Top 8 Reasons Your Shoulders Are NOT Growing

Have you tried everything to have strong, bulky, and broad shoulders, but nothing seems to work? Do you put it down to poor genetics or the fact that your gym doesn’t have the newest exercise equipment? Have you completed every single shoulder exercise in the book without seeing even a single ounce of new muscle growth due to your efforts? It’s possible that the issue isn’t with something you’re not doing at all but instead with something you are doing but doing in the wrong way. Here are eight reasons why you won’t ever have large shoulders, no matter what you do. Make sure to read until the end; we will show you how to build enormous shoulders by just making this adjustment.

Allowing Your Traps To Take Over For Your Delts

Having your traps replace your delts is another common error. Even though this is not the case for everyone, some individuals experience the benefits of shoulder and side delt workouts more in their traps than in their shoulders. This causes their traps to roll super crazy while their shoulders are left behind. Sadly, you can’t activate your delts without also engaging your traps, which may make this a challenging position. However, several measures may be taken to lessen the need for recruiting on the track. Before beginning your shoulder exercise routine, you should start by statically stretching your traps. According to a number of studies, extending a muscle for 60 seconds or more reduces future muscle activation during exercise. Before beginning your shoulder workout, you should hold this posture for 60 seconds on each side (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVNW0pMVH1o – 2:58 ), doing one to two sets. Another effective method of training your side delts without overworking your traps is to do lateral raises by concentrating on spreading the dumbbells as far out to your flanks as possible as you raise them (add a lateral raise scene). Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell while you’re here to learn more about excellent health and fitness with us!

Overhead Press Technique Executed Wrong

To shoulder workouts, the overhead press is what the squat is to leg workouts. When deciding on a delt exercise, the first thing to ask is, “What kind of overhead press am I going to do?” You probably won’t believe this, but there’s more than just “barbells” and “dumbbells” to choose from while answering this question. Machines, kettlebells, bilateral vs. unilateral, pronated vs. supinated vs. neutral grip, sat vs. standing vs. kneeling, and so on are all fair game. The overhead press, commonly known as the shoulder press, is a multifaceted exercise that is underutilized by most athletes. If you want bigger shoulders, what should you do? Take a pair of dumbbells and sit on a bench or chair with a low back. Start with holding the dumbbells over your shoulders with your hands facing the front. Keeping the hands close at the top of the exercise shifts the load from the muscles to the joints of the shoulders, making the exercise considerably simpler without the corresponding increase in muscle mass. Be sure that you keep your hands wider than shoulder-width apart. Press the dumbbells above by tightening your deltoids and extending your elbows without locking your arms. Bring the dumbbells back to the starting position gradually.

Lack Of Training

You may be having problems not just because you aren’t lifting more weight but also because you need to perform more training overall. There’s no use in training your shoulders if you’re going to do it once a week or sporadically. Maximizing your efforts will result in the most muscular gain. According to a study, there is a correlation between intense exercise and muscle gain in experienced weightlifters. Muscle growth was proportional to the number of sets performed in this study. Results from another research that followed people for eight weeks and had them do one, three, or five sets of each exercise reveal that the more work done in training, the more muscle tissue was stimulated to develop. As such, if you’ve hit a growth plateau with your shoulders and aren’t seeing any improvement after increasing your weekly volume of shoulder work from, say, 9 sets to 12, you may want to try increasing your volume to break through the stalemate.

Saving Your Shoulder Exercises Until The End Of Your Workout

The next common error is putting shoulder work off until the finish of a session or not getting to them until much later. A number of studies, including a rigorous managed trial, suggest that the exercises and muscular endurance you do first in a session provide the most results. Yet many individuals who want bigger shoulders need to work out their shoulders more. If you do a push workout that combines exercises for your chest, shoulders, and triceps, for instance, you will likely begin your workout with exercises that focus on your chest and triceps, such as bench presses and dumbbell presses, which will leave your shoulders feeling fatigued by the time you get to your shoulder exercises. And that’s excellent if you want to bulk up your chest, but if you want to build up your arms, shoulders, and triceps, you will do better to activate those muscle groups first.

Not Applying Progressive Overload

The next issue that can often be seen is that individuals don’t use progressive overload. Interestingly, when it comes to the bench press, many weightlifters attempt to outdo the weight they carried the week or month before. This is beneficial since putting more strain on your muscles causes them to expand. However, few individuals seem to be devoted to the goal of increasing the amount of weight they can utilize while doing complex shoulder workouts like overhead presses or even isolation movements like lateral raises. And it is a serious flaw in your training routine, whether you’re working on your shoulders or any other muscle group. Alternatively, you could prioritize gradual overload. This implies that you should train a muscle at a comfortable pace and then progressively raise the intensity of your workouts. No significant increase is required. Concentrate on boosting the weight you can lift by even two and a half pounds in one month since this will build up to substantial gains in the long run. If you can do 10 repetitions of a certain weight without reaching failure, you should raise the weight load until you can perform just 6 or 7 repetitions.

You Don’t Eat Enough Protein

Getting adequate protein in your diet might be the missing link in your efforts to develop bigger shoulders. For muscle gain, it’s not only about consuming enough calories but also enough protein. That’s because our muscle tissue was first constructed from the amino acids contained in protein. Increasing the amount of protein in a muscle beyond the amount essential for its everyday needs is the single most important factor in promoting muscle development. Achieving that goal will lead to increased muscle mass. Similarly, a calorie excess is not always a good thing. According to 2018 research conducted in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, a 180-pound individual needs 131 grams of protein per day or 0.73 grams per pound of body weight.

You Are Not Consuming Enough Calories

Now, while we have just been discussing your shoulder exercise, one of the primary reasons you may be challenged to build bulk on your shoulders may be because you are not ingesting enough calories. You must ensure you’re getting enough calories to gain as much muscle as possible. Whether you want bigger shoulders, you should analyze your calorie intake to see if you are in a surplus. If it doesn’t, it could be the thing to help your shoulders start expanding again. Remember that you are not obligated to eat an absurd amount. An excessive calorie surplus is unnecessary for maximizing muscular development. It often causes more problems than it solves. This was shown in one scientific study that evaluated the effects of various calorie surpluses on muscle gain vs fat accumulation in human subjects. While one group consumed a regular calorie surplus, the other one, however, went 600 calories above and beyond the typical calorie excess group’s intake. After 12 weeks, the muscle gains between the two groups were statistically identical; however, the fat gains between the two groups were more than five times greater for the group that ingested an extra 600 calories per day. If you want to make things very easy, try aiming for a calorie surplus no larger than 5 to 8 percent over maintenance each day.

You Are Not Applying A Sufficient Motion Range In Training Sessions

These days, it’s common to see individuals not using their complete range of motion while training, particularly in exercises like the overhead press. Take note of how other people do overhead presses the next time you go to the gym if you tend to slouch while performing them. Almost no one lowers below the point where their upper arms are parallel to the floor before pushing back up. Instead, it would be best to place the barbell lower until your upper hands almost touch your laterals and ideally, until the dumbbells are roughly nearly identical to your shoulders. This is helpful since the deltoids are stimulated during the entire movement at the bottom of the workout and provide a more extensive motion range.

And that’s our top 8 reasons why your shoulders are not growing as you might expect. Make sure to like, share, and subscribe to my youtube channel @healthperfectionist to get more great videos. Also, hit the bell icon to learn about great health and fitness with us! And more importantly, if you have any other exercise on your mind that might fit this list, leave a comment below. Thanks for reading.