets: 6
Reps: 2-4 (add weight if possible.)
Tempo: 41X1

B) Incline lying dumbbell abduction
Sets: 3
Reps: 10-12
Tempo: 3022

Think of this one as a single-arm, half-lateral raise done while lying on an incline bench. Note the two-second pause at the top.

Mike Matarazzo was another bodybuilder known for his MASSIVE shoulders.

The Next Phase

Workouts 1-6: Supersets

Now you may return to bench-pressing glory! Your shoulder workouts should look like this:

A1) Seated lateral raise
Sets: 3
Reps: 6-8
Tempo: 20X0

Rest 10 seconds before A2

Maintain a slight bend in the arm and focus on using muscle, not momentum. Bring the arms up so that at the end of the movement the back end of the dumbbells is slightly higher than the front end. This places more stress on the lateral head of the deltoid.

A2) Cable upright row with rope attachment
Sets: 3
Reps: 10-12
Tempo: 2010

The much-maligned upright row is problematic if performed with a barbell and pulled to the nose. Using a rope and only pulling to the clavicles avoids this. Rest two minutes between supersets.

B1) Bent over rear lateral raise
Sets: 3
Reps: 6-8
Tempo: 30X1

Rest 10 seconds before B2

Rest your forehead on an incline bench and bend the knees slightly. Bring the dumbbells slightly forward in line with the ears.

B2) Seated row to neck with rope
Sets: 3
Reps: 10-12
Tempo: 3111

This exercise will hammer the rear deltoids, the upper and mid trapezius, and the rhomboid muscles. Set the pulley so that it is positioned in line with the top of the chest, and grasp the ends of the rope attachment with palms down. With the shoulders protracted, begin the exercise by retracting the shoulder blades, and immediately row the rope towards the neck by bending the elbows. Keep the elbows up at all times.

The trunk should remain stable in order to minimize lower back involvement. Be sure to pause at the top and bottom position.

C) Cable lateral burnout
Sets: 3*
Reps: to failure
Tempo: 21X0
Rest: None

* This is basically a high-volume variation of the rest/pause technique. Perform a set to failure (approximately 12 reps) of cable lateral raises. Upon reaching failure, switch hands and repeat. Keep switching from arm to arm until no more reps are possible, then reduce the weight and continue. Perform this three times.

Workouts 7-12: Tri-Sets

A1) Seated lateral raise
Sets: 3
Reps: 6-8
Tempo: 30X1

No Rest

A2) Cable upright row with rope attachment
Sets: 3
Reps: 8-12
Tempo: 2010

No Rest

A3) Seated dumbbell press
Sets: 3
Reps: 12-15
Tempo: 3010

Rest three minutes between tri-sets.

B1) Bent-over rear lateral raise
Sets: 3
Reps: 8
Tempo: 30X1

No Rest

B2) Seated row to neck with wide bar
Sets: 3
Reps: 12
Tempo: 3111

Use a straight bar attachment instead of a rope.

No Rest

B3) Wide-grip barbell row to neck

Grab a light barbell and assume the classic barbell row position. Retract the shoulder blades and pull the barbell towards the neck, holding the contraction for one second.

Sets: 3
Reps: 12
Tempo: 3010

Rest three minutes between tri-sets.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, the benefits of proper shoulder training go far beyond merely filling out your favorite bar-star T-shirt. Balanced shoulder development will make your entire physique look bigger while the extra power will pay big dividends on International Bench Press Monday. As for the improved shoulder integrity? Well, that health stuff is just an added bonus.

Give this routine an honest shot, and maybe your friends will start calling you X-Man!

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Tags: Boulders, Shoulders

Building a massive physique, unfortunately, requires a more measured approach than simply trying to heave as much weight as humanly possible.

To know how to best train a muscle, you have to first understand its physical structure, specifically its biomechanics and fiber type composition. This information helps you select the correct rep ranges, weekly volume, and rest periods for optimal results.

But many lifters don't specifically tailor these loading parameters to individual muscles. For example, they'll dedicate 4-6 weeks to "hypertrophy" and perform every exercise in the 8-12 rep range.

That's a mistake. Optimal hypertrophy training is muscle specific.

In this two-part article, I'll give you all the necessary information on these two topics – biomechanics and fiber type composition – for each major muscle. Today's article will cover the chest, triceps, and shoulders, but begin with a brief recap on muscle fibers.

