2783: 3 Easy Steps to Get Nice Shoulders AND 4 Simple Tricks to Make Body Weight Workouts Harder by Ben Greenfield

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[00:01:08] Three easy steps to get nice shoulders.

[00:01:10] And four simple tricks to make bodyweight workouts harder.

[00:01:14] By Ben Greenfield of BenGreenfieldFitness.com

[00:01:17] And I'm your narrator, Dr. Neil.

[00:01:20] Welcome to another edition of Optimal Health Daily, where I read some of the best blogs covering health and fitness, just like an audiobook.

[00:01:26] Now today, I have two shorter articles for you, both from Ben Greenfield.

[00:01:31] So the first post I'm going to read to you is all about getting nice shoulders.

[00:01:34] This hits home for me.

[00:01:36] A while back, my wife and I were sitting around the dining room table eating our dinner,

[00:01:40] and out of nowhere, she breaks the silence to say,

[00:01:43] You know, I think the reason your shoulders look so small is because your triceps are so big.

[00:01:48] Yes, this was a random comment indeed.

[00:01:50] But I do often ask my wife whether some muscles are looking too big or too small in areas I need to work on.

[00:01:56] But it's now become a running joke in my family that I have small shoulders.

[00:02:01] In fact, every time I see my sisters-in-law now, all they say is,

[00:02:04] Wow, look at your shoulders. They're huge. I can't tell if they're serious or just mocking me.

[00:02:10] Then recently, our entire family was on a train headed down to San Diego,

[00:02:13] and my sister-in-law decided to tell the conductor to ask the gentleman with the big shoulders for her ticket.

[00:02:21] I guess she was referring to me.

[00:02:23] So anywho, let's hear Ben Greenfield's take on how to get nice shoulders.

[00:02:27] And then we'll hear from him on how to make bodyweight workouts harder.

[00:02:30] So let's get to these posts as we optimize your life.

[00:02:37] Three Easy Steps to Get Nice Shoulders by Ben Greenfield of bengreenfieldfitness.com

[00:02:44] Compared to their running and cycling brethren,

[00:02:47] triathletes certainly tend to have slightly more muscular shoulders.

[00:02:50] But when you actually look at a triathlon junkie from the side view,

[00:02:53] you'll see a rather unsightly phenomenon.

[00:02:56] A hunched back, slouched shoulders, and ugly curvature in the upper spine.

[00:03:01] These slumping triathlon shoulders, which can turn into a permanent fixture on your body,

[00:03:06] come from a combination of spending long hours hunched over the saddle of a bike,

[00:03:10] working the internal shoulder rotators during swimming,

[00:03:13] while neglecting the external rotators in the weight room,

[00:03:16] and often a job spent sitting at a desk or computer.

[00:03:19] So how can you get nice shoulders and still be fast at a triathlon?

[00:03:24] Here's what to do.

[00:03:25] How to get nice shoulders, step number one.

[00:03:28] Stretch your chest muscles.

[00:03:30] Tight chest muscles can come from sitting at a desk for several hours with your hands on a keyboard,

[00:03:35] or from riding a bike in the aero position, and from swimming.

[00:03:39] Once tight, and especially in the presence of weak external rotators,

[00:03:43] these muscles pull you forward into a slouch.

[00:03:46] To stretch tight chest muscles, try a doorframe stretch,

[00:03:49] in which you reach for the top of a doorframe,

[00:03:52] place your hands on it, and lean forward as far as you can.

[00:03:55] If you can't reach the top of a doorframe, just place one hand over the other hand,

[00:04:00] and lean into a wall.

[00:04:02] How to get nice shoulders, step number two.

[00:04:04] Strengthen your external rotators.

[00:04:07] Although the most popular exercise for quote unquote strengthening the external rotators,

[00:04:12] is to grab an elastic band, and do dozens of repetitions of rotation for the shoulders.

[00:04:17] Most of us don't have time to stand around doing that.

[00:04:19] Bigger, multi-joint exercises like pull-ups and rows work far better,

[00:04:24] and have the added advantage of burning more calories and working your arm muscles.

[00:04:29] I've personally installed a pull-up bar in the door of my office.

[00:04:32] It cost me about $25.

[00:04:34] And I try to do at least 25 pull-ups each day.

[00:04:37] Usually one set of five whenever I walk under the bar.

[00:04:40] You can also include regular or assisted pull-ups as a weekly part of your gym routine.

[00:04:44] Also include lat pull-downs, seated rows, cable rows, and single arm dumbbell rows.

[00:04:50] Focusing on squeezing your shoulder blades back

[00:04:53] and maintaining a tall, proud posture as you do each exercise.

[00:04:58] How to get nice shoulders, step number three.

[00:05:00] Work the core.

[00:05:02] Blah, blah, blah, work the core.

[00:05:05] Sure, you've heard this before.

[00:05:06] But think about it this way.

[00:05:07] When you're riding a bike, swimming, or sitting at your desk,

[00:05:10] there is one thing that has to happen before you begin to slouch.

[00:05:14] Your core has to get tired first.

[00:05:17] But if your core is strong, it takes a massive load off of your shoulders,

[00:05:21] and allows you to maintain much better posture.

[00:05:23] I personally recommend planks as the best way to strengthen your core and shoulders at the same time.

[00:05:28] So try this.

[00:05:30] Get into a front plank position.

[00:05:32] Hold for three deep breaths.

[00:05:34] Then switch to a side plank position on the left side.

