Is A Muscular Upper Body Just For Looks? Reasons To Build Upper Body Strength.
Thor, Superman, Batman, and Captain America. What’s one thing these superheroes have in common? Big shoulders and chest! They’re massive! What’s the rational for this? Is it just for looks? You see this coveted physique on the cover of fitness magazines. People working out in the gym are clocking in time and effort to achieve this look. So is this just a strategy to look sexy? Are there other reasons why we should keep our shoulders and upper body strong?
While it's not necessary to look like a buff superhero the fact of the matter is that it is necessary to have a strong upper body for the sustainability of your body, particularly your shoulders.
The shoulder joint of our body is a fascinating structure. In some ways it’s a double-edge sword.
Function of the Upper Body
The shoulder joint evolved to facilitate our capacity as upright, erect, bi-pedal creatures. It has enabled us to manipulate the external environment in a myriad of creative ways, first and foremost having allowed humans to adapt to living in such a diversity of environments and climates globally. Our shoulder joint evolved from what was once a weight bearing foreleg, a mammalian design evident in your average cat, dog, or mouse. The foreleg of many quadrupedal (four legged) mammals acts as a strong structure to stabilize and facilitate powerful locomotion such as running.
For humans our forelegs are our arms. With the exception of movements like crawling, our arms are no longer used primarily for locomotion. Our arms have been freed up to manipulate our environment to make tools, to pick food, to hunt, to build structures, to paint, play music, and all the other incredible things humans have developed, all thanks to our arms and hands.
One of the tradeoffs of an incredibly versatile upper body is that our shoulder joint is extremely shallow. This shallow joint enables us to have far greater range of motion in our shoulder than our hip joint. This shallow joint enables the arms to produce expansive large movements like swimming, pitching a baseball, swinging a golf club, or rock climbing. It also leaves the shoulder vulnerable to injury since it is not bound by thick and strong ligaments as seen in the hip joint. In order to utilize the great advantages the shoulder joint provides, and protect it from injury, it must be supported by a strong system of muscles in the shoulders and upper body.
Anatomy of the Upper Body
The deepest muscles supporting the shoulder joint are the rotator cuff muscles that stabilize and rotate the upper arm in the shoulder socket. Next up are the primary movement muscles of the shoulder that directly interface with the arm such as the deltoids, pectorals, lats, triceps, and biceps. After which we have the rhomboids and trapezius which help to stabilize the shoulder blade, the same structure that makes up the shoulder joint. Lastly are the muscles of the trunk that indirectly stabilize the shoulder such as the spinal muscles and abdomen. This breakdown in by no means exhaustive but gives a general sense of how significant the bodies muscular structures act upon the shoulder joint. The big takeaway is the important role muscular strength plays in stabilizing the shoulder joint.
Shoulder Joint Issues
Athletes and seniors are particularly vulnerable to shoulder joint injuries. Making sure the upper body is strong, flexible, and in proper alignment will go a long way to keep the shoulder joint and its surrounding ligaments in good stead. Maybe you’ve seen robust built athletes doing small arm movements with resistance bands and wondered what they’re doing. Aside from heavy lifting and strength training, these small arm movements are often rotator cuff exercises that are essential for the sports these athletes engage in.
What are some things that may weaken the shoulder and upper body muscles? For most of us it's common in our sedentary digital culture to develop a forward rounded posture where our head is protruding forward, our shoulders and upper back is rounded with a sunken chest. In this posture, our pectorals tighten up and our back muscles weaken. This in turn tends to deactivate many of the muscles that stabilize our shoulder joint. Two key practices for shoulder health are stretching the chest and strengthening the upper back muscles. Working on posture is also a great tool to maximize shoulder health.
Exercise and Building Upper Body Strength
There are isolated rotator cuff exercises to strengthen the muscles directly interfacing the joint. However it would be short changed to exclusively depend on these exercises. A comprehensive routine of upper body strength training and stretching will help to optimize shoulder health. Compound multi-joint movements are an effective strategy for upper body function. Some great multi joint upper body exercises include push ups, pull ups, rows, and shoulder presses. These can be done with dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, or kettlebells. Aside from these classic multi-joint exercises, functional strength training is a wonderful method to improve shoulder function. Functional Strength training helps to improve the bodies ability to perform daily task or complex athletic movement patterns. Indian clubs, mace, and kettlebells are excellent tools for functional strength training to help integrate the arms and shoulders with the rest of the body. A key note with upper body strength training is to emphasize a balanced upper body. It’s easy to want to build up the visible “mirror muscles” or the anterior musculature like the pectorals and biceps at the expense of the posterior ones behind you like the rhomboids, trapezius, and triceps. By equally working on the anterior and posterior muscles of the upper body, you can help to optimize shoulder function and prevent injury.
Another great way to build upper body strength is to find an activity or sport that uses the upper body. Rock climbing, tennis, surfing, paddle boarding, partner dancing, swimming, fencing, and gymnastics are all great ways to build up shoulder strength if you’re not much of a gym rat or into formal strength training.
Here’s a list of some of the aforementioned exercises you can explore to optimize shoulder function:
Compound movements:
-Push Up
-Pull Up
-Bench Press
-Shoulder Press
-Row
Exercise Equipment:
-Resistance Bands
-Dumbbells
-Barbells
-Kettlebells
-Indian Clubs
-Mace
Sports/Activities:
-Rock Climbing
-Tennis
-Swimming
-Surfing
-Paddle Boarding
-Partner Dancing
-Fencing
-Gymnastics
Having a strong and well built upper body is not just a fad trend for looks. Strong muscles surrounding the shoulders and covering the upper body serve to stabilize the shallow structure of the shoulder joint, enabling it to function with a wide range of motion during sophisticated and complex movements. While it’s not necessary to have the physique of a full on superhero, building up and maintaining your upper body musculature will help support the sustainability of your shoulder joint. Keep stretching and moving. May strength be with you!
For any questions on shoulder and upper body strength don’t hesitate to reach out at KaiBodyMindWellness.com
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