hey members of t nation, i’ve just joined this forum as iv’e lurked for awhile, i’m 21 years of age and have been lifting since i was 19, my clavicles are naturally narrow and i’ve seen so much on ways to increase your shoulder girdle and others saying it’s not possible, i understand shoulder width is basically genetic but iv’e seen swimmers who have broader shoulders than their parents, i also heard of this extreme stretching technique by some guy named dante, excuse me for not knowing his full name but i’ve heard he has a way to expand your shoulder width, i’m basically wondering if anyone here has done it before and did you see good results?
I don’t really plan on doing anything but i really want my shoulders to blow up in width, i was thinking about taking up swimming since some say you can manipulate your scapula, thanks for reading.
The ‘rate limiting’ factor re shoulder width is the length of one’s clavicles. Advanced swimmers often have very long clavicles, but this is because of selection bias; ie, they’re advanced swimmers in part because they have long clavicles, not vice versa.
At 21, it’s safe to say your clavicles are finished growing. So, as a charter member of the Narrow Clavicle Club, allow me to welcome you as a member. All is not lost, however. Three basic strategies can be employed to create the illusion of a wide shoulder structure:
A tremendous amount of ‘meat’ can be added to the medial deltoids, so working them should be a priority. In that regard, review this thread:
The bigger your traps get, the narrower your shoulders will look. So avoid overdoing trap work.
The smaller your waist, the wider your shoulders will look in proportion. So lose fat (if you carry a significant amount), and work on making your waist/abs tight.
There have been many top-tier BBers who had to overcome narrow clavicles (Casey Viator comes to mind; in the modern era, Phil Heath is not sporting what I would label an impressive set of clavicles). You can do it too. Best of luck.
yeah i guess i have to make the most of what i was born with, but i feel like obsess over my shoulder width because both my parents have wide clavicles so wtf? but i’ve also heard theres a way to add width to your shoulder girdle by stretching with a method developed by dante trudel, looking for info on that as-well.
[quote]phantom198 wrote:
i’ve also heard theres a way to add width to your shoulder girdle by stretching with a method developed by dante trudel, looking for info on that as-well. [/quote]
Dante is the creator of the DC training method, cycles for pennies, blasting and cruising, etc.
‘extreme stretches’ are a part of his DC training method. they work quite well in my experience.
however, they are designed to stretch the fascia surrounding muscle tissue to promote growth and recovery.
they are not designed to widen your clavicles… as that would be impossible, save for some bizarre surgical procedure…
I see lots of rear delt work, lateral delt work, and incline barbell bench press in your future.
also, avoid training your obliques, as they give the waist area a ‘broadened’ appearance.
I stopped squatting with a bar a short while ago, and I can already see a difference in the size of my obliques.
thanks for the advice everyone, if anyone could provide more info on if they have done this before and have seen width then let me know, i think im going to take up dc stretching.
[quote]phantom198 wrote:
thanks for the advice everyone, if anyone could provide more info on if they have done this before and have seen width then let me know, i think im going to take up dc stretching.[/quote]
I don’t think you are quite getting it.
You cannot make your shoulder structure wider. You can only add muscle to them.
Stretching wont do anything. It will make you feel better for sure but you can’t widen your shoulders through stretching. Actually you can’t even lengthen a muscle through stretching but I digress.
You have to understand that you can only build onto your own genetics. This can never be changed.(I’m referring to a drug free trainer. Drugs obviously change everything.)
Swimmers don’t get wider shoulders through swimming. They develop great latissimus dorsi with tiny waist and very low body fat. This gives an illusion of broad shoulders and looks great.
Top swimmers however most likely started training when they were just little kids. You need to put this in perspective.
[quote]dt79 wrote:
Just squat. The gh spike will increase bone density which will widen your clavicles over time.
I pulled this out of my ass just like the idiot who told you stretching will increase your shoulder width.[/quote]
Rippetoe himself has told me that adding 20lbs to your squat increases your clavicle size. True story.
In all seriousness, how do you expect stretching is going to lengthen your bones?[/quote]
A highly credible source told me that Rippetoe ghost wrote the script for the movie Platoon. William Daefoe’s death scene was a cheeky reference to a failed low bar squat attempt, which he added in for fun while drunk on single malt whiskey. The fuckhead Oliver Stone made up that symbolism of Christ nonsense just to sound deep.
It’s just hanging from a bar for 3 minutes with a 50 pound weight attached to a belt.
I guess Dante believes you can actually pull the arms out of the socket. Why anyone would want to do that I don’t know.
Over time that could put some stress on the ligaments and possibly create a loose glenohumeral joint.
One way that may work is if you had internally rotated shoulders, that is shoulders that roll in and then worked on postural corrections over time. This can happen through doing double pulling movements to pushing and using a correct posture at all times. Not slouching over the desk on a computer for example. If the shoulder girdle can go back to a more externally rotated position then this will give the illusion of wider shoulders.
The hanging from the bar thing possibly would help with that but using heavy weight for 3 minutes seems like a good way to cause ligament problems.
ah it seems that this is too risky in my opinion, I’ll just stick to training my delts harder than the rest. I appreciate the answers, I tried to ask questions like this on the main bodybuilding forum and everyone acts like dicks on that site.
Swimming make the shoulder girdle wider the same way basketball makes you taller.
As it was mentioned, top level swimmers have wide clavicle not because of swimming… that’s the body structure they are borne with and it helps them perform in swimming hence why you see most top level swimmer have wide shoulders.
Once you done growing you can’t wider your clavicle. Even if some method could work, the improvements would be so small that they would not be worth the effort.
I have narrow clavicles and people don’t believe me because for years I prioritized improving my deltoids. So I don’t look narrow, but I’m built very narrow.