There are at least three different types of muscle fiber. To increase contraction speed, increase force production, and decrease resistance to fatigue, you have type I, type IIa, and type IIb fibers.

Type I fibers are slow-twitch and type II fibers are fast-twitch. The following table lists the main characteristics of each muscle fiber type.

Each muscle has a different fiber type composition. Some muscles are fast twitch dominant while others are slow twitch dominant.

Muscle fiber type composition is largely genetically determined and has very important muscle-specific training implications. Fast twitch fibers respond best to low volume, long rest intervals, high intensity and low frequency. Slow twitch fibers, in opposition, respond best to high volume, short rest intervals, low intensity and high frequency.

Perhaps most importantly, fast twitch muscle fibers have significantly greater growth potential than slow twitch fibers. Even in untrained individuals, they're normally more than 20% larger and it's not uncommon for them to be over twice as large.

The fiber type composition of each muscle varies per individual, but as with most physiological characteristics, people don't differ that much. In the general population, differences in percentage of slow twitch muscle fibers are normally above 5% and usually below 10%. So, you probably aren't that special in this regard, even though your momma said you were.

As for muscle fibers changing from one type to another, getting old seems to be a factor (the percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers in your body starts to decrease after age 30), although some studies have shown high intensity resistance training helps to prevent this. Bodybuilding type training, with loads between 6 and 12RM, can also turn both type I and type IIb fibers into type IIa fibers.

Whatever the story, since weightlifters, powerlifters, bodybuilders, and sedentary populations differ less than 5% regarding the percentage of slow twitch fibers in their muscles, it's unlikely that you need to take fiber conversion into account with your training.

Also, the theory that high intensity (>90% of 1RM) is optimal for hypertrophy because it makes you more fast twitch and those fibers have the highest growth potential is likely false. Yes, getting stronger helps you get bigger as it enables you to put more stress on your muscles, however, it's also important not to neglect your slow twitch fibers.

In bodybuilders, equal hypertrophy of both fiber types has been found, in contrast to powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters, which show preferential hypertrophy of the type II fibers.

In conclusion, for maximum hypertrophy, you should always try to find a balance between volume and intensity.

This is all basically useless if you don't know the fiber type composition of your muscles.

To solve this problem, some smart trainers – who for whatever reason, always seem to be French Canadian – came up with a test to find out how fast twitch a muscle is. This test is commonly known as the 80% test.

In short, you find your 1RM for an exercise that targets a specific muscle and then test how many reps you can do with 80% of that. If you can do less than 8, the muscle is fast twitch dominant. If you can do more than 8, it's slow twitch dominant.

There are much more elaborate variations of this test – for example, Charles Poliquin uses 85% for 5 reps as the norm – but the principle is always the same. If you want to know more about this test, read Christian Thibaudeau's (amazing) Black Book of Training Secrets.

The upside of this test is that it's individualized. The downside is that it's impractical. I don't know of anyone that uses it systematically because you need to find an exercise for each muscle that really isolates it, meaning it's probably hard to do a 1RM with that particular exercise (ever do a 1RM fly?).

You also can't overcome neural factors. Bad technique or an inefficient nervous system will cause you to underestimate your 1RM and make you look more slow twitch than you really are. You can use exercises like front squats and dumbbell bench presses to get a general idea of your fiber make-up, but it's far from perfect.

The good news is that there's considerable research on muscle fiber type composition.

Now that we're done with the introductory notes, let's get to the good stuff!

The pectoralis major consists of two heads – the sternal head (lower chest) and the clavicular head (the upper chest).

The chest's primary functions are transverse shoulder flexion and adduction, as in fly movements. So, to target the pecs you should pick exercises that involve transverse shoulder flexion or adduction.

Note: it's flexion when the shoulders are internally rotated and adduction when the shoulders are externally rotated. If you have trouble seeing the rotation of your shoulder, look at your elbows when your arms are raised in front of your body. Elbows out to the side means the shoulders are internally rotated and elbows to the floor means the shoulders are externally rotated. Remember this, because you'll need it in a minute.

Additionally, the angle between your arms and your body determines which head of the pectoralis is trained most – incline for upper chest, and decline for lower chest.

A problem many lifters have when training their pecs is that the anterior deltoid takes over. The anterior deltoid is also involved in transverse shoulder flexion, but its role in adduction is small.

