Shoulder training is particularly important because strong shoulders are the basis for many other exercises. For aesthetic reasons too, it is a training goal for many men to get broad shoulders.
The Arnold Press, in particular, is an ideal shoulder exercise because it contributes significantly to a broad shoulder by strengthening the deltoid muscle.
During training, it is essential to ensure that the exercises are carried out correctly, otherwise, the shoulder joint can be damaged.
Good shoulder training is essential for muscle training. Not only the front shoulder should be trained, but the entire shoulder area.
The following shoulder exercises are a selection of excellent exercises for a nicely broad and round shoulder. They can be easily integrated into your shoulder training.
Of course, there are lots of other exercises and opportunities to build up broad shoulders. How do you train? We look forward to your comments and other tips.
1. Superset exercise for the shoulder: three exercises in one
There is no break between the shoulder exercises, which is why the barbell and dumbbells should be ready.
The superset helps to efficiently train the side and front shoulders. You should do three to four sets of him.
Exercise 1: pressing the neck with the barbell: not too much weight, because a clean execution is important for a beautiful shoulder shape; 10 to 12 repetitions.
Exercise 2: Dumbbell Lateral Raising & Front Raising: alternating a sideways movement and a front movement; 10 repetitions each.
Exercise 3: Dumbbell front press: parallel elbows and dumbbells up; repeat until there is no more power.
1.1. Exercise your shoulders from the side: What should you watch out for and how do I do it correctly?
The clean execution of the exercises is more important than heavyweight.
Shoulder training often makes the mistake that the movements only train the front shoulder. However, so that the shoulder area is round and beautiful, the other shoulder areas should not be neglected.
For example, you can integrate front lifting or rowing into the shoulder workout. Lateral lifting of dumbbells is also suitable, but this must not be done with momentum. Otherwise, the side shoulder muscles do not work or work too little.
It is important to take less weight and to keep clean the dumbbells during lateral raises up and the dumbbells screw something. You can do numerous repetitions for intensive training.
1.2. Upright rowing: advanced shoulder training
Upright rowing is excellent for efficient shoulder training. However, this must be done correctly, otherwise, there is a high risk of injury. Beginners should refrain from this exercise.
How it works:
Grab the barbell a little wider than shoulder-width
Possibly crouch something
Elbow points slightly forward
Raise barbell to the max (up to chin)
Tip: Don’t do too much weight with this shoulder exercise. You should just do 10 to 12 repetitions with it. If the exercise is carried out as described above, you will train the side, back and front shoulders as well as the neck muscles very effectively.
1.3. How is the Arnold Press carried out?
The Arnold Press is a very good exercise for the shoulder if it is done correctly. With it you train especially the front part of the deltoid muscle, which contributes significantly to a strong and beautiful shoulder.
Tips: However , it is often carried out incorrectly by guiding the arms with the dumbbells as with the butterfly and then lifting them up. This creates a rotational movement that doesn’t do much for shoulder training, goes on the joint and can even be harmful.
Here are some tips to help you do this shoulder exercise properly in your shouldertraining:
Do not put too much weight on the two dumbbells; a little less than your usual shoulder press
Sit on a bench with a back section so that your back is straight and stable
Do not twist too much in your arms to allow a long range of motion for the shoulder
Do not bring your arms together, but your elbows apart and then push the dumbbells up
Incorporate a slight curve into the upward movement of the arms
Sling training exercises for your upper back, shoulders and neck. Do you want to improve your posture? Do you have neck pain all the time and want to prevent it?
In this article, you will find seven effective exercises with the sling trainer that can support you in your project. Sling training is increasingly used in the prevention or as a rehabilitation measure for back or neck complaints.
The sling training was originally developed by two Norwegian physiotherapists. The American TRX inventors then made it suitable for the general public. And now it is used equally in physiotherapy and fitness.
Sling training workout with 7 exercises in the video
7 Sling Training Exercises – Corrective Instructions
1. Sling training – tight rowing (ideal for beginners)
Starting position arms stretched
Palms face each other in the hammer grip
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Your body stays in line like a stable board
Therefore, the stomach and buttocks are firm
End position arms bent
Shoulders are behind / below
Bring shoulder blades together as if you wanted to crack a nut
Muscles
Entire upper back
Shoulders
neck
Arm muscles
Sling training – tight rowing
2. Sling training – long rowing (a bit more advanced)
Starting position arms stretched
Palms face down in a wide grip
Elbows are just below the shoulders
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Your body stays in line like a stable board
Therefore, the stomach and buttocks are firm
End position arms bent, handles almost on the shoulders
Shoulders are behind / below
Bring shoulder blades together as if you wanted to crack a nut
Muscles
Entire upper back
Shoulders
neck
Arm muscles
Wide rowing
3. Tight rowing from a crouch
Starting position in a crouch and arms stretched
Palms face each other in the hammer grip
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Legs help with the upward movement
End position arms bent
Your body is in a line like a stable board
Therefore, the stomach and buttocks are firm
Bring shoulder blades together as if you wanted to crack a nut
Muscles
Entire upper back
Shoulders
neck
Arm muscles
Legs and buttocks
Tight rowing from a crouch
4. Wide rowing from a crouch
Starting position in a crouch and arms stretched
Palms face down in a wide grip
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Legs help with the upward movement
End position arms bent handles almost on the shoulders
Shoulders are behind / below
Your body is in a line like a stable board
Therefore, the stomach and buttocks are firm
Bring shoulder blades together as if you wanted to crack a nut
Muscles
Entire upper back
Shoulders
neck
Arm muscles
Legs and buttocks
Long rowing from a crouch
5. Sling Training – Butterfly Reverse (for beginners)
Starting position arms stretched
Palms face each other in the hammer grip
Legs in step position
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Your body stays in line like a stable board
Therefore, the stomach and buttocks are firm
Shoulders are behind / below
You pull your hands out
Your arms almost stay stretched
Bring shoulder blades together as if you wanted to crack a nut
Muscles
Entire upper back
Shoulders (especially outer part)
neck
Butterfly Reverse Women
6. Sling Training – Butterfly Reverse (for advanced)
Starting position arms stretched
Palms face each other in the hammer grip
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Your body stays in line like a stable board
Therefore, the stomach and buttocks are firm
Shoulders are behind / below
You pull your hands out
Your arms almost stay stretched
Bring shoulder blades together as if you wanted to crack a nut
Muscles
Entire upper back
Shoulders (especially outer part)
neck
Butterfly reverse advanced
7. Sling Training – Front Raise Stretched
Starting position arms stretched
Palms face down shoulder width
The further you are in an inclined position, the more difficult the exercise will be
Treat your shoulders to a gentle mobilization to make the joints more flexible and the muscles supple again. Use the following exercises, which you can best take part in while reading:
Circling shoulders relaxed
The exercises are quite easy to understand: Start by turning your shoulders backward in large, gentle movements. You should make several passes – but please make sure you circle in a relaxed, large and enjoyable manner.
This mobilizes, on the one hand, the bony parts of the joint and on the other hand also makes the muscles more supple, which stabilizes and encompasses the shoulder joint. Tension and tension in the shoulders and neck can be reduced. You may already be feeling how this area becomes more flexible.
Later, as a variation, you can bend your elbows and reach for your shoulder joints with your fingertips. Then paint circles in the air with your elbows extended sideways – sometimes getting bigger, sometimes getting smaller, circling forwards and backward. Here, too, several passes. In my yoga classes, I practice this for 2-3 minutes.
