Weight Training Advice
Adding Upper Body Width
like you do if you don't have a wide upper body. To get that look of strength you'll need to add width to your upper body by targeting certain muscles during your weight training workouts.
To help add upper body width you'll need to focus on making your deltoid, or shoulder, muscles appear wider by weight training the side heads of the muscles. Because the side heads of the deltoids are located on the outermost areas of the upper body, they will make your upper body look wider when you add size to them. Most weight trainers start their shoulder weight training routines with military barbell presses, but if you're training for more upper body width you may want to start with dumbbell presses. When you perform military presses you lower the weight to in front of your neck, which means that you'll be primarily using the front heads of the shoulder muscles to get the weight up. If you do dumbbell presses you'll be able to lower the weights to the sides of your head and use the side heads of the deltoids to primarily lift the weights.
Side dumbbell laterals are another great exercise for adding upper body width to the shoulders. To perform side dumbbell laterals you start with a dumbbell in each hand with your arms at your sides with your palms facing your sides and raise your arms away from you until they are parellel to the floor. Keep a slight bend in your elbows and try to keep your front of your hands tilted just a little bit downward while performing side laterals to get the most out of the movement.
One great way to really hit the side heads of the deltoids hard to gain more upper body width is to use pre-exhaustion by doing supersets of side laterals followed immediately by dumbbell presses.
The other major body part that you should focus on for more upper body width is the upper back. To add width to the upper back you'll need to perform cable pulldowns and pull-ups with various grips. Most weight trainers believe that using a wider grip on pull-ups and pulldowns is best to increase your width, though there are some who swear by a closer grip. To get the best overall results you should vary your grip. Pull-ups are superior to cable pulldowns because you are moving your body through space, but may be harder to perform for enough reps per set if you weigh to much or haven't gained enough strength in your upper back muscles. Fortunately many gyms now have machines that allow you to do assisted pull-ups. If you can't do many pull-ups and don't have access to an assisted pull-up machine, cable pulldowns will still do a good job of giving your a wider upper back.
If you decrease the width of your midsection by getting rid of love handles (if you have them) will also give your body a wider appearence. Watch your diet, do some cardio, and train your abs and obliques regularly to keep your midsection small and tight.
If you do all of the above, you'll eventually succeed at adding upper body width and giving your body that appearance of strength you're looking for.
If you follow a weight training routine it's very likely that you want to improve your body's shape and give it a stronger looking appearance. You can work out with weights all the time but may not look
