Introduction
A muscular and broad shoulder can make a man look more attractive. Well trained shoulders can help a woman’s wide waist to become appear much more narrow. For athletes, a muscular shoulder can also act as a shield. Such players are protected from unnecessary injuries. Frequent mistakes committed by gym goers during shoulder training include excessive exercising of the anterior deltoid and inadequate training of the deep muscles. Also, athletes compromise their safety by undertaking several activities that are risky and injurious. Such events limit the chances of achieving the set objectives. Below is an article to help you understand how to get massive and impressive shoulders.
Anatomy of Shoulder Muscles
Shoulder muscles are stratified into two layers. The outer layer of the shoulder muscle is known as the deltoid muscle. This deltoid muscle is primarily the visible portion of the shoulder muscle. Thus, the deltoid muscle is the part of the shoulder muscle that is focused on during shoulder building. The deltoid muscle is further divided into the anterior, lateral, and posterior parts. Each of these parts has its unique functions. The anterior part of the deltoid muscle is essential for shoulder flexion, abduction, and internal rotation. On the other hand, the posterior portion works for horizontal abduction, shoulder extension, and external rotation. The lateral part is majorly responsible for shoulder abduction.
In simple terms, the anterior part takes care of the arm movement to the front; the lateral is in charge of the motion of the side, and the posterior part ensures the rear flow of the arm. All the muscles of the shoulder perform activities that involve shoulder abduction such as dumbbells and barbell presses. The efficiency of the functions of the different shoulder muscles is highly dependent on the quality and quantity of our muscle training.
The deep layers of the shoulder consist of several smaller muscles, which are known as rotator cuff. The rotator cuff are important in stabilising and keeping the shoulder joints together. Common injuries to the shoulder are a result of poorly trained and overloaded rotator cuff.
Workout Tips
Even though the shoulder muscles are not among the top three largest muscles in the body (i.e. legs, back, and chest), paying attention to shoulder building is important. A well-trained shoulder muscle free of excess fat not only helps the other muscle groups to look nicer but also complements the back muscles, thus giving the body the sought-after V-shape. There are numerous workout options, depending on your level of experience.
Basically, for beginners, it is essential to learn proper exercise techniques, understand how muscles operate, and know how to strengthen your muscles. After learning these basics, you should concentrate on how to build your muscles and increase your muscles mass. Depending on your experience level, we suggest that you carry out these workout routines; 1-2 exercises, 10-15 repetitions, and 1-3 sets.
Example:
Seated dumbbell press: 1 – 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Side lying external rotation: 1 – 2 sets of 10-15 reps.
However, in choosing your desired first training, you should aim at loading several muscle groups concurrently as well as increasing your muscle mass and strength. Apart from the basic exercises, some of the best exercises you can choose from are barbell or dumbbells, seated or standing shoulder press (with emphasis on the anterior and lateral parts) and upright row to chest level (accent on the posterior and lateral sections). Periodically, as a sportsman, you must ensure that you change your exercise in proportion with the loading of deltoid muscles. Furthermore, you should concentrate on one of the rotator cuff muscles or the deltoid posterior part. Recent experience has shown such to be advantageous to the rotator cuff muscles. However, the anterior part of the deltoid should not be trained as it is intensely worked out during chest training. It is a widely known fact that gym goers love chest training.
However, you should be careful not to do too much. It has been found out that too much exercise reduces the quality of the performance. Sadly, a lot of young athletes copy advanced training routines. Thus, it is not surprising to see newbies whose biceps circumference are less than 35 cm and who do shoulder workouts of over five exercises. Such an act is overloading and thus not bringing out the desired result. Intermediate sportsmen can train in a similar way to beginners and only load more. Also, they can choose more exercises and add some methods of increasing training intensity (such as strip sets and forced repetitions).
For intermediate gym goers, I suggest 1-3 exercises, 6-12 repetitions, (which may sometimes be up to 25), and 2-4 sets. Nevertheless, you should do at least one basic exercise. Your second or third exercise choice should focus primarily on either the rotator cuff or the deltoid part (lateral or posterior). Your choice of exercise will determine what training routine you should do. For instance, if you choose 5/3/1 or 5*5, you can begin other loading practices as well.
Example:
Standing barbell press: 3 – 4 sets of 6-12 reps.
Upright row to chest level 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Side lying external rotation: 1 – 2 sets of 10-15 reps.
OR
Upright row to chest level 3 – 4 sets of 6-12 reps.
Reverse fly 2 – 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Side lying external rotation: 1 – 2 sets of 10-15 reps.
With Which Muscle Groups Should You Train Your Shoulders?
It is necessary for you to know that you should never train shoulder muscles together with chest muscles in a day. This is because both chest and shoulder muscles are usually loaded during intense chest muscle workouts. Thus, adding shoulder muscle exercises together with chest muscle workouts is inefficient. However, you should understand that it is possible to train your shoulder muscles together with those of your arms, legs, or back. The most famous routine among athletes is legs with shoulders.
Athletes who have already reached an advanced level have enough knowledge on what fits and what does not fit them. Hence, I have no comment for that group.
Tips on Training the Rotator Cuff
It is a commonly held belief that the rotator cuff is not usually built together with deltoid muscles or vice versa. That is a misconception. Rotator cuff can be trained together with deltoid muscles, but cannot be loaded uniformly as it may lead to injury. This problem is particularly frequent among those who undergo workouts that involve moving the arm to the rear, especially tennis players, javelin-throwers, swimmers and gym visitors. These individuals have often overloaded rotator cuff muscles.
What can be done to prevent such cases?
It is essential for you to train both deltoid and rotator cuff muscles. In spite of that, it is not obligatory for you to train rotator cuff and deltoid muscles together. You can choose to train the rotator cuff together with deltoid or other muscle groups. You can as well decide to train the rotator cuff at home.
What is the best form of exercise to choose?
I recommend that you start with side lying external rotation or with horizontal abduction. In any case, I prefer the former. Additionally, for those who want to strengthen the whole shoulder, you can try these four exercises: rowing, seated push-up, scaption, and push-up plus. These four exercises are not easy. Thus, you must avoid doing them to complete exhaustion. One way of ensuring this is by choosing 10-15 repetitions for each exercise. In case you have shoulder injuries, ensure you visit the appropriate physician before beginning a new exercise regime. Also, be cautious of undertaking self-treatment.
Safety Precautions
Numerous exercises can cause overloading to your shoulder joints. A notable example is placing shoulder joints at a risk position such as combining external rotation and abduction with horizontal abduction. To prevent shoulder joint injuries, avoid such exercises like barbell pressing behind the neck, upright row to chin level (only to the chest), and wide grip bench press. Such exercises do not provide any advantage in building muscle mass compared to other similar exercises. In general, do not move your arm too far to the rear when exercising with weights. Even though such movement ensures a greater range of motion and better stretch, you need to know that there is a limit to everything.
Reference:
1.Electromyographic Analysis of the Rotator Cuff and Deltoid Musculature During Common Shoulder External Rotation Exercises.
2.Shoulder Muscle Recruitment Patterns During Commonly Used Rotator Cuff Exercises: An Electromyographic Study.
3.Avoiding Shoulder Injury From Resistance Training.
4. EMG analysis of the scapular muscles during a shoulder rehabilitation program.