As such, if you want to isolate the pecs from the anterior deltoid, perform movements with the shoulder externally rotated. The most obvious choices would be standard fly movements where you actively try to slightly supinate your hand.

However, even though the pecs are best isolated by exercises involving external shoulder rotation, the pectoralis major is biomechanically more efficient and thus stronger when the shoulders are internally rotated.

This means you can't maximally stimulate the chest without training the anterior deltoid and you should take this into account when designing a program. It's a common mistake to overemphasize the front delts.

So which exercises are best at stimulating the chest?

For pressing movements, the more you flare your elbows out to the sides, the better.

This internally rotates your shoulders and makes the exercise involve more transverse shoulder flexion and less (non-transverse) shoulder flexion, which is the movement that occurs during front raises.

In agreement with Vince Gironda and TC, neck/guillotine presses are arguably the greatest pec exercise in existence.

Benching like this is known to cause shoulder pain for some – not to mention decapitate the odd hapless pudknocker who erroneously assumed "Guillotine" was yet another French Canadian strength coach – so you may want to use dumbbells or not take the risk at all.

An underrated exercise that doesn't mess up your shoulders while still really hitting the pecs is pronated grip flys. Most people do flys exclusively with a neutral grip, but the pectoralis major is stronger when the shoulders are internally rotated, so a pronated grip is superior for chest stimulation.

You can do this with dumbbells, but dumbbell flys have a resistance curve that doesn't match the strength curve (no tension at the top) and going too deep can compromise the shoulders. As such, I prefer cables.

If your gym doesn't have attachments that allow for a pronated grip, like straight handles or short ropes, you can just grip the hooks (attachments are for pussies, right?) or pull straps through the hooks and grip the straps.

As for the optimal amount of reps to use for chest exercises, use low to medium reps. The pectoralis major is a performance muscle and both its heads are predominantly fast twitch in almost everyone, with 60% type II fibers being the average.

The pectoralis major is composed of approximately 60% fast twitch fibers.It's strongest when the shoulders are internally rotated (elbows pointing away from each other during presses) and is best isolated by flaring the elbows maximally out to the sides.Try medium rep flys with a pronated grip.

If you understood the section about the chest, you know why benching like a powerlifter isn't optimal for chest development. Powerlifters often don't have the biggest pecs, but their triceps are usually monstrous (Dave Tate, anyone?).

This isn't only due to the biomechanics (arched back, elbows tucked, J-curve) of the powerlifting bench press that emphasizes the triceps over the chest, but also the triceps' fiber type composition.

Even more so than the pectoralis major, the triceps brachii is a performance muscle. Its fast twitch fibers outnumber their sluggish counterparts two to one with approximately 67% type II fibers.

Accordingly, don't bother with high rep kickbacks. Instead, ramp up the intensity on lockouts, dips, and close grip decline presses. It's best to use low reps the majority of the time. High reps will do very little for most people.

There's one more thing you should know about the triceps – it consists of three heads (long, lateral and medial) and the long head is biarticulate, meaning it crosses the elbow and the shoulder joint and helps to extend and adduct the shoulder (move your arm down and towards your body).

That means it enters 'active insufficiency' when it has to function as an elbow extensor while the shoulder is adducted or extended. That is, it can't exert enough tension to be active at both joints at the same time. Basically all horizontal presses, including dips (you might say they're vertical, I say who cares?) leave the long head under-stimulated. You need overhead work to train the entire triceps.

The triceps is composed of 67% fast twitch fibers, so train it according to the adage, "go heavy or go home."The long head needs to be trained with overhead work.

As you probably know, there are three deltoids – the anterior, lateral, and posterior head of the shoulder.

By the way, there is no such thing as a 'medial head.' In anatomy, medial refers to 'near the middle of the body,' whereas the correct term, lateral, refers to 'the outside of the body.' The terms are commonly confused and understandably so, but they're in fact opposites, not synonyms.

Terminology isn't the only thing that's misunderstood about shoulder training. Many people use completely unbalanced shoulder programs. A study showed that bodybuilders have front delts that are on average five times bigger than sedentary people. But their lateral delts are just three times bigger and their rear delts a mere 10 to 15 percent bigger. (Gundill, 2002)

This isn't surprising, given that many people do horizontal and vertical pressing on top of shoulder work – and their shoulder work isn't balanced to begin with. This is partly due to the misconception that side raises are a good isolation exercise for the lateral deltoid.