Actively raise and lower shoulders
Next up is the shoulder-neck muscle. This muscle stretches when the shoulders drop forward, causing it to cramp. This can be felt on a firm neck.
You can also do this exercise anywhere, anytime. It consists of two parts: an active tension of the muscles and a subsequent passive relaxation. If you have ever practiced progressive muscle relaxation according to Jacobsen (PMR), then you are familiar with this principle.
Start by actively lifting your shoulders. Run them back and up. Tense your neck and shoulders – and hold this tension for 3-5 soft breaths. Then exhale and let your shoulders drop backward. Take a little break and enjoy how the shoulder-neck area slowly relaxes. Then repeat three more runs.
You can round off this sequence by gently circling your shoulders.
Strengthening the shoulder muscles
In the typical sitting position, the back slumps round and the shoulder joints fall forward. As a result, the muscles that connect the shoulder blades to the spine are too long in stretching and thus become cramped over time.
Therefore, the aim of this sequence is to give a strengthening impulse to the muscles and to pull the shoulder blades back towards the spine.
Strengthening the shoulder blades: Cross your arms behind your body, roll your shoulders back and then raise your straight arms.
For this, you need some space to the rear. First, fold your fingers behind your buttocks and roll your shoulders back down. Then raise your stretched arms backward and upwards as far as this seems comfortable. Do you feel the centering force between the shoulder blades and the gentle stretch in the front of the chest between the shoulders and sternum? Breathe there with relish.
Hold your raised arms for a few deep and soft breaths – then dissolve again. You are welcome to repeat this exercise. Please take care not to let your head sink too far forwards or to round your back while doing this.
Conclusion
A tense neck and pain in the shoulders are commonplace and due to our one-sided movements and postures. With the exercises presented, it is possible to bring the shoulders and the surrounding muscles back into a gentle movement and thereby relieve tension.
Highly complex and a bunch of different muscles that allow you an unimaginable number of movements.
The visible area of the shoulder muscles (deltoid) consists of three separate parts – front, side, and rear shoulder. We focus our shoulder training on this.
All three parts perform different tasks depending on the movement and position of the arm [1] .
For this reason, a single shoulder exercise is not enough to train all parts. Unless you’re a genetic freak. You never know…
THE DELTOID
PARS CLAVICULARIS (, ANTERIOR DELTOID MUSCLE ”):
The front shoulder arises at the beginning of the clavicle and starts again at the humerus.
It hardly makes you look wider, but it helps you a lot with the bench press.
Already knew?
The front shoulder of an average bodybuilder is five times larger than that of a “normal” person. And that’s the problem. Later more…
PARS ACROMIALIS (“LATERAL DELTOID MUSCLE”):
The lateral shoulder arises directly from the upper shoulder blade (shoulder roof) and starts again at the outer part of the humerus.
The side delta is the muscle that actually makes you look wide.
If two cannonballs stick to the side of your body, you’ve made it.
PARS SPINALIS (,, POSTERIOR DELTOID MUSCLE ”):
The back shoulder arises from the back shoulder blade and starts again directly at the humerus.
A pronounced back shoulder has three key advantages:
It gives you a 3D look from the side
It prevents muscular imbalances and thus injuries
It prevents the barbell from slipping away in low bar squats
THE OPTIMAL REP RANGE
Is there an optimal rep range for muscle building?
Or is it pure fiction? And if so, w ovon depends on this?
Human skeletal muscles consist of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers. The ratio of the muscle fiber types in the target muscle is decisive for the “perfect” rep range.
Quickly twitching
Slowly twitching
High power development
Low power development
Fatigue quickly
Very persistent
High growth potential
Low growth potential
Activation for strength and fast sports
Activation for endurance sports
The more fast-twitch fibers are represented, the more the training has to be designed for heavyweights. And the more slow-twitch fibers are represented, the more volume training is required.
The only question is:
What is the fiber distribution in the shoulder muscles and thus the optimal rep range?
THE SOLUTION TO THE RIDDLE
Train your shoulder in all rep areas to get the most out of yourself.
A sufficient number of studies have shown that the shoulder muscles consist of about 50% fast-twitch and about 50% slow-twitch muscle fibers.
It is advisable to start with a heavy pressure exercise at the beginning since most of the weight can be used there and you are still coordinatively fit.
All other exercises, in most cases isolation exercises, lend themselves to higher repetition areas.
TRAINING THE FRONT SHOULDER
The main function of the front shoulder is to perform shoulder flexion. Since this is also a task of the upper part of the pectoral muscle, both muscles always work as synergistic (together).
The front shoulder is already used during breast training.
The “problem” of the matter:
The front shoulder is already strained enormously during breast training due to its function.
All pressure exercises for the chest activate a large part of the muscle fibers of the front shoulder muscle – especially the incline bench press [9]
To put it more clearly:
If you train your chest properly, you can save yourself training on the front shoulder. Or reduce it to a minimum.
Instead, focus on the back part during shoulder training. Unfortunately, this is neglected by far too many athletes.
However, if you can’t do without training the front shoulder for performance reasons, there is one exercise that is essential in your training plan: shoulder pressing.
THE BEST SHOULDER EXERCISES FOR THE FRONT SHOULDER
Fig. 1: Muscle fiber activation of the front shoulder during ten different exercises.
MVC = Maximum Voluntary Contraction
# 1 SHOULDER PRESS
Shoulder pressing is one of the most important basic exercises that you should definitely have learned and trained at the beginning of your training career.
Not only that your shoulder muscles grow out of it. Shoulder presses are also extremely suitable as an assistant exercise for bench press if you are doing powerlifting.
If you get stronger in the shoulder press, you can almost certainly assume that this increase in strength will be transferred to the bench press.
However, the question is:
Which variant of the shoulder press is the most effective?
Sitting with dumbbells?
Standing with dumbbells?
Sitting with the barbell?
Standing with the barbell?
And the solution is: standing shoulder press with dumbbells.
In contrast to all other variants, this variant activates most muscle fibers in the front and side shoulder muscles.
Standing shoulder presses with dumbbells may have performed best in the EMG measurements, but how practical is this exercise?
HERE’S THE STICKING POINT:
If you choose the Military Press (standing with barbell), you can comfortably remove the barbell from the rack and press it straight away.
If you opt for the dumbbells, you have a problem: the transfer.
When sitting, the implementation still works reasonably well. Place dumbbells on your knee, kick up with a swing and you’re ready to go.
The game looks completely different when standing
Enough people have already torn off their biceps while swinging heavy dumbbells up. Would you like to be one of them one day?
Think carefully: Is minimal success more worth the risk? If not, it is better to switch to the seated version or to the Military Press. Safety first!
Pro tip: Choose a wide grip to put maximum strain on the shoulder. The closer you grip, the more the triceps and less the shoulder is activated.
WHY FRONT LIFTS DON’T NEED A PERSON
Front lifting is one of those shoulder exercises, the cost-benefit ratio of which is incredibly poor.
Why you should throw out front raises from your training plan:
The tension is only maximum when your upper arm is parallel to the ground (-> gravity)
Front lifts activate fewer muscle fibers than shoulder presses
Front lifting does not allow you to move heavy loads
Convinced? Then finally stop front lifting!
TRAINING THE LATERAL SHOULDER
Your side shoulder has three functions that should be considered in shoulder training:
The shoulder flexion (the reason for activation when pressing the shoulder)
The shoulder abduction (-> lateral raises)
The transverse abduction (-> lateral raises prevented)
However, since shoulder flexion activates only a small percentage of the side shoulder, your focus in shoulder training should be on shoulder abduction and transverse abduction.
