Saturday, August 1, 2009

Body Building Workouts to Develop Huge Shoulders

By Ricardo d Argence

Developing the shoulders is an important aspect of bodybuilding. In addition to looking amazing when doing a double back bicep pose, they make you look terrific when standing. If you develop your side deltoids in proportion to the biceps, the arms and biceps look large and well defined.

In essence, the shoulder region includes the posterior, medial, and anterior deltoids, unless of course you're including the entire shoulder girdle, in which case the rotator cuff muscles and the upper trapezius are also included.

The upper trapezius muscles extend from the back of your neck to the medial deltoid and then down to where they intersect with the middle trapezius. The deep rotator cuff muscles on the other hand, connect various parts of the thoracic region to the front, back, and sides of the humerus.

If we move a little further back on the shoulder to below the lower section of the upper trapezius, we find the posterior deltoid muscle. Of course the medial deltoid is located in the outer region of the shoulder while for the anterior deltoid can be seen outside of the pectoral muscles.

As you more than likely already know, each section of the shoulder has a specific function as far as lifting your arms is concerned:- the posterior deltoid makes it possible to move the arm backwards and to rotate it outwards. The anterior deltoid on the other hand makes it possible to move the arm forward, inward, and to rotate it. The medial deltoid is responsible for making it possible to move the arms away from your sides.

The upper trapezius muscles also make it possible for us to move the scapula upwards, such as when we shrug our shoulders. Finally, the arms are stabilized by the muscles of the rotator cuff.

There are essentially a number of exercises one can do in order to develop the shoulder. These include, but are not limited to: - the Arnold press, military press, lying lateral press, behind-the-neck press, lateral raises, and bent-over lateral raises. Furthermore, one can include the upright-row and bent-over row in order to develop the shoulders even further.

Ideally, if one wants to develop magnificent shoulders, then you need to have an understanding of how the shoulder actually works, and also how to maintain them. Bear in mind that an injury sustained in the gym will put an immediate end to any progress you may already be making.

Interestingly enough, it's the rotator cuff muscles which are the most prone to injury. To a large extent, such injuries can be prevented simply by incorporating a certain amount of band work into your workout.

Furthermore, you can also reduce the risk of injury by making sure you always use the correct amount of weight. In other words, the weight should not be that heavy, that you cannot move it through a complete movement. If you can only manage to do partial reps and you find you need to shift the weight around, then you can the rest assured that the weight you are using is too heavy.

Using too much weight puts too much stress on the shoulder and is likely to cause injury. Be sure that you can maintain the proper technique and use the full range of motion before increasing the weight.

As all bodybuilders will bear testament to; while you'll have to put in a lot of work in order to develop huge shoulders, the results make it well worth it. Because everyone's bodies develop at different rates, it's important to experiment in the beginning in order to determine what's best for you.

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