HERS
SHOULDERS FOR SHAPE
WITH IFBB BIKINI PRO AND AESTHETIC PHARMACIST RUTH DALES
Ask people what they think of when they picture a bikini body, and I imagine most people will say toned, fit, confident and healthy looking. Break it down a bit more and many women will likely tell you they aspire to having a small waist and peachy butt. Seeing as how a small waist to hip ratio is associated with health, I say why not?
But whilst wearing a squeezingly tight‘ waist trainer’ might be one currently fashionable way to a smaller waist, I believe there are more satisfying ways to get there: Unless you’ ve been living under a rock I’ m sure you will have cottoned on to the fact that increasing the size of your glutes is a great way to make your waist appear smaller and I imagine you’ ve been glute bridging and sumo squatting your way to a peachy beach butt for a little while now. However, whilst checking out your hard earned glute gains this Wednesday( I see you and I salute you!) you might want to take a minute to allow your eye to travel north, that’ s right, up to where your rear delts are, or at least where they SHOULD be... IF you were training them in any meaningful way.
A key factor in attaining a visibly small waist is having width across the upper lats and shoulders, thus creating the classic v-taper which, in women, balances out the hips leading to the coveted hour-glass physique. This also supports a strong, confident posture.
In this article I run through my essential guide to building balanced shoulders, with emphasis on the often
/// PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHANE WATKINS
neglected rear deltoids. I show you how you too can do what top athletes and bodybuilders do; combine training shoulders with training back for maximum results.
For a lot of women, building the upper body is relegated to secondary importance behind glute development. This is often because women fear training their upper body, ironically
78 MUSCLE & FITNESS / APRIL 2018