THE BEST SHOULDER EXERCISES FOR THE SIDE SHOULDER
Fig. 1: Muscle fiber activation of the side shoulder during ten different exercises.
# 1 SIDE LIFT
Why is Numero Uno Lateral Raise?
Quite simply because side lifting corresponds exactly to the function of the side shoulder and is easy to learn.
It is therefore not surprising that this exercise performs very well compared to other exercises (see Figure 2).
It is important when lifting sideways that your arms never go over 90 ° because …
you reduce the risk of impingement syndrome [12] and
you keep the tension on the target muscle: Over 90 °, the load moves from the shoulder too far to the trapezius (neck).
To the form fetishists:
Don’t take falsification too seriously. Arandjelović (2013) was able to demonstrate that moderate deflection when lifting sideways increases the stimulation of the target muscles and thus supports muscle building.
Now you’re flabbergasted, aren’t you?
# 2 FACE PULLS WITH EXTERNAL ROTATION
, Do twice as many seats for the back as for the chest ”. ,, Row for your life. ”
When you start weight training, everyone will want to put their recommendations for healthy shoulders on you. Too bad that rowing exercises on your shoulder are not particularly helpful when doing bench presses.
Why?
Because shoulder problems always arise when there are muscular dysblances. For example, if excessive bench presses make your internal rotators stronger than your external rotators.
And guess what:
Rowing exercises, as well as vertical pulling exercises, lead to internal rotation of the shoulder just like bench presses. That means you’re only making the problem worse.
The end of the song:
Take care not only of the balance between pressure and tension muscles but also between internal and external rotation.
This is why the face pull is such an excellent exercise. In addition to training the side and back shoulders, the external rotation is also strengthened. This is your practice for shoulder problems!
# 3 ROWING ON THE 45 DEGREE INCLINE BENCH
For a long time forgotten, but still effective:
Rowing on the incline at a 45-degree angle. The best thing about this exercise?
Compared to all other shoulder exercises, it activates the posterior and lateral deltoid muscles almost to the maximum.
You can, therefore, answer for yourself why she ended up on this list.
Since this is a rowing exercise, beginners, in particular, will have problems controlling the shoulder muscles. Accordingly, this exercise only comes in third place.
# 4 UPRIGHT ROWING
You can do it, but you don’t have to.
If you have already integrated lateral raises into your shoulder training, upright rowing is a nice addition, but not a must.
If you still do not want to do without upright rowing, we recommend that you choose a wide grip for the maximum training effect. Because the further you reach, the more the side shoulder is activated.
Furthermore, small modifications help you to prevent impingement syndrome and to stay healthy for a long time.
Raise your arms so high that your upper arm is at a 90 ° angle to the body: enough studies have shown that everything else increases the risk of impingement syndrome drastically
The angle between the upper arm and forearm must not be greater than 90 °: If you do, you are working against your body and not with it, which results in shoulder problems.]
TRAINING THE BACK SHOULDER
Your back shoulder is responsible for four movements:
Shoulder extension (move the upper arm down – e.g. covers)
The transverse extension (rudder movement to the neck)
External rotation (rotation of the upper arm outwards)
What you should never forget:
The back shoulder is not too big.
In contrast to the mostly over-proportioned front shoulder, the rear shoulder of an average strength athlete is only a maximum of 15 percent larger than that of a “normal” person.
What does that tell you Exercise your back shoulder what it takes!
THE BEST SHOULDER EXERCISES FOR THE BACK SHOULDER
Fig. 1: Muscle fiber activation of the back shoulder during ten different exercises.
# 1 LEANING FORWARD
Leaning forward: The classic for the back shoulder.
The horizontal abduction directly addresses the function of the rear shoulder, which results in almost maximum fiber activation.
Keep in mind that this exercise is an isolation exercise. You can completely forget maximum strength training.
Therefore, choose a weight that will allow you to do at least eight clean reps. And don’t worry if you have to take some momentum for the last repetition.
Pro Tip # 1: Concentrate on moving your weight outwards instead of upwards with your elbows.
You will get a feeling for your back shoulder and at the same time take your neck out of the movement as much as possible.
Pro Tip # 2: Don’t pull your shoulder blades back.
The moment you pull your shoulder blades back, the tension shifts from the shoulder to the neck muscles.
Pro-tip # 3: Choose a neutral handle (palms facing each other). On the one hand, this protects your shoulder joint and activates the maximum possible number of muscle fibers in the same breath.
# 2 BUTTERFLY REVERSE
Can’t feel your shoulders leaning forward?
Then try Butterfly Reverse on the machine!
Since the sequence of movements is identical, you do not need to worry about the effectiveness of this shoulder exercise.
There is also a big advantage:
The tension is constant at all times, so your muscles have to work permanently.
Due to the force of gravity, you have the problem with preventive sideways lifting that the load curve is only maximal when the arm is parallel to the floor.
Of course, you can also apply the above-mentioned professional tips to this exercise.
SHOULDER WORKOUTS FOR YOUR GOAL
Okay, what you will find now are just examples for guidance. These are based on a triple split, which is performed twice a week (push-pull legs).
Of course, you can exchange the exercises and everything else at will.
MUSCLE BUILDING WORKOUT
Butterfly reverse
4 × 10-12 rep.
90 sec
KH shoulder press
3 × 6-8 rep.
2 -3 min
Lateral Raises
3 × 10 reps.
90 sec
STRENGTH TRAINING WORKOUT
exercise
Sets x rep.
Break
Military press
3 × 5 rep.
3-4 min
Face pulls with external rotation
3 × 12 reps.
90 sec
Butterfly reverse
3 × 12 reps.
90 sec
4 TIPS FOR PAIN DURING SHOULDER TRAINING
TIP # 1: WARM UP CONSCIENTIOUSLY
If you’ve neglected warm-up so far, you’ve not only increased your risk of injury [17] [18] [19] , but you’ve also wasted a lot of potentials.
Your body temperature will increase with a properly carried out warm-up program. This has some effects that can have a positive impact on your performance [18] [20] . To name just a few:
Reduction of muscle viscosity (= improved contraction and relaxation ability)
Increasing the sensitivity of nerve receptors
Increase the speed of nerve impulses
Conclusion: damn you warm up again!
TIP # 2: STRENGTHEN YOUR EXTERNAL ROTATORS
If there is one thing that prevents your shoulders from injury, it’s external rotators.
Bench presses and all other pressure exercises ensure that the shoulder rotates internally, which will sooner or later lead to muscular imbalance.
And as you surely know: muscular imbalances are the enemy!
Furthermore, it has been scientifically proven that strong external rotation can prevent impingement syndrome.
Are these enough reasons to finally start rotator training?
Search for “Rotator Training” on Youtube and you will find some video material, I promise!
TIP # 3: STRETCH YOUR CHEST
The best distinguishing feature of a disco pump?
Shoulders pulled forward instead of a powerful chest.
Because what will happen if your breast training is too important in your training?
Your chest muscle shortens and pulls your shoulders forward.
On the one hand, this posture is insanely ugly and on the other hand insanely counterproductive.
As a result, sooner or later your tendon will contract in the roof of the shoulder and cause pain.
And then you’re really screwed.
Hence the appeal to you: Regularly stretch your chest dynamically before training and statically after training. With this method, you play it safe.
TIP # 4: CHECK YOUR TECHNIQUE
It is Friday evening.
You sit in a bar with your friends, of course, you don’t drink alcohol.
The subject of squats suddenly comes up.
50 € bet that in 9/10 cases there is at least one person who claims to have had knee problems from squats.
