Good shoulder width is a defining feature of a male figure. She is admired by women and respected by other men. For productive work in the gym, every athlete who trains must have an idea of how his shoulder muscles work, that is, know their anatomy. A Competitive Champion physique must have low body fat, good muscle mass, and proportionate symmetry. The latter is the ratio of the width of the shoulders to the hips: V-shaped body shape. To achieve a similar shape, it is necessary to work on the muscles of the shoulders, develop and build them up, so that the back appears visually more massive. Also, large shoulders will accentuate the biceps and triceps and make the arm more prominent.
The muscular group of the shoulders is much smaller than such giants as the chest, back, and legs. However, the modest size of the deltas does not prevent them from developing great strength. Deltas are a fairly powerful and strong muscle group. However, sometimes it can be so difficult to develop muscular, broad shoulders and knowledge of their structure is indispensable.
The shoulder joint is a spherical joint of the shoulder girdle bone and the upper limb, which has good mobility, that is, a wide and varied range of motion. It would seem that it could be simpler: train your shoulders, increase your working weights evenly and you will show off expressive powerful deltas. But not everything is so simple. High mobility of the shoulder joint does not negate its fragility. The movements in the shoulder joint are more complex than, for example, in the knee and elbow joints. Because of this, there is high instability and trauma. The shoulder joint is easily knocked out or damaged.
Therefore, shoulder training must be treated very carefully and have at least a minimal understanding of the structure of the muscles in this area. An athlete must have a meaningful approach to any exercise, with an understanding of the essence of the processes taking place.
Shoulder muscles: anatomy
The driver of a car must unwaveringly know the rules of the road and understand the structure of the motor, the gynecologist yourself know what he must understand, and the bodybuilder will not be complete without knowledge of the muscles of his body. Therefore, the pumping of the shoulders does not begin with training before wear, but with an acquaintance with the anatomical atlas of muscles.
The structure of the shoulder joint is quite heavy, because it consists of a complex and large complex of muscles, which, together with bones and ligaments, create coordination movements of the hand. But to perform basic and isolating exercises, it is enough to know the main muscle groups and their direct responsibilities of functional work. The deltoid muscle is the muscle that is first associated with beautiful shoulders in athletes. The triangular muscle starts from the lateral part of the clavicle, the axis of the scapula and the acromion (lateral end of the scapula) and is attached to the deltoid tuberosity of the humerus. It is divided into three beams with different directions of action of their power. The bundles fan-like converge to the apex of the triangle, directed downward.
- The anterior clavicular bundle bends the shoulder and simultaneously turns it inward, raises the lowered arm up.
- The middle (lateral) scapular bundle brings the arm to the side, with the contraction of the entire muscle by about 65–70 degrees. For the width of the shoulder girdle, the answer is the middle delta.
- The posterior acromial bundle unbends the shoulder, turning it outward, lowers the raised arm down. Basically, he is responsible for the correct shape of the shoulder.
Exercises to pump up the shoulders
Knowing the anatomy of the shoulders allows you to choose the most effective exercises for them. In order for the deltoid muscle to be developed harmoniously, it is necessary to work out all three bundles.
The shoulder joint is the most functional joint in the human body. Unlike many other muscles, deltas do some kind of work every day and participate in many basic exercises in the role of stabilizers, they will have to be trained voluminously and hard.
The athlete's training split should be designed to include at least two shoulder workouts. After all, you need to work out the front, middle and back bundle of the deltoid muscles. The bundles are separated from each other by muscle fascia, so these are not just deltoid segments, they are practically separate muscles that perform different functions and respond to different exercises.
Along with deltas, other muscles (traps, triceps, chest muscles) are included in the work, but only in combination with them the shoulders receive the maximum shock, which leads to effective hypertrophy, hyperplasia and the maintenance of anabolism.
The front delta responds well to the army press, barbell and dumbbell press from behind the head while standing or sitting and lifting the dumbbells in front of you. These exercises help to expand the shoulders, give them a voluminous and expressive outline. The training plan should be planned so that the front delts have time to rest after the bench press and do not get stagnant in muscle growth.
Raising the arms with dumbbells while standing exactly helps to feel the middle delta very well. Isolating swings to the sides give the athlete's shoulders the desired shape.
The back delta is perfectly developed by the barbell thrust to the chin and swings to the sides, leaning forward. Exercises are recommended to be performed with small weights, then the possibility of cheating is completely excluded.
And lastly, before training the shoulders, it is imperative that there is a good thorough warm-up of the joints.
Video about the structure and functioning of the shoulder joint:
