Covering the Shoulder Blades

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I hate my shoulder blades. They stick out too much. Now, I know that eating enough is the most important thing to do because it will put on weight which in the end will cover up the shoulder blades, but is there any exercise that I can do to really target the area where the shoulder blades are?

Breakfast:
orange juice
8 eggs
2 slices of whole grain bread with margarin
Lunch:
12 inch sub
After school snack:
protein shake (45g protein)
2 slices of whole grain toast
Post-workout:
protein shake (55g protein, 152g carbs, 18g fat)
Before dinner snack:
protein shake (45g protein)
peanut butter and jam sandwich
Dinner:
6 ounce chicken breast
veggies

Any advice on the diet?

2

Lat Pull downs, Rows, anything that works your lats. Also some trap-building exercises wouldn’t hurt. I have the same problem, but I’m getting a thicker back so the shoulder blades are less noticeable.

3

It’s not covering up your shoulder blades that’s required, it’s getting them into the correct position and that means strengtheniing specific muscles. Do exercises that target the seratus anterior and the rhomboids. It’s probably not your lats and traps that are causing the issue.

You probably have either a protracted shoulder girdle (weak rhomboids) or a winged scapula (weak seratus).

Post pictures of your back so that more experienced members can understand your specific issues.

Stu

4

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get a picture. What are the exercises to work the rhomboids and serratus?

5

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/ChestWt.html#anchor682036
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/BackWt.html#anchor1913634

My favorites are:

6

These are my shoulder blades…

7


another one…

Do I need to work my rhomboids or serratus?

8

rhomboids

9

just do more pulling/back exercises…

seated cable rows, chin ups, inverted body rows, seated rope pulls to the neck, standing face pulls…

all with good form…fully retract your shoulder blades on each rep

10

So do I need to work the serratus muscle at all?

11

Also, are there any exercises I should stay away from?

12

I wouldn’t worry about the serratus right now–get those rhomboids working. Serratus is important as a stabilizer, but you have bigger concerns right now. Like most of the main muscles of the back. So hit any rowing exercises, any lat exercises, just work the back hard. You can do serratus exercises to finish off a back day, but just focus on the big muscles for now, because you don’t have any. Focus on proper form and really ‘feeling’ the muscles working, but don’t wimp out on the intensity.

As for the diet, looks decent–see if you can get some fruit or green stuff in you at breakfast and after school snack times.

13

Hit the chinups, deads, shrugs, and seated rows, hard.

14

I was looking forward to do Stripped Down Hypertrophy. Would it be possible to somehow put a lot of back exercises into it? My main goal right now is to fix my shoulder blades, besides that I would like to make my whole body larger, particularly my upper body.

15

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1076164

Would that be good to do or is it too advanced for me?

16

[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1076164

Would that be good to do or is it too advanced for me?[/quote]

As long as you obviously throw in some other exercises for the rest of your body, that program will be fine for you.

17

Some may disagree but that’s a specialization used for people who are already pretty developed. what you need is to get bigger overall. to do that stick to getting stronger in the big movements like bench (maybe stick to DB’s because of the shoulders right now), pullups, deadlift (rackpulls or partial dl’s would help your back ALOT), and squat. Once you add some overall mass your back wont be a problem.

but ill reiterate the importance of rack pulls for your back. those will strengthen all those stabilizer muscles (including the rhomboids).