Pain from a movement that couldn’t be more natural * Facepalm *
The thing is:
It is not an exercise or movement that causes pain. Finally, 99% of natural movements are carried out during strength training.
It is always, really always the wrong technique that leads to pain.
Transfer to shoulder training:
If you experience pain when lifting sideways, pressing your shoulder or doing any other exercise, always check the technique and reduce the weight for now.
There is no use of training with pain because pain is “hardcore”. Be clever and check your execution or go to the doctor if necessary.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SHOULDER TRAINING
WHAT CAN I COMBINE SHOULDER TRAINING WITH?
Since the functions of the individual shoulder parts overlap with the functions of the back and chest, a triple split à la push pull legs make the most sense:
Chest, front + side shoulders, triceps
Back, back shoulder, biceps
legs
HOW MANY SENTENCES?
The more you exercise, the fewer sets you can do.
Sure, you can do 40 sets in each workout. The question, however, is whether your body will recover from it.
We recommend performing 6 – 12 sets per shoulder portion per week with moderate intensity.
– With 2x per week 3 – 6 sets per training per share
– With 3x per week 2 – 4 sets per training per share
HOW OFTEN SHOULD I EXERCISE MY SHOULDERS?
And here we are again in the debate: low-frequency vs. High frequency.
Science has shown that a high-frequency training plan is superior to a low-frequency plan in all respects.
Nevertheless:
If a 5-way split is more fun than a 2-way split, the 5-way split is the better choice for you.
This part of the article series will deal with a muscle group in which even bodybuilders almost never stop fine-tuning: the complex muscles of the shoulders. These are made up of the following main areas:
The anterior, lateral, and posterior areas of the deltoid muscle, which include the following muscles:
Pars Clavicularis – the muscle that attaches to the collarbone
Pars Acromialis – the muscle that attaches to the shoulder roof/acromion
Pars Spinalist – the muscle that attaches to the shoulder blade
The rotator cuff, which consists of the following muscles
Infraspinatus muscle – the muscle that begins below the shoulder blade at the infraspinata scapulae and supports an inward rotation,
Supraspinatus muscle – the muscle. which is located directly above the aforementioned muscle and is involved in the lateral adduction of the arm
Teres Minor Muscle – the muscle that attaches to the side of the shoulder blade on the Margo Lateralis Scapulae and plays a role in the abduction of the arm
Subscapalaris muscle – the muscle that attaches to the inner part of the shoulder blade and enables internal rotation, adduction, and abduction of the shoulder.
Figure 1: The muscles of the shoulders (red) on the front and back of the body and the rotator cuff (purple) – the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulders.
Of these two muscle groups, the first – the complex of the front, side and rear shoulder muscles – is the muscle group that gives your shoulders the broad look everyone is striving for, while the muscles of the rotator cuff are a necessary but often overlooked prerequisite for that Show build-up of muscular shoulders.
Ultimately, the muscles of the rotator cuff provide the stability necessary to properly perform exercises such as frontal pushing, side lifting, reverse flying movements, and all the other common exercises used to build round, muscular shoulders. It is vital to keep this synergy in mind when putting together your training program. And if the risk of shoulder injuries due to underdeveloped shoulder stabilizers doesn’t upset you, the information that a strong shoulder base in the form of a well-trained rotator cuff will help you increase your weight on the bench may grab your attention.
But enough of complaining and ridicule. Let’s start by building up some mass on your shoulders and let’s take a look at the most effective exercises for building massive shoulder muscles and a powerful rotator cuff according to EMG studies.
1. The best exercises for the front, side, and back of the shoulder muscles:
Figure 2: As it turns out, the neck presses described for their susceptibility to injury are the most versatile shoulder exercises, since this exercise hard trains both the front and the side part of the shoulder muscles (illustration by sportkrachtfitness.nl)
I’ll probably never get tired of telling you that full isolation exercises like petri dish experiments are not something you can do in the gym – not even if you’re using one of these new, chic exercise machines whose names suggest that they do will do exactly that.
In the real world (and believe it or not – the gym is part of it), your muscles will always work together synergistically to move a weight from point A to point B. However, by choosing the right exercises and / or manipulating the execution of the exercise, it is very possible to influence which muscle group and even which individual muscles perform the lion’s share of the workload. Always remember this when you take a look at the following list of “most effective exercises” (more correctly I should perhaps say “the exercises with the highest EMG activity”).
For the side area:
Lateral lifting – with dumbbells, internal rotation
Figure 3: The EMG activity of the front, side and back area of the deltoid muscle in selected exercises relative to
Barbell shoulder press (front area), bars 1 to 5 (barbell shoulder press (blue), barbell neck press (red), front lifting with external rotation (green), dumbbell side lifting with internal rotation (purple), dumbbell side lifting with internal rotation (turquoise)
Dumbbell side lifts (side area), bars 6 to 8 (dumbbell side lifts with internal rotation (orange), reverse flying movements on the machine with external rotation (light blue), barbell neck presses (pink))
Reverse flying movements with dumbbells (rear area), bars 9 and 10 (reverse flying movement on the machine with internal rotation (light green), reverse flying movement with dumbbells lying on a bench with 90-degree arm/torso angle and internal rotation (light violet) )
Based on the data from (1).
The EMG data in Figure 3 confirm what exercisers around the world have been promoting for decades.
A pressure exercise for the front shoulder muscles, a little lateral lifting for the side shoulder muscles and reverse flying movements for the back shoulders are all you need for the development of shoulder muscles such as cannonballs.
However, another common wisdom that front lifting is one of the most effective exercises for the front shoulder muscles is disproved. Even with arms rotated outward, front dumbbell lifting is 41% less effective than the gold standard barbell shoulder press. A possible reason (and one of the primary disadvantages of all EMG data) for the “inferior” activation of the front shoulder muscles by dumbbell front lifting is that this exercise uses significantly lower weights than barbell shoulder presses.
For example, if the subjects used 120 pounds for the barbell shoulder press but only 25 pounds per dumbbell for the front lift, then the muscle activity per pound weight for the dumbbell front lift with 548µV / 25lbs = 21.92 would be about three times higher than with the barbell shoulder press with – 929µV / 120lbs = 7.71 failed.
Against this background, however, there is no question that in a volume program there is definitely a place for an isolation exercise such as a dumbbell front lifting, even if this is not a classic muscle-building exercise, the salient feature of which is maximum muscle strain.
Training tip:
Even though the corresponding EMG values for dumbbell exercises were not measured in this study, it is very likely that exercises like dumbbell shoulder presses provide an additional stimulus compared to their barbell counterpart, which is related to the natural arc of movement in which You get a good stretch at the deepest point of the movement and you can consciously contract the muscles in the contracted position when the dumbbells approach each other in the upper area of the movement.
Thus, dumbbell shoulder presses are also a useful alternative for barbell neck presses, since the position of the center of gravity is more in line with your head over the entire movement. It can, therefore, be assumed that the stimulus is shifted away from the front shoulder muscles more towards the lateral shoulder muscles, as is also the case with neck presses vs. Barbell shoulder presses is the case.
Figure 4: With the natural arched movement, dumbbell shoulder presses could be useful, if not preferable, alternative to barbell shoulder presses and barbell neck presses (Image source: everkineti.com)
I cannot emphasize enough that the shape is becoming more and more important with lighter weights and since your shoulders are particularly vulnerable to injury and generally weaker than your legs, for example, it is not only advisable but simply a question of physical limitations, lighter weights to use. The previously cited example of dumbbell front lifting shows that lighter weights are not synonymous with inferior muscle stimulation, since – correctly performed – isolation exercises per pound of moved weight can generate significantly more torque / pulling power than their mass-building counterparts.