[00:05:37] Hold for three more breaths.

[00:05:39] Then a side plank right side for three breaths.

[00:05:42] And finish by holding a full push-up position for three breaths.

[00:05:46] Do that entire sequence without your knees touching the ground.

[00:05:49] See how many rounds you can do before your core collapses.

[00:05:52] If you can get to a tenth round, which is about seven to nine minutes of planking,

[00:05:57] you've got a solid core.

[00:05:58] Otherwise, do this routine once or twice per week until you can get to ten rounds.

[00:06:03] Now that you've learned the three easy steps to get nice shoulders,

[00:06:06] you can be one of those triathletes who swims fast, but also cuts an impressive figure,

[00:06:11] and doesn't have that notorious slouch, especially when people look at you from the side.

[00:06:19] Four Simple Tricks to Make Bodyweight Workouts Harder by Ben Greenfield of BenGreenfieldFitness.com

[00:06:26] Do you scoff at body weight only workouts?

[00:06:30] Perhaps body weight workouts are just not difficult enough for you,

[00:06:33] or you don't seem to get results with body weight workouts,

[00:06:35] or you're never sore after body weight workouts,

[00:06:38] or you're just bored with your body weight workouts.

[00:06:40] Good news!

[00:06:41] I've got four simple tricks to make your body weight workouts harder.

[00:06:45] Trick number one.

[00:06:46] Perform mini reps at end ROM.

[00:06:50] ROM stands for range of motion.

[00:06:53] End ROM refers to the very end of the range of motion.

[00:06:56] For example, the end ROM of a body weight squat is when your knees are bent at the bottom of the motion.

[00:07:03] At this point in the exercise, you do five to ten mini reps, or very short bouncy squats, and then stand.

[00:07:10] Think about how many exercises that have an end ROM for mini reps.

[00:07:15] Body weight push-ups?

[00:07:16] Yes.

[00:07:16] Body weight crunches?

[00:07:18] Yes.

[00:07:18] Body weight lunges?

[00:07:20] Yes.

[00:07:20] The list goes on and on.

[00:07:23] Trick number two.

[00:07:24] Explosions.

[00:07:25] For this strategy, simply hold a rep in the toughest position, then explode up and down, then back into the toughest position.

[00:07:34] For example, when you get to the bottom of a push-up, hold for one to two seconds, and then push up as fast as possible.

[00:07:42] Your hands can even leave the ground, and land back in the bottom of the push-up.

[00:07:46] Once again, this strategy works for many body weight exercises.

[00:07:50] Trick number three.

[00:07:52] Integrate quarter reps.

[00:07:54] For this strategy, you do your normal exercise, but in the very middle of the repetition, you stop, do a quarter rep, and then continue.

[00:08:02] For example, while performing a lunge, you would stop when your knee is halfway bent, stand halfway, then continue through the lunge, essentially turning every single rep into one and a half reps.

[00:08:14] And trick number four.

[00:08:16] And trick number four.

[00:08:16] Ladder reps.

[00:08:17] Ladder reps.

[00:08:18] For a ladder rep, do five mini reps in the bottom range of motion, five mini reps in the middle range of motion, and five mini reps in the top range of motion.

[00:08:26] For example, for a body weight dip, you would do five reps when your elbows are all the way bent at the bottom of the dip, five reps in the middle of the dip, and then five reps at the top of the dip.

[00:08:38] While none of the reps are complete reps, the focus control required for a ladder rep will throw your muscles an entirely new curveball.

[00:08:49] You just listened to the posts titled, Three Easy Steps to Get Nice Shoulders, and Four Simple Tricks to Make Bodyweight Workouts Harder, both by Ben Greenfield of bengreenfieldfitness.com.

[00:09:01] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:09:04] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:09:06] When I used to work out with a buddy of mine, we would only work chest, and we would do this every Saturday.

[00:09:11] We would never work our shoulders, and that's possibly why my shoulders are disproportionately small, according to some folks.

[00:09:18] But one of the things we both noticed was, it felt like our arms and our shoulders were being pulled by our chest forward, which led to a slouch.

[00:09:26] Eventually, my buddy and I signed up for one of those boot camp classes, and you do a lot of body weight exercises, and you do a lot of plank and core moves.

[00:09:34] And honestly, that's when I saw my shoulders start to develop so much more.

[00:09:38] Doing all of those planks using straight arms or on my elbows, and then all those core moves really balanced out my physique.

[00:09:46] It balanced out my core muscles, and so I found that after about four to six weeks of doing that, I wasn't slouching anymore.

[00:09:53] And I love the tips Ben shared when it came to body weight workouts.

[00:09:56] You know I'm a big fan of those.

[00:09:57] But what's great is, you can also use these same tricks when you're working with weights.

[00:10:02] You could do mini reps and quarter reps and explosions using weight.

[00:10:06] But, and this is the big but, be sure that you're using first a lighter weight, and be sure you're doing the moves properly.

[00:10:12] Otherwise, you could injure yourself.

[00:10:14] So just be careful.

[00:10:16] But you could incorporate these things when you're, let's say, squatting using a barbell.

[00:10:20] You would, of course, just use a lighter weight and see if you can do one and a half reps instead of your normal one rep squats.

[00:10:27] And I promise you, you will definitely feel it the next day.

[00:10:30] All right, that'll do it for today.

[00:10:32] Thank you for listening.

[00:10:33] I'll be back here tomorrow, as usual, with another post.

[00:10:36] So I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits.