Dwight Howard has some freaky genetics, but he’s built himself from a skinny, wiry, guy to a powerful athlete.
It’s no secret that the ladies enjoy a nice pair of shoulders on a guy. But how do you actually build broader, more athletic shoulders? And are they a matter of genetics or can a man actually build shoulders that will appeal to the opposite sex?
Well, yes some of it has to do with genetics, but you can also beat your genetics if you take a bit of a different approach to your training.
Here are 3 unusual tips that’ll help you build broader, sexier, more athletic shoulders that’ll drive the opposite sex wild.
1. Focus on your chest and back
Building thicker lats, traps and pecks will make your shoulders appear much wider; thicker lats especially.
Yes, focus on wider grips, but definitely don’t neglect doing your exercises with a closer grip either. Remember, you’re focusing on building thicker, fuller muscles, that means developing your muscles from every angle.
Having thicker back muscles pulls your shoulders back, actually making them much broader. Building thicker lats from their base where they meet up with your torso, to the top where they meet at your rear deltoid area, give you the almighty “V” 0r “X” shaped torso as well – which gives width to your shoulders and makes your waste appear much thinner.
3 Must-do Back Exercises:
- bent-over t-bar row
- reverse grip bent-over row
- wide grip lat pulldown – done with a drop set ( 6 reps, drop weight by 25% repeat 3x for 3 sets).
3 Must-do Chest Exercises:
- wide-grip neck press
- floor press (heavy – 4 or 5 sets of 5 reps)
- dumbbell push-press
2. It’s not all about pressing.
Pressing exercises dominate most shoulder workouts, which isn’t surprising since most of us focus on the muscles that we see in the mirror. But don’t forget about the side and rear portions of the muscle either.
Lateral raises, both with dumbbells, plates, or cables are great exercises for the lateral deltoids. Try using a light weight in your last set and up the reps to 50 or even 100 for your final set. The change in rep count will really mess with your muscles, forcing them to adapt to something completely new.
Bent-over laterals, again with cables, dumbbells or plates are awesome for the rear deltoid, but also using a peck deck in reverse and pumping out 2 sets at higher reps like 30-50 is a great change when training your rear delts.
3. O-lifts, and more O-lifts.
To add real width to your shoulders, cleans and snatch are two of the best exercises around.
a. Because they’re done with a heavy weight.
b. Because they hit the deltoid from a different angle – especially the snatch which is done using an extremely wide grip.
Another exercise that’ll help build with in your shoulders, oddly enough is the deadlift – which you can also do with an extra wide grip to focus on building wide in your traps where the meet the top of your shoulder muscle.
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What’s your favorite shoulders exercise?