Figure 5: Reduction of EMG activity with selected versions of dumbbells side lifting and reverse flying movements relative to side lifting with external rotation, side lifting with 90-degree arm/torso angle and reverse flying movements on the machine with internal rotation:
Dumbbell side lift with internal rotation (blue)
Dumbbell side lift with neutral handle (hammer handle)
Reverse flying movements with dumbbells and 45-degree arm/torso angle
Reverse flying movements on the machine with internal rotation
(Calculations based on (1)).
However, the shape not only determines the general intensity – but the way you do your shoulder exercises also has a strong impact on the degree to which the three areas of the shoulder muscles are activated.
Running dumbbells with internal rotation, for example, reduced the activity of the lateral part of the shoulder muscles by 16%.
The use of a neutral grip (hammer grip with the thumbs up) has been associated with a 12% reduction in EMG activity.
In the case of reverse flying movements with dumbbells, using a 45-degree angle instead of a 90-degree angle reduced the load on the side of the shoulders by 29%.
With reverse flying movements on the machine, gripping the handles from the outside instead of the inside (external vs. internal rotation of the arm) resulted in a 20% reduction in stimulus.
How to do side lifts correctly
If you use what you learned at the end of the last section to your advantage, you can optimize the load on the target muscle while using lighter weights and reducing your risk of injury. I know the heavyweights are more impressive, but what will the use of the heaviest weights bring you if you do not make progress in strength or muscle mass due to an incorrect form of exercise?
It’s one thing to fake the last 1 or 2 repetitions of a set to squeeze the last few drops of fuel out of your muscle’s tanks – and it’s completely different than neglecting the correct shape to just be the type of person moving heavyweights.
There is hardly an exercise in which this is as obvious as with dumbbell side raises. If you do not do it yourself, you will surely know someone who grabs the 25 kg dumbbells, holds them vertically in front of the bar, tears the dumbbells upwards at the side, lets them fall down again and then the whole misery starts again, until he grabs his shoulders with his face contorted with pain, but not without the pride of having used heavier weights than the guy next to him.
Note: The following analysis is based on a very simple mechanical model and does not take into account factors such as increased load per square surface of the muscle fibers in the stretched position, effects of static or complete contraction, etc.
You already know from the previous section and the EMG data that it is crucial to keep the arms rotated externally – that is, to pretend that you are trying to pour an imaginary fluid out of the dumbbell at the highest point of movement – if you don’t want to lose 16% of your muscle tension from the start.
But what about the guy just mentioned who doesn’t even get a chance to think of pouring out a liquid other than the one in his shaker bottle when doing his ballistic exercises? Which of his mistakes do you think has the greatest impact on the effectiveness of page lifting?
An excessive elbow flexion (often up to 90 degrees) and a reduced lever arm?
or the inability to move the dumbbells up to shoulder height, ie the angle between the arm and torso is well below 90 degrees (often even well below 70 degrees).
Well, from a physical point of view – whatever provides a very selective and oversimplified view of reality – the answer is “1. too much flexion of the elbow. ”Surprised?
Figure 6: Effects of arm/torso angle and elbow flexion on torque / tightening force while lifting dumbbells.
While lifting the dumbbells to 75 degrees only reduces the torque / tightening force by 5%, bending the elbow by 90 degrees lowers the torque that your side shoulder muscles have to overcome by an enormous 50%!
Think about it the next time you see a guy in the gym using 25 kilos of dumbbells for side raises. There is a high probability that you will be significantly stronger than you with your 15 kg dumbbells, as long as you do not reduce your elbow flexion by more than this 15%, which reduce some of the load on the joint but only minimally reduce the torque acting on the muscle.
2. The best exercises for the rotator cuff
I hope that with everything you have learned about shoulder training, you have not forgotten what I mentioned at the beginning of this article: Training for the rotator cuff is tantamount to active injury prevention.
Even though most exercisers don’t even feel these muscles working, the muscles of the rotator cuff are vital to the stability of the most flexible and sensitive joint in your entire body. These often overlooked and untrained muscles hold the ligaments and bones of your shoulder in place so that your other muscles like the shoulder muscles and the pectoral muscles can do their job. Developing a strong infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and teres minor muscles is also the basis for moving heavyweights on the bench to impress the boys in the gym. If you do not believe this, then you should read the following anecdote, of which the strength trainer Charles Poliquin has to report:
One of my professional hockey players, Jim McKenzie, improved his tight bench press by almost 51 pounds from 280 to 331 pounds within 12 weeks by focusing on the strength of the rotator cuff muscles.
Even if I doubted the universal applicability of Poliquin’s “examinations”, it is certainly worth mentioning, as far as the average gym-goer is concerned, that his years of experience training athletes of all disciplines have shown him that “the power of the rotator cuff should be about 9.8 percent of what you can squeeze on the bench painlessly. ”This means that if you push 100 pounds on the bench, you shouldn’t be surprised if your shoulder starts to hurt when you are unable to perform external rotations on a mat lying on the floor with 10 kg dumbbells.
Figure 7: EMG activity of the primary muscles of the rotator cuff in selected exercises relative to external rotations with dumbbells lying on the side on the floor (blue):
External dumbbell rotations, elbows on a bench, upper arm horizontal (red ()
External dumbbell rotations standing, slightly bent (green)
External rotation on the cable pull (purple)
Static door jamb pushbacks with 90-degree arm/torso angle (turquoise)
The calculations are based on the data from the source (1).
Speaking of external rotation – as the data in Figure 7 shows, this is by far the best isolation exercise for the muscles of the rotator cuff. Basically, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re doing it with a barbell, lying on the floor, or with your elbows on a bench, or whether you prefer doing this exercise on a cable.
The differences are negligible compared to the large difference that incorrect exercise execution would make. So it is better if you do an exercise that you like with light weights and feels the muscles work than if you use an exercise that studies XYZ has shown to be of a weight that you hardly can get along, was most effective and you don’t feel the target muscles working.
Incidentally, this also applies to static door frame pushbacks, which basically represent an inverted extension of the pectoral muscles, in which you push the back of your arm (arm/torso angle of 90 degrees) backward against an immovable object such as a door jamb. If you don’t feel that this static exercise works for you, choose another exercise.
Isolate the supraspinatus muscle with lateral raises:
According to Jobe & Moynes (1), dumbbell sideways lifting with horizontal adduction of the arm by 30 degrees completely isolates the supraspinatus muscle if you rotate the shoulders so that your palms are pointing towards the floor (the good old “bottle emptying” technique). 1 to 2 sets of lateral raises in this way are a time-efficient way to include a strengthening exercise for the upper part of the rotator cuff in your program. However, you will need to use much lighter weights than regular side lifts.
Figure 8: Dumbbell lateral raises with 30 degrees horizontally added arms for the supraspinatus muscle.
3. Conclusion – three plus one is synonymous with injury-free strength and muscle mass
An imperative prerequisite for building impressive shoulder muscles and thus also broad, round shoulders is a stable foundation in the form of strong muscles of the rotator cuff. If you neglect the latter, then you will either reach a plateau or, worse, injure yourself sooner or later.
Your front shoulder muscles, in particular, are put to hard use during pretty much all the chest and triceps pressure exercises. It is, therefore, neither necessary nor advisable (if at all) to do more than one “isolation exercise” in the form of a multi-joint exercise such as barbell or dumbbell shoulder press. By the way, the shoulder press is also an exercise that will clearly help you advance the development of the upper chest – an area in which many bodybuilders feel that they are deficient.
