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For many people, broad shoulders symbolize strength. This is also one of the main reasons why many athletes aim to widen their shoulders as much as possible. For a bodybuilder, broad shoulders are essential to achieve the desired hourglass figure: broad shoulders, narrow waist, and large calves.
To get broad shoulders, the sides of the shoulders must be optimally developed, and the training combination discussed here is a very good weapon in this battle.
Combination for Broad Shoulders
A golden rule in the fitness and bodybuilding sport is that your shoulders can never be too wide.
The width of the shoulders mainly comes from an optimal development of the side of the shoulder muscles: the lateral head of the deltoids. Although it is important to develop the shoulder muscles evenly, the side is the most imaginative.
What Can the Sides of the Shoulders Do?
The lateral side of the shoulder muscles is actually a fairly boring muscle; it can only move sideways. This means that this muscle only works when you move your arm sideways upward. If you follow a slightly different path with your arm, other muscles are immediately engaged. This also applies if you move your arm higher than ninety degrees (horizontally): the force is then taken over by the trapezius.
Just like with other muscles, it’s actually impossible to completely isolate the sides of your shoulders. You will always use other muscles when performing your exercises.
The key, however, is to let the muscle you want to train do the majority of the work. This means paying close attention to the execution of the exercise and focusing on the muscle you’re training.
Isolation or Cooperation?
Back to our story. In order to fully develop the lateral side of the shoulder muscles, you will need to ensure that they are targeted as directly as possible and with enough weight and intensity. This doesn’t mean you have to completely exhaust them with all isolation exercises like lateral raises, but you need to give them enough work to make them contemplate their existence for a few days, without giving in immediately.
Muscles are always best trained in combination with other muscles, and the shoulders are no exception. However, you can ensure that the lateral side gets the most attention by adapting your training accordingly. I have found a very good combination for this, and I will also explain the theory behind it.
The Golden Combination for Your Broad Shoulders!
The combination I have devised and use– I probably won’t be the only one, but okay – is seated side lateral raises followed by wide-grip upright rows. The theory behind this is quite simple:
Seated side lateral raises are a fairly strict isolation exercise for the lateral side of the shoulders. Because you’re sitting, you can hardly do anything crazy to get the weight up. If you perform them standing, you can easily get the dumbbells moving or help them over a dead point by giving them a push with your legs. This is not possible when performing them seated.
Upright rows with a wide grip ensure that it’s not the trapezius, but mainly the lateral side of the shoulders doing the work. To emphasize this, you should perform them with the shoulders rolled forward. This largely removes the trapezius from the movement.
By performing the lateral raises first, the lateral sides of the shoulders are already quite ‘pre-fatigued’. By doing the upright rows afterwards, you can still use quite heavy weights because you’re using multiple muscles, but due to the wide grip, the lateral sides bear the brunt of the load.
You can reverse the order, but then the side laterals are almost impossible to perform correctly. The proper execution of the exercises is most important.
For the true pain enthusiast, the combination can also be done in superset form, so laterals directly followed by upright rows and back again, but that’s really for the advanced athlete. It’s also not advisable to do this too often, as it will quickly overtrain the shoulders. Overtraining also means no growth!
An Balanced Shoulder Program
To get good shoulders, large sides alone are of course not sufficient. Especially for a bodybuilder, it is important that all three sides of the shoulder muscles are trained evenly. A balanced beginner’s program could consist of the following exercises (with sets and reps):
Military Presses 3 x 10
Wide-grip Upright Rows 3 x 10
Bent Lateral Raises 3 x 12
However, if you – as an advanced athlete – have problems with developing the sides, you can focus on them. An example program could look like this:
Seated Dumbbell Presses 4 x 10
Seated Side Lateral Raises 3 x 12
Wide-grip Upright Rows 3 x 10
Seated Bent Lateral Raises 4 x 12
Conclusion
I hope I have been able to make it clear that a balanced development of your shoulders is of great importance. However, if you have problems with your sides, or if you’re ready for something new, try out the golden combination. You won’t regret it!
