Let us help you cure your lagging bodyparts. Today’s Installment: Rear Delts.
March 31, 2008
FLEXONLINE.COM
If your balance and proportion are off, it’s time to pay Doc FLEX a visit and get the cure for what ails you.
Over the next week, we will break down three common gym maladies plaguing many a would-be bodybuilding champion and the corresponding cure for each. The time has come to balance things out, to doctor up lagging bodyparts.
SYMPTOMS From the front, your shoulders look wide and imposing, but from the side, your front delts look hopelessly overdeveloped with no shoulder thickness from front to back. From the rear, your shoulders round off and stoop forward, leaving you looking narrower than from the front. advertisement
DIAGNOSIS Part of the problem is simply bad posture. Often guys roll their shoulders forward and slouch because they think it makes their chests and delts look bigger. In reality, it just makes them appear to have small chests and shoulders, plus bad posture. Another common problem with rear delts is that they are frequently trained at the end of a workout in favor of doing showier exercises, like front presses, at the beginning, when strength is at its peak. Consequently, front delts get bigger and rear delts don’t.
TREATMENT * Always start shoulder workouts with rear-deltoid exercises and do front-deltoid exercises last.
* Prefatigue your rear delts at the start of the workout by using light weight for about 20 reps or until they are burning. You will feel your rear delts better this way through your heavier sets and ensure the surrounding muscles don’t do all the work instead.
* Stand tall with good posture–your body mechanics will improve when you train your rear delts. If you slouch your shoulders forward when training rear delts, your traps and rhomboids will be doing more of the work. Keep a slight arch in your back and keep your chest out when doing rear-delt exercises.
* Although bars and machines are gripped with your hands, imagine your hands only as hooks to hold the weight. Draw your elbows backward during any rear-delt exercise rather than pulling the weight back with your hands. Continue your SHOULDER WORKOUTS with JOHNNIE JACKSON. FLEX.