If you do some side lifting and reverse flying movements in addition to this mass building exercise, the only thing left to do is an exercise for the rotator cuff of your choice – after which you are ready for some highly anabolic rest and regeneration.
An EMG-optimized shoulder training
There are of course a variety of ways to combine individual exercises. My personal recommendation for the good overall development of the shoulders and the strength of the rotator cuff would look as follows based on the EMG measurements:
Shoulder press – sitting barbell or dumbbell, 6-8 reps
External dumbbell rotations – lying on the floor, 12-15 repetitions
Tip: You can also do a few Arnold Presses if you feel that you are not pushing your front shoulder muscles enough.
You may have noticed that I don’t give volume recommendations (ie number of sets). This is based on the fact that I have found that everyone has to find out for themselves what works best for them in terms of optimal volume, training frequency, and split program. This can change over time depending on lifestyle factors, diet, and supplementation.
Training for lean muscles is a popular topic right now. Women are afraid of muscle mountains on their own bodies. The legs, in particular, should stay slim. The latest trend is a big round butt with long slim legs. But how is that supposed to work? Can I really train that specifically? Yes, that is possible! Of course, within the natural framework.
And what do I have to consider?
Are there different exercises for women than for men? Can I lift weights as heavy as a man, or will I soon look like one?
Normally you get from these very mountains of muscles (regardless of whether you are a man or a woman) that you can never build such muscles in a natural way as a woman, but tastes are different and some biceps of these fitness women, some of us do consider “too male”.
However, the heavier the weight, the more wiry the muscles become.
For example, if I set the weight so high that I cannot do the exercise more than with 1-5 repetitions and if I leave it at 3 series, then I do not “inflate” the muscle either. In other words, he doesn’t get fat and “male”, but wiry.
It looks different if I can repeat the weight between about 5-10 times and then 4-5 series, so the muscle develops differently.
In short, the higher the weight, the fewer repetitions, and series I can do and the leaner and more wiry my muscles become.
Of course, these values are rarely referenced values. Everybody and organism are different and therefore react differently.
But there are other factors as well.
In order to get lean muscles, such as with a dancer, I also have to train the type of movements differently than, for example, in normal equipment training in the gym. The exercises on the butterfly, leg press, lat pull are all 2-dimensional. That means back and forth, back and forth, up and down.
The movements in our everyday life are 3-dimensional and much more functional. If I train in this way, you can see that in my body. He gets a certain “depth”. A force from within. Especially when I also train the deep muscles such as the pelvic floor, deep abdominal muscles, and deep back muscles.
The deep muscles also protect me from injuries. The deep muscles are the muscles that are close to the skeleton, i.e. in the depth of the body. It stabilizes the joints, protects against back pain and makes ergonomic movement possible. My movements seem more targeted and my body looks powerful from the center. You may not believe it at first, but a classic dancer needs enormous strength to perform jumps and the specific positions and movements. Anyone who tries to lift their legs straight forward will notice this. This requires strength and flexibility.
If I train the large movement muscles without first training the deep muscles, I have a much greater load on the joints. Some fitness trainers or physiotherapists claim that the deep muscles are always trained anyway.
That is only partly true. This approach is not sufficient in high-performance sports, such as professional classical dance, since fine differentiation of the muscles is necessary for the highly complex movements. Even after an accident, the deep muscles can be disturbed and must first be “cleared” and controlled. You can find out more about deep muscles here (link to post office deep muscles)
What is the best workout for lean muscles?
There are various concepts for building long, lean muscles. One example is the Gyrotonic Expansion System®. This system comes from a dance and was developed by Juliu Horvath. With this system, both the deep muscles are extremely well addressed and the three-dimensionality of the body is taken into account. The movements can be moved over the entire range of movement. This also creates a stretching effect that is unfortunately often neglected during normal strength training.
This system is ideal for back problems. The exercises are fun and the resistance can be adjusted to any level of performance. This enables beginners as well as competitive athletes to train effectively. Also, the trend topic fascia is not neglected here, because with this training the body is trained in movement sequences instead of only in muscle function chains (which is also more functional than just training individual muscles).
Here, however, the intensity is not as high as with pure strength training with high weights
Another good alternative is Pilates, which also strengthens the deep muscles. The difference here is that Pilates does not train in three dimensions.
That is why you can regain lost muscle mass faster!
More experienced strength athletes and bodybuilders know that maintaining a certain level of muscle mass is much easier than building it up to that level. At the same time, many athletes know that they can rebuild lost muscle mass faster than was originally the case. But even if these observations are intuitive in nature, the mechanisms behind them are not directly obvious. To understand how these things work, we need to look at how exercise and skipping exercise affect the rate of muscle protein synthesis, the number of nuclei in muscle fibers, and the level of activation of motor units that we achieve during exercise.
What happens during training, when you skip training, when you return, and when you are maintained?
In short, we continuously gain strength and muscle mass during training. The increase in muscle volume is called ” hypertrophy “. In contrast, we lose more muscle during the phase of no training. This is called ” atrophy “. Then when we resume training, we will build up the lost strength and muscle mass that we once had.
Building muscle mass through training
In phases in which we actively train, we build muscle mass by increasing the cross-section and length of individual muscle fibers. The muscle fibers that grow are those that are regulated by motor units with a high stimulus threshold (type II), whereas muscle fibers that are regulated by motor units with a low stimulus threshold(type I) usually do not increase in volume. The total growth of all individual muscle fibers then accounts for the increase in muscle volume.
The growth of muscle fibers occurs due to a temporary increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) within the fibers. The muscle fibers are in a state of change at all times, whereby their protein content is determined by the relationship between MPS and muscle protein breakdown. After a training session, the rate of MPS in the trained fibers increased for about 48 hours, whereas the rate of muscle protein breakdown did not change significantly. The result is a small increase in the protein content within each fiber being trained. If this process is repeated a few to hundreds of times, this leads to a noticeable growth of the trained fibers over time and thus to the growth of the entire muscle.
However, this is not the whole truth!
There are two different mechanisms by which the rate of MPS can be increased and protein can be added to a muscle fiber. First of all, it is possible to increase MPS by increasing the activity of existing cell nuclei. Furthermore, it can be increased by increasing the number of cell nuclei, which requires the activity of satellite cells.
Some scientists have proposed the theory that there is a threshold muscle build-up below which there is no addition of cell nuclei due to the fusion of satellite cells with the muscle fiber [1]. This value is said to be between 15 and 26%. In this model, small increases in the volume of muscle fibers are caused by the increase in MPS from existing cell nuclei, whereas larger increases are brought about by the increase in the number of cell nuclei. The point at which new cell nuclei are added is when the area that each cell nucleus has to regulate becomes too large. The process of adding new nuclei requires satellite cells that add another element to the process of muscle fiber growth. It is the cell nuclei that are able to control the reconstruction of proteins.
In addition, the ability to recruit motor units with a high stimulus threshold increases as the training experience progresses. Beginners are often unable to control a large part of their motor units with a high stimulus threshold. Therefore, they do not manage to activate the muscle fibers regulated thereby. This means that despite executing a strenuous set until muscle failure, they leave many thousands of fibers deactivated within the muscle. More advanced beginners are also unable to activate all muscle fibers, even if the proportion is lower than for bloody newbies. Trained athletes activate the majority of their motor units and can, therefore, train the muscle fibers on which they are based.
