Strong Broad Shoulders
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| Strong Broad Shoulders |
It’s no coincidence that business suits are designed to make men seem broader in the shoulders – constructed shoulders are the padded push-up bras of male culture.
… actually that’s unfair to suits. Women respond to broad shoulders far more powerfully than men respond to babely breasts, making suits the more powerful of the two. You know that lustful feeling well cloven cleavage can instil in you? Well broad shoulders give women that same feeling, except stronger.(study)
The first things women will take in is your overall shape, allowing them to get a quick guess at how you’ll stack up in all the following aesthetic arenas. There’s a lot of information in how broad your shoulders are – especially in comparison to your waist – and it’s available at a glance. Every study is in unanimous agreement here, and you’re probably already well aware of it. (study, study)
Why? Well broad shoulders are very indicative of a strong man, since adding muscle to your body invariably adds several inches to your shoulders. And what woman doesn’t want a man whose shoulders can bear the weight of the world? There’s a correlation between guys with naturally broad shoulders and naturally high levels of testosterone too, so even in the absence of muscle it’s still a very masculine trait, which girls dig. As such the breadth of your shoulders is a very good indicator of health, strength and masculinity: it’s accurate, it’s hard to fake, and women can see it right away.
The ideal shoulder to waist ratio: 1.618 to 1.
This particular ratio—the golden ratio—appears all over the ideal human body (and throughout nature) and sculptors and artists have been using it for millennia to depict the ideal physique. All those sculptures of Greek gods and Olympians are rockin’ exactly that ratio. What this means is that if you’re a skinny dude with a lean 30 inch waist you’d want to build your shoulder muscles up to 49 inches (1.618 times as big as your waist). With a 32 inch waist you’d build your shoulders up to 52 inches around, etc.
Whatever width your shoulders are right now, don’t fret. Like I said, powerful shoulders can be built:
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| Strong Broad Shoulders |
Some tips:
Narrow shoulders. Guys with naturally narrow shoulders have some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that they’ll appear more muscular earlier into their training, as their frames fill out easily. The disadvantage is they need to build up a fair bit of muscularity to achieve a powerful broad-shouldered look. Posture is important as well, as proper shoulder alignment will make your shoulders appear broader.
Typical shoulders. These guys have it easy. If you’re skinny your shoulders will appear narrow, yes, but often after adding just a dozen or so pounds of muscle you’re already rocking a badass shoulder / waist ratio. Further down the road, you’ll likely hit the ideal ratio at the same time as you hit the ideal level of muscularity, making achieving the ideal physique pretty straightforward. Clothing is designed for you too, and with a bit of mass on your bones you’ll fit into clothes incredibly well—especially “fitted” clothing, as you’ll have a leaner than average waist.
Broad shoulders. With broad shoulders the ratio is incredibly easy to achieve, but this body type can be equally as tricky as the narrow one, since you need a fair bit of musculature to fill out your frame. Otherwise you’ll look broad from the front but thin from the side. Another problem here is that you need to buy really damn big shirts to fit your really damn broad shoulders … which tend to be designed for overweight people. You’ll probably need to buy huge shirts and find a tailor that can take ‘em in at the waist, and perhaps even in the arms (until you add some arm size).
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