They're not, unless you modify the exercise.

During abduction, as in a side raise, taking the force generated by the lateral deltoid as 100%, anterior deltoid force is approximately 75% and supraspinatus force is 25%. That means the supraspinatus (another rotator cuff muscle) and the anterior deltoid together produce as much force as the prime mover, the lateral deltoid.

Furthermore, these studies were done on basically sedentary people, so athletes with dominant front delts can expect even worse results. The same holds true for overhead pressing movements. Doing them behind the neck or with dumbbells helps a bit, but they still don't produce balanced shoulder development by themselves.

So how do you train the middle shoulder without involving the front?

Decrease the amount of shoulder flexion (raising your arm as in a front raise). You may have heard that it's safer to do side raises in the 'scapular plane' which is about 30° to the front, and this is correct, but that means it becomes a front raise.

The same goes for not fully extending the elbow. Yes, it's easier on the elbow joint, but you should still aim for 99% extension. This should be sufficient to keep the stress on the muscles instead of the elbow.

You want the weight to be in a line that extends straight from your lateral deltoid. This means it's better to do the exercise on an incline bench. Try an angle between 15 and 60° incline. The lower the angle, the more you also involve the posterior deltoid.

Doing side raises on an incline brings me to another factor to increase lateral delt activity, range of motion. The first 30° or so degrees of abduction are produced primarily by the supraspinatus, after which the lateral deltoid becomes the prime mover. Now, that's not a bad thing, because the supraspinatus needs training as well, but it does mean you need to control the motion at the top.

If you're one of those yahoos that yank the weight to the side and then duck under it, you're just straining your supraspinatus and hardly working your lateral delts. If you do the exercise on an incline bench, you can't duck under it, and can focus on muscle activity instead.

There's one more very important factor that determines shoulder muscle activity – shoulder rotation (just like with the pecs).

The more you internally rotate your shoulder during shoulder flexion and abduction, the more you involve both the lateral and the posterior head, and the less you involve the anterior head. However, during horizontal shoulder abduction, as in a reverse fly, externally rotating your arm actually increases lateral deltoid activation at the expense of the posterior deltoid.

So for lateral and posterior deltoid training, I advocate extending your elbow very close to fully, not using the scapular plane, and internally rotating your shoulder.

These technique adjustments increase middle delt stimulation, but also decrease subacromial space width and increase impingement risk, so take care if you have shoulder issues. Also, you can counter these problems by retracting your scapulae.

The thing is, shoulder impingement is mainly a concern if your shoulders aren't structurally balanced to begin with and these exercises ameliorate that situation, so it's a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg scenario. Additionally, I recommend doing shoulder isolation work on an incline, which is generally easier on the shoulder.

As for the posterior delts, besides internally rotating the shoulders during reverse flys or low incline side raises, you can train them with any type of pulling motion, such as rows or face-pulls, that hyperextend the shoulder (bring the elbow behind the body). The lats and the pecs can't extend the shoulder beyond anatomical position, so the posterior deltoids then become the prime movers.

For front delts, the front raise in the scapular plane with the shoulder externally rotated is a good, risk-free front delt exercise. Unless you're not doing any overhead pressing work, I don't think you need any front delt isolation work though, especially not until your shoulders are structurally balanced.

Speaking of structural balance, to train the external rotators, I recommend face-pulls with an underhand grip. Squeeze hard at the top and pull the rope all the way against your face. If you want to isolate the infraspinatus and teres minor, do side-lying external rotations. They produce the greatest EMG activity of most external rotation exercises.

Remember though, reverse flys also train all the external rotators, so unless you have trouble activating the infraspinatus and the teres minor, it's generally sufficient to just do those and face-pulls.

As for reps, all scapula-humeral muscles are actively involved in maintaining posture and stabilizing the shoulder during practically every upper body movement. As such, they can be expected to have a high work capacity and are correspondingly around 60% slow-twitch dominant.

This goes for the entire shoulder girdle, with one curious exception – the infraspinatus provides some oomph for the external rotators and is fast twitch dominant by a small margin.

Traditional shoulder programs emphasize the anterior deltoid at the expense of the rest of the scapula-humeral muscles.Overhead presses are generally plenty of work for your anterior deltoids.Add incline side raises and reverse flys with your shoulders internally rotated to balance the program and round out your delts.Use medium to high reps.