As a result, an important mechanism that leads to muscle growth over time is to improve the ability to activate additional motor units with a high stimulus threshold. With increasing strength, the number of controllable muscle fibers increases, which means that more fibers can be stimulated to grow.
Loss of muscle mass during phases of the training break
If we don’t exercise for a while, we lose muscle mass quite quickly [2]. This happens because muscle fibers need a mechanical stimulus to maintain MPS at a given rate. In fact, limb immobilization leads to an immediate and significant reduction in MPS [3]. The rate of muscle protein breakdown, however, is not affected to the same extent. As a result, the rate of breakdown exceeds the rate of synthesis in phases when we are not training, which in turn leads to rapid loss of muscle protein.
It is important to note that the mechanical stimulus that the muscle fibers experience depends on whether they are activated by the recruitment of motor units. When we stop strength training, we also stop activating motor units with a high stimulus threshold, at least as long as we don’t do hard physical work. However, we continue to recruit motor units with low and medium stimulus thresholds through our other daily activities. This means that only the fibers that are regulated by motor units with a high stimulus threshold experience a loss of the usual mechanical stress and therefore only these fibers reduce their size. As a result, we notice a significant, but not dramatic, decrease in overall muscle volume.
On the other hand, if we stop doing any kind of physical activity and keep absolute bed rest (or become an astronaut), then we stop recruiting more than just the high-threshold motor units. It follows that we also experience the loss of mass in the fibers that are activated by motor units with low and medium stimulus thresholds. This leads to a very dramatic reduction in total muscle mass and is very likely to affect our ability to perform the tasks of our daily life.
Increase in muscle mass after re-entry
If we build muscle mass and strength after returning to training, this is typically faster than when we originally built it up [4, 5]. This happens for two reasons.
Firstly, the reduction in muscle fiber volume does not affect the number of cell nuclei within the muscle fibers [6]. Therefore, atrophy due to lack of strength training does not affect our maximum capacity to achieve a given rate of MPS. It only changes our current rate. As a result, if we expose a fiber to a mechanical load in the future, it can reach the same MPS rate that it had before, and therefore quickly rebuild the lost mass.
As a beginner, muscle building is slow because new satellite cells have to fuse to increase the number of cell nuclei in each muscle fiber. During a training break, however, the number of cell nuclei remains at the same level, only the protein mass of the fiber decreases. When training is resumed, muscle protein synthesis can run at full speed due to the high number of cell nuclei and therefore you gain muscle mass more quickly.
Furthermore, we lose our ability to recruit high-threshold motor units only very slowly compared to the rate at which we lose our muscle mass and other peripheral adjustments such as tendon stiffness [2]. As long as we don’t keep the time we don’t train very long, we can usually achieve a comparable level of motor unit recruitment. This means that we can activate all the muscle fibers that we originally trained and we do not have to learn again to control these motor units with a high stimulus threshold.
Maintaining muscle mass through training
Each training week contains its own micro-cycle of training, its own absence of training and its own resumption of training. This will continue to differ a bit depending on the muscle fiber, depending on which motor unit it regulates.
For muscle fibers of the motor units with a high stimulus threshold, each workout and the subsequent 48 hours is a phase of training in which the rate of muscle protein synthesis increases beyond the rate of muscle protein breakdown. The period between these 48 hours and the next training session is a phase of the training break in which the rate of muscle protein breakdown exceeds the MPS. This phase exists because the fibers generally do not experience activation or mechanical stress and normal physical activity does not lead to recruitment from motor units with a high stimulus threshold. The subsequent workout and the 48 hours afterward are therefore a phase of the training break and training.
For the muscle fibers of the motor units with a low threshold, each workout and the 48 hours afterward produce only a minimal stimulus, since these fibers are stimulated to the same extent during everyday activities. The workout is barely noticeable to them, as they experience the same mechanical load almost every hour of the day by simply walking around and picking up and carrying things. This is also the reason why slowly twitching muscle fibers (type I), which are regulated by motor units with a low stimulus threshold, generally hardly respond to strength training [7, 8].
During a maintenance phase, we do not need to do anything with the muscle fibers of the motor units with a low threshold and we do not have to raise the rate of MPS above the rate of muscle breakdown for muscle fibers under motor units with a high threshold. All we have to do in the maintenance phase is to balance the rate of MPS with the rate of muscle protein breakdown. It is not necessary to increase the MPS so much that muscle protein is built up. Translated, this means that we don’t have to do as much volume if the goal is only to maintain muscle mass. It is different when we try to build muscle mass because we know that a higher training volume leads to an increased rate of MPS after training [9].
In addition, we need to improve the recruitment of motor units and also increase the number of muscle cell nuclei if the goal of strength training is to build muscle. In contrast, we do not have to provoke either in a maintenance phase, which makes the challenge less demanding, both in terms of mental effort and physical expenditure of energy.
conclusion
We can rebuild lost muscle mass faster than making new gains because the original training process requires us to both improve our motor unit recruitment to activate new groups of muscle fibers and increase the number of cell nuclei within a muscle fiber, whereas that’s not the case when we try to rebuild lost muscle.
It is easier to maintain an existing level of muscle mass than to build up that muscle mass because workouts designed to build muscle mass need to stimulate a higher rate of muscle protein synthesis, which in turn requires a higher volume of training. In addition, training phases in which muscles are to be built must improve the recruitment of motor units and increase the number of cell nuclei within each muscle fiber in order to ensure further progress.
Losing weight is the first step for many if they want to improve their health. Most people understand this as losing excess body fat. But to determine whether you are on the right track with your weight loss, you have to record a few parameters.
The BMI as a standard for losing weight?
The marker that most people and unfortunately our health system look at is the weight. BMI usually indicates whether there is a health risk. The abbreviation BMI stands for Body Mass Index. This index is based on the assumption that there is a certain “healthy” relationship between height and body weight. However, this assumption has a great weakness – the body composition is completely ignored!
More muscle mass means more weight. As the picture shows, two people can have the same BMI, but they don’t have to be overweight either. The man on the left is clearly obese and has too much body fat. The man on the right is well trained, has little body fat and lots of muscle.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, “slim or thin” is equated with “healthy”. However, this is a fallacy. It is the body composition that is crucial. There are many people who are thin and have a normal BMI, but their body fat to lean mass ratio is poor. Such people are therefore also referred to as “skinny-fat” or TOFI (thin on the outside, fat on the inside).
Last but not least, the fact that losing weight and the correspondingly slim appearance is “in trend” and is seen as healthy means that health risks can be overlooked by people who are “skinny-fat”.
There are many benefits to weight training and more muscle mass. While certain things may be obvious, such as increased metabolic rate and posture, and reduced risk of injury. This way, other relationships are less obvious. Strength training stimulates a factor that makes nerve cells grow. This factor is called BNF-alpha. BNF stands for Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor. We know that people with dementia and Alzheimer’s have reduced BNF levels. Several studies have shown that strength training improves cognitive performance and leads to increased production of BNF-alpha.
Weight alone is not a good marker
Many determine success and failure in losing weight with their scales. However, weight is subject to large fluctuations. Hormones, foods and inflammatory processes can have an impact on body weight. What we really want to lose is fat, not weight. We don’t want to lose muscle, bone mass or connective tissue, but body fat.
What should I measure then?
There are simple and inexpensive methods to measure body composition. Measuring the circumference of the body is a safe and reliable method. Especially if you have a lot of body fat to lose, this method is recommended when losing weight. Anyone who does a lot of strength training should keep in mind that an increase in muscle mass can also lead to an increase in body size. Chest, thighs and upper arms mostly increase here, while the waist is usually narrower.
