How To Get Rid Of Broad Shoulders

How To Get Rid of Broad Shoulders — Women's Edition

By Ashley Lose March 8th 2021

We all have that one thing we'd like to change about our bodies — smaller waist, slimmer thighs, flatter tummy, bigger glutes – but some things are strictly based on our genetics, like broad shoulders. Unlike our legs, arms, and abdomen, our shoulders are primitively based on genetics. However, if you're looking to reduce the size of your shoulders, there are some lifestyle changes you can make so that they aren't as pronounced, especially if you're overweight or have been overtraining your upper body. In this article, we'll show you how you can make small adjustments to your training style to downsize the appearance of your shoulder and overall get to a healthy weight.

Do Less Shoulder Isolation Exercises

The shoulders are complex joints, mainly composed of bones and they vary in size according to genetics. Nonetheless, if you've recently acquired broad shoulders because you've been doing exercises that increase the muscle size of your deltoids (the muscle that gives your shoulders that round profile) you can scale back on certain exercises that isolate those muscles. Here are a few common exercises that build your deltoids:

• Dumbbell Lateral Arm Raises

Target Area: Middle Deltoids

• Dumbbell Front Arm Raises

Target Area: Front Deltoids

• Machine Shoulder Press

Target Area: Rear and Middle Deltoids

• Dumbbell Upright Rows

Target Area: Front and Middle Deltoids; Trapezius Muscles

Reducing the time that you train this specific area of your shoulder could cause you to decrease muscle growth in this area if you've been overtraining.

No, You Can't Spot Train Your Shoulder

People choose to start a weight loss journey for a multitude of reasons; to improve overall health or reduce the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.1,2 Either way, it's important to realize that everybody's body is different. Some people accumulate fat in the midsection, hips, or thighs. While others may gain weight proportionately throughout their body. Some people lose weight quickly. While others teeter the scale for years to lose a couple of pounds. This is because we all begin at a different starting point. Our gender, genetics, age, and individual lifestyles, all play a role in where we accrue and store fat in our bodies, as well as how that weight distributes across our bodies. As a result, there are many approaches to weight loss. One idea is spot training.

Spot training is the notion that you can target weight loss or muscle toning in one specific part of your body without affecting other muscle groups. Like if you want to have flabby arms and want to trim the fat, you would only work your triceps. Or if you wanted a bigger butt you would only work your glutes. It's a good idea. However, there are no scientific studies to support this theory that it is effective in fat loss or muscle gain. In a study published in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, seven men and four women were trained to do 1,000 leg presses with their non-dominant legs for 12 weeks, 3 sessions per week. At the end of the study, participants showed no change in the fat on their leg compared to the one that wasn't exercised at all.3 This data shows us that the most effective way to lose fat and tone our bodies is to consider the body as a whole.

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How To Effectively Burn Fat And Tone Your Body

To get the results you want, whether it's weight loss, strengthening, or toning you should incorporate high-intensity interval training and exercises that utilize the entire body during our workouts for the best results.4 Design a program for yourself or workout with a personal trainer to create a plan that involves, aerobic, anaerobic, and strength training to best manage your weight and get the desired look you want. You can begin by creating a guideline for your training program. You can list your trouble areas at the top of your plan and identify movements that target those areas and more. Here's an example, if you're targeting your shoulders you can utilize exercises like planks that strengthen your core, chest, shoulders, lower back, triceps, biceps, and legs.5 When developing your workout program, try to add mix it up and introduce a variety of exercises to increase the chances of it having a training effect on your body.

Here are a few training methods you can combine to develop your workout plan:

1. Cardio Exercise

Introducing cardio exercises into your workout routine will help you lose the fat that you are storing throughout your body and possibly shrink those muscular shoulders. According to estimates from Harvard Health Publishing, a 155-pound person will burn roughly 223 calories on a 10-minute walk or job in just 30 minutes. 372 calories if you joined a high aerobics step class for the same length of time. If you weigh less, you make burn fewer calories but still, those calories add it.6

Cardiovascular exercise gets your heart pumping for all the right reasons. It strengthens your heart, improves mental health, boosts your energy, helps your immune system, increases your lung capacity and blood flow for your cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels). It can significantly reduce your risk of disease, inflammation, and hypertension. 7,8,9

Examples of cardio exercises:

• Biking

• Tennis

• Gardening

• Swimming

• Running

• Hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack

• Jumping rope

• Dancing

• Brisk walking

• heavy yard work
  

1. Strength Training For Shoulder & Lower Body Ratio

As we discussed earlier you can't target train your shoulders, we have to train the whole body. However, there are some techniques you can use to give the appearance of slimmer shoulders. This is where strength training comes in. Strength training as the name suggests is great for building strength and toning your body. Strength training allows you to gain muscle mass and increase your bone density to reduce your risk of injuries and fractures. It can improve balance. Improve flexibility to reduce symptoms of arthritis. While also helping you control your weight by building muscles and burning calories.10 Just 30 minutes of lifting weight at the gym or at home can help you burn anywhere from 90 to 133 calories per session. You can strength train using your own bodyweight or by using resistance bands, dumbbells, kettlebells, step-ups, and other gym equipment. The goal, as it pertains to small shoulders is to build the muscles in your lower body to make your shoulders look well-proportioned to your frame.

Here are a few examples of strength training exercises to build your lower body strength:

• Glute kickbacks

• Hamstring curls

• Squats

• Leg Presses

• Glute Bridges

• Romanian Deadlifts

• Lunges

Other strength training exercises you can add for a full-body workout:

• Pushups

• Burpees

• Arm curls

• Ab crunches

You can combine cardiovascular exercises and strength training exercises together to create a high-intensity interval training program that burns fat quickly and effectively.11

As you begin to redesign your training program to reduce fat in your body and tone your muscles for a more proportioned body shape remember it is essential to stay consistent. Physically write out a plan for your workouts or hire a trainer to create a plan that works for you.

Sources:

1. Mandviwala, T., Khalid, U., & Deswal, A. (2016). Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease: a Risk Factor or a Risk Marker?. Current atherosclerosis reports, 18(5), 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-016-0575-4

1. Al-Goblan, A. S., Al-Alfi, M. A., & Khan, M. Z. (2014). Mechanism linking diabetes mellitus and obesity. Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy, 7, 587–591. https://doi.org/10.2147/DMSO.S67400

1. Ramírez-Campillo, R., Andrade, D. C., Campos-Jara, C., Henríquez-Olguín, C., Alvarez-Lepín, C., & Izquierdo, M. (2013). Regional fat changes induced by localized muscle endurance resistance training. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 27(8), 2219–2224. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e31827e8681

1. Zhang, H., Tong, T. K., Qiu, W., Zhang, X., Zhou, S., Liu, Y., & He, Y. (2017). Comparable Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training and Prolonged Continuous Exercise Training on Abdominal Visceral Fat Reduction in Obese Young Women. Journal of diabetes research, 2017, 5071740. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5071740

1. Brumitt, J., & Dale, R. B. (2009). Integrating shoulder and core exercises when rehabilitating athletes performing overhead activities. North American journal of sports physical therapy : NAJSPT, 4(3), 132–138.

1. Harvard Medical School. (2004, July). Calories burned chart by activity and weight, including walking, sports, and everyday household activities. Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights. https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/calories-burned-in-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities

1. Wilkinson, T. J., Shur, N. F., & Smith, A. C. (2016). "Exercise as medicine" in chronic kidney disease. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 26(8), 985–988. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12714

1. Hellsten, Y., & Nyberg, M. (2015). Cardiovascular Adaptations to Exercise Training. Comprehensive Physiology, 6(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c140080

1. Den Heijer, A. E., Groen, Y., Tucha, L., Fuermaier, A. B., Koerts, J., Lange, K. W., Thome, J., & Tucha, O. (2017). Sweat it out? The effects of physical exercise on cognition and behavior in children and adults with ADHD: a systematic literature review. Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996), 124(Suppl 1), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-016-1593-7

1. American Cancer Society & Simon, S. (2019, October 23). 5 Benefits of Strength Training. https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/five-benefits-of-strength-training.html

1. Zhang, H., Tong, T. K., Qiu, W., Zhang, X., Zhou, S., Liu, Y., & He, Y. (2017). Comparable Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training and Prolonged Continuous Exercise Training on Abdominal Visceral Fat Reduction in Obese Young Women. Journal of diabetes research, 2017, 5071740. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5071740

Ashley is a certified personal trainer, trail runner, and professional journalist who specializes in creating content within the health and fitness industry. She specializes in strength and high-intensity training programs and is truly passionate about pushing people towards becoming the best version of themselves. When she's not writing or training her clients she enjoys kayaking with her family, climbing 14ers, lounging in a hammock, camping in the mountains, or getting conditioned for a trail running event. She's always looking for a challenge – body, mind, and soul. Her mantra is if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.

How To Get Rid Of Broad Shoulders

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