I hope this article has given you some new ideas to optimize your training. In the next installment, we'll deal with the remaining major muscles in the human body. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the LiveSpill.

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Tags: Chest, Hypertrophy, MuscleSpecific, Shoulders, Triceps

Think about all the pullups, bench presses, dips and rows you’ve done in the gym. Now what if I told you that you have been doing them wrong?

This oversight is limiting your progress in all of these movements, leaving you with less strength and less muscle, and it’s eventually going to leave you with a shoulder injury that will either restrict you to the pink dumbbell and bouncy ball section of the gym or force you to skip upper body lifting altogether while you recover.

About two years ago I was sitting with Nate Green in a restaurant in Long Beach. What started out with one flirty waitress grew into a group of girls from a nearby table, and Nate went into the line of questioning that he had worked out as part of his research for Built for Show.

“Picture what you consider to be your physically ideal man. He’s wearing boxer shorts and you have a 360 degree view from the neck down. What three areas are you going to look at first?”

One of the top three answers to this question (meaning the place a woman looks at first when she’s trying to decide if you’re worth taking to bed) is almost always “upper back.”

This same mistake that impairs your performance on pulls, presses, and dips also significantly shortchanges the muscular development of the upper back, making you look less appealing to the fairer sex. The good news, though, is that it’s fairly simple to fix.

It seems like a simple distinction, but it’s such a fundamental aspect of upper body strength training that it’s the equivalent of initiating a squat with the lower back instead of the glutes.

The North American lifestyle, coupled with common training practices, works to predispose most people to a number of postural imbalances. As far as the upper body is concerned, the main factors at play relate to what you’re doing right now. In order to read this, you’re probably sitting in front of a computer with your arms directed in front of you, your scapulae protracted forward, at least a small kyphotic hunch in your upper back, and your head is most likely too far forward.

Almost all of us do this to some degree for much of the day, whether on a computer, reading, writing, or even driving. Over time, this leads to postural adaptations. The muscles that fire in order to maintain this posture, mainly in your chest, are chronically tightened while the muscles in your upper back and traps are relaxed and weakened in turn.

This tight-chest/weak-back imbalance is exacerbated by the position of the spine. With the upper spine flexed into kyphosis and the head carried along with it, the thoracic spine gradually adapts and becomes limited in its ability to extend. Because the scapulae have a difficult time retracting when the thoracic spine is flexed, you’ve got a one-two punch for faulty scapular function. What all this means is that most North American lifters are prone to some degree of scapular dysfunction, and this will carry over into any upper body lift they perform.

Because the scapulae are unstable and tend to be somewhat winged and protracted (pulled forward), any movement will occur with the humerus pitched anteriorly in the capsule. This anterior translation weakens the force that you can eventually produce in an upper body movement. Any good bencher will tell you that a tight back and strong lats play a huge role in the lift, especially in the early portion of the movement.

Poor scapular function also makes the shoulder prone to impingement and injury. All that grinding you feel in your shoulder when you bench press probably has some roots in the position of your scapulae when you’re training. Fix the scaps and you fix the shoulder.

The last point here is that when all the muscles that should be involved in retracting and depressing the scapulae are left unused or are only partially activated, they aren’t going to grow. This means that your upper back, which is one of the main areas in need of serious hypertrophy in order to exude a look of strength and power (and is also one of the first places a woman looks for when she’s checking you out) won’t be up to par.

The first step is fairly simple: Understand that pulling movements should be initiated and finished with the scapulae. This may feel a bit foreign when you first start focusing on it. You’ll be working with muscles and movement patterns that aren’t as strong or habituated as your old ones. As you pull, think of keeping your head upright and pulling your shoulder blades into your back pockets.

Fixing this faulty pattern by addressing the weak link at your scapulae will eventually enable you to reach new levels of strength in these movements and provide benefit to the entire kinetic chain. Chinning, rowing, and pressing with strongly functioning scaps will ultimately carry over into generating more force throughout the chain, lifting with greater loads, and eventually, to building bigger, stronger arms.

Every repetition you perform in the gym creates an auto-associative memory within your cerebral cortex. This is why it’s crucial that quality should be emphasized on every rep. You’re building a pattern–essentially a habit–and the more heavily ingrained that pattern or habit is, the more likely it will be recalled in the future, particularly if your body is under stress and fatigue.

With enough quality reps over time, this pattern of high quality scapular function will become ingrained strongly enough that it will become the default movement you produce in any upper body movement, even under fatigue.