Upper arms: in the middle between shoulder and elbow
Chest: below the chest
Waist: where the upper body is narrowest, below the last rib
Hip: approx. 3 fingers wide below the navel
Thigh: in the middle, between the hip joint and knee
body fat
A very reliable and relatively simple method to measure body fat is the skin fold measurement. All you need is a so-called Kaliper. Kaliper is available from € 10 and is easily available on the Internet.
For the greatest accuracy, measurements are made at 7 places. The measurement should always be carried out by the same person in order to keep the measurement error as low as possible. Using a formula, a total body fat percentage is calculated from the 7 values.
Lose weight: optical assessment and photo documentation
In addition to measuring the volume and body fat percentage, photographic documentation of the decrease is also recommended. Changes in body composition are often most clearly seen in photos. Since you see yourself every day, it is often very difficult to see these changes yourself. Photos are a good tool and also enable good documentation over a longer period of time.
It is best to take a picture of all sides in a neutral posture only in underwear.
In old age, the muscle mass decreases and our strength decreases.
In the second half of life, from the age of 50, we lose about half of our muscle mass by the age of 90.
And yes, even if we are healthy. In the case of diseases that restrict us from moving, the course is much more pronounced.
What can you do to slow the sarcopenia process naturally?
Regular muscle training:
In the Vitaparc, in addition to the classic muscle-building equipment, we also offer effective and time-efficient e-gym training. 6 devices on which you can strengthen your most important muscles. Your muscles stay strong in just 20 minutes.
Diet:
Pay attention to protein-rich, balanced food. In addition to meat, proteins are also found in plant foods such as lentils, peas, nuts, rice, quinoa, and soy products. It is recommended to consume about 0.8 grams of protein/kg body weight. Who weighs approx. 60 kg can, for. B. Eat two plates of cooked lentils (400 g) or a steak (200 g) to meet your needs.
General tips:
Vitamin D strengthens the muscles. We produce vitamin D ourselves. That is why exercise in the fresh air is ideal for maintaining muscle in old age.
Everything that moves is good: stairs instead of the elevator, walking instead of driving.
And always stay happy: if you laugh, you activate the hormones “endorphin” and “serotonin”. And who is happy strengthens the mind and above all the muscles.
Therefore: off to the Vitaparc Gröbenzell. We offer everything to face aging muscle loss. From ideal muscle training such as e-gym to a happy get-together.
“I don’t want to do a CrossFit because I lose my muscles!”
This is probably one of the sentences you hear most often.
But the question is also good: “Can I really build muscle with it? If I only do CrossFit? ”
While some women are more afraid of becoming too muscular (don’t worry girls, this is not so easy and requires a lot of help from the supplement direction), the men are more likely to lose their muscle mass or not build it up at all.
But why do many have this fear? If we look at the top performers on the scene, like Jason Khalipa and Froning, you can see that they don’t have bodies like the top bodybuilders, but their muscle mass cannot be denied.
So is it possible to build muscle mass with the CrossFit Training or do the muscular CrossFitters bring their gain from their previous sports?
CrossFit for hypertrophy
Many misinterpret CrossFit as “that’s just circuit training”. Those who rely on this limited horizon can also logically conclude that this form of fitness training is actually not suitable for building muscle. Compare my men’s fitness article “Isn’t CrossFit just circuit training?”
While you can often build up the Workout of the Day (WoD) as a kind of circle, CrossFit is much more than that. The sport of fitness includes weightlifting exercises from Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting. So squats, bench presses, shoulder presses, pushing, tearing and the like. Depending on the training goal of the coach or the respective box, a different focus is placed. Basically, however, the area of maximum or explosive force is often focused.
A study by Schönfeld et al. in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2014 showed that strength training that trains the area of maximum or explosive strength (in this case, 7 sets with 3 reps at 3 RM) showed almost identical developments in hypertrophy as hypertrophy-specific training of 3 × 10 reps on the 10RM as we know it from classic muscle building training.
It is particularly interesting that the two training variants do not differ in terms of increasing muscle mass, but they do differ in the area of strength increase. It was much higher during maximum strength training.
Six-time CrossFit Games athlete Marcus Filly proves that CrossFit can also serve for hypertrophy
What does that mean for you?
Basically, it provides a scientific basis to calm your conscience. If you would like to do CrossFit or would like to do it and were previously afraid of losing your mass or not building up enough of it, you can now read in black and white that this will most likely not be the case.
By the way, I felt the same way when I started CrossFit in 2009. First I continued to pump bluntly and then added a WoD. Until I decided to give it a serious try. And lo and behold. Not only my performance but also my optics improved rapidly. No risk, no fun. In this case, the risk was just a barrier in my head. If you recognize yourself here, I can only recommend you to fully engage in the experiment. You will not regret it.
It depends on the training stimulus
There is one limitation, however, that I don’t want to keep from you. Your training success depends enormously on the quality of your training and the stimulus set. Unfortunately, in addition to those who simply design CF as circuit training, there are also those who structure their WODs differently but usually only train in the area of strength endurance. Although it is of great importance in the pursuit of “Elite Fitness”, it is not the be-all and end-all. A balanced CF training also includes the increase in maximum strength and a sensible periodization. This does not mean that, like in bodybuilding, you do a 2 or 3 split or exercise 12 weeks of hypertrophy and then define it. But that your focus for some time is on building strength and explosiveness – that’s the majority of a CrossFit year – peppered with accessory work such as stability exercises and short quick WODs that are in the area of HIIT training. But there are also days when you just have a hard time lifting, the so-calledHeavy days. The closer you get to a competition, the more you will focus on conditioning. That is the part that many people call strength endurance. CrossFit has become such a buzzword that it is used as often as possible in relation to your own training. Even if you mess it up with it. Unfortunately, you run the risk of meeting people who do CrossFit while actually following Freeletics, really only do circuit training or just train their strength endurance with different exercises. This makes muscle building really difficult.
Hypertrophy needs the right stimulus
To build muscle you either need the appropriate time under tension (TUT), which you can achieve wonderfully by doing more repetitions or fewer repetitions and longer execution time. Compare the article on Tempo Training.
So it always depends on which training program you follow and what the intended appeal of this program is. CrossFit Endurance sets its goal more to support endurance performance for triathletes and endurance athletes in general, while Marcus Filly with his Functional Bodybuilding or Alexander Thomas with his CrossBuildingfocus precisely on bringing together the best from the world of hypertrophy and CrossFit. In short, anyone who follows a classic structure of their CrossFit training with a warm-up, skill, strength part, and a subsequent WoD – paired with a meaningful periodization that gives the body healing chances and scope for adaptation, has excellent prospects of improving muscle mass and athletics. On the other hand, those who primarily design cardio-heavy training units such as those from Freeletics as CrossFit will continue to feed their misconception that CF is not suitable for building muscle.
Sling training – tight rowing
Strengthening the shoulder blades: Cross your arms behind your body, roll your shoulders back and then raise your straight arms.
The front shoulder is already used during breast training.
As a beginner, muscle building is slow because new satellite cells have to fuse to increase the number of cell nuclei in each muscle fiber. During a training break, however, the number of cell nuclei remains at the same level, only the protein mass of the fiber decreases. When training is resumed, muscle protein synthesis can run at full speed due to the high number of cell nuclei and therefore you gain muscle mass more quickly.
Where should you measure your decrease? 
Copyright: Dr. John Briffe 
Measure the decrease in the right places 
The changes are recorded in a table, for example. 
Site Title 