4 movements to make your shoulders wider and firmer
For many fitness novices, the only important parts in their eyes are the chest, back, legs, arms, and abdomen, and often too many people overlook the importance of shoulder training.
So what are the benefits of shoulder training?
1. Improve the appearance, shoulder training can effectively improve the problem of narrow shoulders, especially friends with large heads, the shoulder training wide, your proportion will look better. At the same time, the shoulder and arm connection are very tight, but also can help to modify the overall arm line so that the whole arm looks more solid and powerful.
2. Powerful strength pivot, many other parts of the training process need the participation of the shoulder, when the shoulder muscle group is too weak, will only affect other parts of the training, such as chest and back training many need to shoulder participation.
The shoulder muscle group, also known as the deltoid muscle, is divided into three bundles: the prior bundle, the middle bundle, and the posterior bundle. The front bundle is the most frequently used in daily life, the middle bundle has the largest area, and the rear bundle is sadly a weak point for many people, and they forget to train it from time to time, being in the most backward state of development.
When it comes to shoulder training movements, many people will say there must be: dumbbell push-ups, dumbbell side planks, butterfly machine reverse flying bird, or rope face pull.
Yes, these are all very classic shoulder training movements.
But sometimes when we actually exercise, we always encounter a situation where there is a line of equipment.
When there is a line of equipment at the gym, or you are training at home and there is only one pair of dumbbells at home, how would you choose to train your shoulders?
In this issue, we will share 4 dumbbell training deltoid movements, covering the front, middle, and back of the three bundles respectively.
Action 1: Dumbbell push-ups
Dumbbell push-ups are arguably the most critical compound movement for shoulder training.
There are two types of dumbbell push-ups: standing and seated, either of which can be good for the front beam, while the middle and rear beams are also involved.
The two postures are also different in comparison.
1. When we use standing dumbbell push-ups, we can make the core muscles more involved, while standing push-ups require more shoulder stability, so it’s more challenging compared to seated movements.
The disadvantage is that the weight used is definitely not comparable to the seated position and may require sacrificing about 10% of the weight.
2. seated dumbbell push-ups can make the movement more stable, while being able to use a greater load than the standing position for training, in terms of the progressive overload principle, the seated position can be better implemented.
In addition, many people who do dumbbell push-ups will experience shoulder or elbow discomfort or even pain, in fact, the main problem is to commit the same problem as in the bench press: the elbows open outward too horizontally.
The way to improve: make the elbow joint slightly inward when pushing, which will ensure a more secure and stable shoulder joint.
At the same time, in the late stages of pushing near exhaustion, many people are also prone to back arch, so that the lower back compensate for the situation. This time must stabilize the movement if you really can not push up to find a small partner to assist or reduce the number of times to carry out, otherwise the lower back is also prone to pain.
Each group 8-12 times do 4-5 groups.
Action 2: dumbbell side planks
Although the dumbbell push-up is the best shoulder training action, it is not enough stimulation for the middle bundle, so we have to enhance the stimulation through other movements.
Dumbbell lateral planks are definitely the best movement to develop the mid-bundle.
When doing the dumbbell side planks, most people choose to do both arms at the same time. But because the hands are more extended, so the body stability is poor, although when you try to keep the waist and abdomen tight can enhance part of the body stability, but very limited.
If we can use the unilateral dumbbell side planks to train the shoulders, then the other side of the body can directly participate in the stability maintenance, it will be easier to control, and thus the isolation will become stronger.
To do this we need to hold the dumbbell with one hand, grab the vertical bar with the other hand to balance the body, and tilt the body slightly to the side of the hand holding the dumbbell. Keep the dumbbell about to touch your body, then raise your arm to your side until the dumbbell is at the same height as your shoulder or slightly higher, stopping briefly at the highest point, then slowly lower the dumbbell to the initial position, but keeping your shoulder muscles tense.
When doing the dumbbell lateral planks, the supraspinatus is actually one of the most active rotator cuff muscle groups, while the middle bundle only becomes active about one-third of the way up, and it will remain highly active until the end of the return leg of the movement.
So we can effectively reduce the stroke of the supraspinatus active by tilting the body, making it possible to keep the mid-bundle highly active throughout. It is best to use light weights for high reps when doing this movement, and be careful to always think about bringing up the dumbbells with your elbows, rather than letting your hands throw them up.
Do 4-5 sets of 10-15 reps each.
Action 3: One-arm dumbbell variation rowing
Usually, we use single-arm dumbbell rowing to train the latissimus dorsi, but here the variation of dumbbell rowing mainly targets the posterior bundle, although the back and biceps are also involved, with a slight change in the trajectory of the movement, you can well stimulate the posterior bundle of the deltoid.
The advantage of this is that it can be performed on a larger weight. (Compare to dumbbell reverse bird)
Movement points.
If you want to focus on the posterior bundle, this time we need to reduce the involvement of the latissimus dorsi by abducting the elbows as far as possible (when training the latissimus dorsi, the elbows are inward and backward), so that more tension is transferred to the posterior bundle.
Simply put, when the elbows are closer to the torso, the involvement of the latissimus dorsi will be higher.
And if we open the elbows outward it will reduce the involvement of the latissimus dorsi, and the stimulation of the posterior fascia will be correspondingly higher at this time, so do not let the elbows close to the body when performing this action, and keep the elbows open when pulling the dumbbells upward to better stimulate the posterior fascia.
At the same time we need to pay attention to the movement to keep the upper body stable, do not twist with, but also to avoid the lower back do not overbend or collapse back, to avoid lower back pain.
Each group 8-12 times do 4-5 groups.
Action 4: prone dumbbell face pull
Rope face pull is a very good action to stimulate the posterior deltoid muscle bundle, but because it is tied to the gantry, it also makes the implementation of this action is limited. (Too much of a grab bag of equipment)
In fact, we can also use lighter dumbbells to complete this movement, helping to better stimulate the posterior deltoid bundle while strengthening the rotator cuff muscle group and the middle and lower trapezius area.
Action points.
First prone on the upper incline bench, it is recommended to adjust the angle of the upper incline bench to 45 degrees, which can effectively reduce the involvement of the lower back.
At the same time, you need to pay attention to drop the vanity and use lighter dumbbells to make the movement better.
Keep the dumbbells in both hands naturally down, then focus on the elbows to drive the dumbbells up and up while letting the thumbs rotate outward toward the ceiling. Pause for 0.5-1 second at the top of the movement, then slowly lower back to the starting position and repeat the movement again.
Do 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps per set.
This training regimen is ideal for fitness partners who train at home, or where gym equipment is often lined up.
