fitFLEX Articles - Learn, Share and Discover
The delts crown the shoulder girdle with a majestic cap of muscle that is both powerful and eye-catching. Everyone wants wide, muscular shoulders that impart a rugged, athletic, virile
appearance. Just as a tastefully selected frame sets off the beauty of a fine painting, the delts set the stage for a more dramatic display of your entire physique.
This is nothing new, of course. More than 2,000 years ago, during the Golden Age of Greece, the Greeks-supreme connoisseurs of aesthetic, muscular beauty that they were-sculpted mighty
statues of their gods and heroes that featured broad, rounded and densely muscled deltoids.
Wide, thick, muscular shoulders featuring fully developed delts project an image of massiveness unrivaled by any other part of the anatomy. I'll never forget the time at Venice Beach
years ago when a group of the top IFBB stars were being photographed-Arnold, Franco Columbu, Frank Zane, Ken Waller, Robby Robinson, Paul and Bill Grant, Ed Corney and Mike Katz. What
a fantastic array of protoplasm!
As hundreds of awed spectators were enjoying a free view of the greatest muscle talent of that era, giant Mike Katz arose from the spot where he was polishing his tan. A murmur went
through the crowd as Mike's massive shoulders dwarfed even the mighty Arnold. Katz looked like a human space shuttle rising off the sand, and everyone was astonished. Arnold said, "Mike
can really freak people out with his massive shoulders and chest." Mike looked to be 25 to 30 pounds more massive than the world's greatest bodybuilder.
There is no way to hide wide shoulders, even when you wear a business suit. The man with broad shoulders stands out in a crowd, and people will always turn around for a second glance at
him.
I recently attended an event at the L.A. Sports Arena and ran into Los Angeles Ram football star Gary Jeter at the ticket window. He was fashionably attired in a tan leather sports coat,
complete with silk shirt, tie and slacks. His bulging, wide-framed delts were so enormous that he looked as wide as an aircraft carrier. Standing 6'7" tall and weighing a rock-hard 280
pounds, his massive weight-trained shoulders are reputed to be the widest in pro football. He's got my vote!
Superstars like Lee Haney, Gary Strydom and Shawn Ray, to mention just a few, are well aware that when on the posing platform they're the first thing the overhead spotlight illuminates.
Shoulders set the tone for the rest of your muscles. If your delts are underdeveloped compared to the rest of your body, your chances of taking home a trophy are slim to none.
Massive, fully developed delts deliver greater strength and explosive power to the chest, arms and back, allowing you to handle heavier training poundages and thus achieve greater mass
in these nearby muscle groups. No one has ever set a world record in any type of pressing lift- bench press, Olympic press, etc.- who didn't have enormously powerful delts. Former
powerlifting Superheavyweight world-record holder Mel Hennessy had some of the widest, most massive delts ever seen on this planet. No wonder he could bench press 700 pounds.
Having read countless articles on delt training in the multitude of body-building publications available during the past several years, I have concluded that nearly all of them neglect the
principal issue-width. While it is true that the various training routines recommended will help add size to your delts, seldom, if ever, is there any information presented on improving
shoulder structure. The larger the frame, the greater the mass it can attain.
Medical experts generally believe that the average man who is nonactive and does no exercise at all will continue to broaden his skeletal structure naturally until the age of 25.
Bodybuilders, however, with proper training can continue to widen the shoulders until they're past the half-century mark. So, generally speaking, regardless of age, you can make dramatic
improvement in your quest to build bam-door-wide shoulders.
The most rapid gains in building shoulder width are achieved by adding mass to the extreme outsides of the delts, but for the ultimate in shoulder width you must strive to widen your
shoulder girdle. You can thicken and lengthen the attachments that hold your shoulder blades and collar bones in place.
The skeletal structure of the shoulders, or shoulder girdle, consists of two pairs of bones (one on each side): the clavicle (collar bone) and the scapula (shoulder blade). The shoulder
girdle, despite its name, does not form a complete ring of bone, but presents an especially large gap where the medial (inner) edge of the bone attaches to the spinal column. This space
is occupied by muscles, which move and contribute to greater mobility of the arm(s). The clavicles attach to the sternum (breast bone) in front, and at their ends, or tips, they unite with
the outer edge of the scapula. This is called the sternoclavicular joint.
Each deltoid consists of three distinct sections, or heads: 1) the anterior, or front, raises the arm upward in front; 2) the lateral, or side, raises the arm upward to the side; and 3) the
posterior, or rear, lifts the arm to the rear or, if you are in the bent-over position with the back parallel-or near parallel-to the floor, lifts it upward to the side.
While each head of the deltoid functions individually, the three also work in unison, as they do when assisting the triceps in pressing a weight overhead. They also team up with the trapezius
in overhead movements. For the ultimate in massive delts, you must develop all three heads.
Many serious bodybuilders tend to overdevelop the front portion while paying less attention to the lateral and rear heads. All pressing movements for the chest, as well as dips, strongly work
the front delts, so it's easy to see why they get the extra emphasis. Arnold once told me, "One of the most important things I learned from Vince Gironda was to concentrate on my rear delts,
which were lagging far behind the front and side areas. Vince's advice helped me achieve more symmetrical shoulder development, and the added density in the rear and side deltoid heads
improved my back poses tremendously."
It is a physiological fact that each of us has a maximum shoulder-width dimension governed by our inherited skeletal framework. Few individuals, however, ever reach their maximum potential.
Genetically gifted greats like Steve Reeves (Mr. America, Mr. Universe, Mr. World and star of many Hercules films), Don Howorth (Mr. America) and Jim Haislop (Mr. America) attained a level of
shoulder width that has been unequaled in our sport.
Without a doubt the most logical reason why these kings of the wide shoulders attained their superwide-shoulder status was because they were born with wider, straighter clavicles than the
rest of us. Each measured 24" across from the widest part of the outer, or lateral, deltoid while relaxed. Each of these stars also had an extremely small, muscular waistline and great lat
development, which accentuated their amazing width. Additionally, they were all careful not to overmass the traps. Huge traps give the shoulders the appearance of being less wide.
No matter how hard you train, you can't change your basic bone formation; however, with hard, intelligent training you can overcome even the worst possible bone structure obstacle. Larry Scott,
the first Mr. Olympia and one of the all-time bodybuilding superstars, was born with very narrow clavicles. With diligent scientific training he developed all three heads of his delts to the
max, and the rest is bodybuilding history.