Have you ever thought of how to make your shoulders less broad? The thing is, unlike other parts of your body, the width of your shoulders is largely determined by genetics.
Unless you’ve gained a lot of weight or have been training your shoulders for a long time, it’s almost impossible to shrink your shoulders.
However, once you’ve lost weight, there are tricks you can use to make your shoulders look smaller.
It’s important to remember you can’t make a body part smaller. Fat covering muscles and bone don’t go away no matter your diet and exercises on that body part.
A 2013 study found that participants who did 1000 leg presses on one leg three times a week for 12 weeks saw no change in the fat on that leg than the leg that wasn’t exercised.
There are various parts where your body fat is broken down, and your genetics determines it. You can’t direct your body to remove fat from your shoulders only.
However, you can focus on losing fat mass while strengthening shoulder muscles is a workable approach to making your shoulders look smaller.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR SHOULDERS LESS BROAD
1. DO FEWER SHOULDER ISOLATION EXERCISES
The shoulders are mostly bone, but there is also connective tissue and muscle. If your large shoulders are because of large deltoids, then you should scale back your exercises.
Deltoids are the muscles covering your shoulders.
You can build broad shoulders through exercises such as push-ups or military presses. If you stop working them out or using fewer heavyweights, they can atrophy.
This means that they will break down and shrink.
Don’t stop any upper body training because your shoulders are larger than you’d like them to be. To remain healthy, you must still work out your major muscle groups at least twice a week.
2. REDUCE YOUR CALORIE INTAKE
In most instances, women don’t store fat in the shoulders. They store it in their hips, thighs, and midsection.
If your shoulders are expansive because of weight gain, you can make a few lifestyle adjustments. This is an effective way to achieve how to reduce broad shoulders.
It’s impossible to target your shoulders for fat loss, but you can lose fat in your shoulders by lowering your body fat percentage.
Generally speaking, women can slim down by eating about 1500 calories a day to lose 450g of fat each week.
Eating lower-calorie foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and lean protein ensures you aren’t getting into a diet that’s not too restrictive.
Eat foods rich in fiber as well. They will leave you full and not leave you at risk of hunger.
3. DO CARDIO
You can reduce your body fat percentage by doing cardio.
Additionally, doing cardio also boosts your body’s ability to burn calories.
Aerobic exercises make it easy to create a calorie deficit that’s needed for fat loss. If you’re overweight, this will slim down your shoulders.
According to Harvard Health, a 70kg person can burn about 300 calories doing circuit training and 391 calories spinning for 30 minutes.
Calorie burning adds up over time if you’re consistent with your workout. It’s recommended that you work out at least three times a week.
4. DO MORE LOWER BODY EXERCISES
Switching your cardio exercises can help shrink your shoulder muscles. If your shoulders are buff because of swimming or rowing, consider doing more lower-body intensive exercises.
You can build out your core, hips, and legs to get more definition in your lower body to balance your physique.
Add squats, deadlifts, and lunges to your workout regimen. These are easy to achieve female exercises at home.
When you fill out in your hips, thighs, and legs, it can alter the inverted triangle shape from wide shoulders.
5. STRENGTH TRAINING
Doing lower body exercises doesn’t mean you should completely forget your upper body workouts.
Keep your arms and back toned using lighter exercises.
These kinds of exercises will keep your back muscles taut and improve your posture, but they don’t bulk out your frame.
6. FASHION
Broad shoulders in females are more common than you think. But it may make you feel self-conscious if you have a very bulked-up frame.
One tip on how to make your shoulders less broad is by choosing clothes that narrow your frame.
You can try wearing V-necks, full skirts, wide-leg pants, loose jackets that taper over your hips, darker colors on your upper body.
Don’t wear clothes with shoulder embellishments or strapless tops to avoid exaggerated shoulder broadness.
7. KETO DIET
The keto diet is a low-carb diet that restricts you to about 30g of carbs a day. It focuses on high fat intake and keeps your protein intake level.
Studies show that keto diets challenge muscle growth.
The keto diet can help you lose body fat and moderate blood sugar levels, and prevent too much muscle breakdown.
Bodybuilders are known to avoid keto diets because they cost them muscle mass.
8. AVOID HEAVY LIFTING
Avoid all heavy lifting and workouts, focusing on low reps and heavyweights.
Try not to lift to bulk up your upper body.
This is an effective way of how to make the female upper body smaller.
You can work with your trainer to choose smaller weights for your upper body workout. You should also avoid workouts that involve the muscles in your shoulders like pull-ups.
9. MICT WORKOUTS
Moderate Intensity Continuous Training involves aerobic exercises where you don’t go above 50-60% of your maximal oxygen uptake. It is often compared to HIIT which high-intensity interval training which includes short explosive bursts of activity.
MICT workouts can reduce muscle mass.
Researchers observed the difference between HIIT and MICT workouts on body composition among overweight young women.
Participants in the HIIT group did 60 reps of HIIT exercises. Eight seconds of cycling at 90% oxygen consumption and 12-second rest on a cycle ergometer for 20 minutes.
Those in the MICT group did continuous cycling at 65% peak oxygen consumption for 40 minutes.
At the end of the study, the researchers found that the MICT group experienced loss of lean muscle mass if you’re trying to lose fat.
Whereas HIIT exercises can help you preserve lean muscle mass.
Consider adding MICT exercises if you want to see how to make your shoulders less broad.
10. PILATES
These are a light resistance training method that improves flexibility and posture.
They are a brilliant way to lose weight. A person who is 70kg can burn up to 175 calories in a one-hour beginners’ session.
It’s recommended that you do at least two to three sessions a week to get all the benefits.
Combining Pilates, cardio, strength training, and a healthy diet are effective ways of how to make your shoulders less broad.
TAKEAWAY
You can’t alter the width of your shoulders with diet and exercise. Your genes already determined your shape.
However, if you are overly muscular or overweight in the area, you can practice the tips above on how to make your shoulders less broad.
The most you can do to make your shoulders look smaller is some exercise and diet practices and wear clothes that are flattering to your frame.
Not every woman has narrow feminine shoulders, and that’s normal. You can also follow the tips above to avoid getting broad shoulders.
Adhering to a workout regimen that doesn’t build upper body muscle will help you avoid bulky shoulders.
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