When you do a pullup, the movement is complete when your scaps are locked in, down and back, as hard as possible.

You’ll probably notice how much more difficult it is to lock your scaps in well instead of just popping your chin over the bar. The bar should be pressing into the lower part of the sternum, not just below your chin or at your clavicles. Your elbows should finish behind your rib cage.

You’ll also notice how much more solid you feel when you do it this way, and pretty quickly you’ll begin to feel a new level of strength and muscle mass developing in your upper back.

Correct Pullup form is demonstrated below - crappy to the left, good to the right:

Always start the bench press by taking a big belly full of air, slightly arching the thoracic spine, and locking your shoulder blades down and back as hard as you can. You should feel a lot of tension in your lats.

In order to keep this tension, you’re going to need a good liftoff from a spotter. Reaching back over your head to pop the bar off the pins is a good way to lose the tightness in your back and pull your scaps out of place. As you lift, maintain that tension in your upper back. Even as the bar locks out and descends, don’t let your scaps drift out. Crazy bell presses are a great tool for teaching this tight bar path.

Due to postural flaws or motor pattern inefficiencies, many people don’t finish a horizontal row with their shoulder blades. Instead, their scapulae remain only partially retracted and they finish the movement by drawing their elbows as far back as possible, which wrenches the humeri forward in the shoulder capsule. Instead, start and finish the pull with your shoulder blades and ensure that your humeri stay seated solidly back in the capsule. The elbows only need to come back as far as necessary to get your scaps locked in.

Keep the head back and the cervical spine neutral during all pulling movements, including chins and pullups as well as rows. Don’t allow yourself to cheat your way through the movement by popping your chin forward to create momentum.

If you care about the health of your shoulders, don’t descend further into a dip than you can go with your shoulder blades fully retracted. As soon as your humeri start to pitch forward, you’re endangering your shoulders and reinforcing a faulty motor pattern.

A good way to speed your progress is to add in some drills to activate the necessary muscles around your scapulae and improve the ability of your thoracic spine to extend. I stole just about all of these from Mike Robertson, creator of Assess and Correct, so if you want to get really in-depth on this stuff, his material is a great resource. These can all be done in a few minutes and would be a good add to your warm-ups. Doing them between sets of upper body lifts as an active rest interval can be helpful as well, and is a good way to get the most out of your time in the gym.

Here, you’re going to let the band pull your shoulder blade upward and then use your lower trap to depress it by pulling down towards your hips.

This one works to activate the scapular retractors, primarily the rhomboids and middle and lower traps. In this one, make sure that the scaps stay locked down. Don’t allow your upper traps to dominate and pull your shoulders up to your ears.

The serratus anterior is an extremely important muscle for quality scapular function. It is often the first muscle to shut down in any sort of scapular dysfunction, so it’s crucial to keep it working well. It functions to keep the scapula locked down to the rib cage and is critical in movements involving scapular upward rotation.

This one improves thoracic mobility. Keep the top leg bent at ninety-degrees with the bottom leg straight. Brace the abs to prevent motion at the lumbar spine and rotate over as far as you can, following your hand with your head.

The pec minors have a tendency to become chronically tight. When you see someone whose shoulders always seem to be pitched forward, the pec minor is a likely culprit. Lengthening it will allow the shoulder capsule to fall back into a more natural, safe position.

One simple distinction when you train upper body can make the difference between continual training and injury, between getting stronger and being stuck on a plateau, between developing a massive, well balanced upper back and being that guy who only looks like he works out until he turns around. Pay attention to what you’re doing with your shoulder blades, and you’ll be ahead of the game.

Written by Craig Weller

Discuss, comment or ask a question

If you have a comment, question or would like to discuss anything raised in this article, please do so in the following discussion thread on the Wannabebig Forums - One Quick Fix for a Stronger Back and Shoulders discussion thread.

About Craig Weller

Craig spent six years as a member of a Naval Special Operations Force known as SWCC, the Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen.

The methods which result from this training philosophy are designed to deliver maximal results with improvised or non-existent equipment in as little time as possible for men whose lives depend on their physical abilities.

This passion for showing others the path to a stronger, healthier body stayed with Craig and led to the founding of Barefoot Fitness with facilities in South Dakota and Denver.

You can keep up with his training methods on Facebook.

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Tags: Quick, Shoulders, Stronger