Building your body without shoulder muscles, how??

[Piruz]

Hi fellas. I wanna work out and build my body for good, but I am terrified of the idea that muscles over my shoulder would grow bigger and make my neck look even shorter!! And I can't let that happen, because I can't afford to.

So, I want professional ways of building my body without having to deal with a shorter neck. I wanna have good arm and belly muscles, but I don't want to look like this guy:



Also, are there any ways that could make my neck longer or at least appear longer??

Cheers!

[Boss Man]

The neck couldn't really appear longer, as that is probably genetics and weak shoulders with stronger arms and back, is asking for potential pain and posture problems.

[Piruz]

Really? So if you build your arms and chest but leave your rest or shoulders weak, its gonna cause pain? I'd like to know why.

[Boss Man]

Because strengthening exercises for the shoulders, can also benefit the associated connective tissues, particualry in the rotator cuff and if you strengthen the chest and back but not shoulders, you could find the chest and back muscles pull on the shoulders and their connective tissues and joints a bit and cause pain or difficulties moving the arms, because the weak muscles and tissues in the shoulders, won't be able to function properly, when struggling to counteract opposing or competing forces, caused by nearby stronger muscles and gravitational pull.

Does that clarify things for you? .

[Piruz]

But I don't wanna have a fat short neck!!

[Boss Man]

I understand that, but what do want? A short, slightly stubby neck, or a potentially painful neck and shoulders and limited upper body movement?

It's your genetics and that's really all I can say, other than many peoples genetics, cause them to be born with almost unimaginable physical issues, that last for life, so in context a short neck seems like a drop in the ocean, if you catch my drift.

I'm not being blunt, just honest. You deserve that at least .

[watkinsc]

Boss Man is correct, there is little point training only a specific part of your body as this will cause muscular imbalance and certain muscles will tighten - thus pulling you out of shape. My advice would be to train with large compound movements to get an athletic build (you will still be muscly) without looking like a gym monkey with no neck. If you do a decent amount of cardio and keep the fat off then I dont see an issue. The guy in the picture will not always look like that - after all he is tensing.

[Packard]

An ideal training program is balanced. It trains all muscle groups equally. It trains for power, strength, stamina and endurance. It trains for flexibility and balance.

A well-designed program will give you balance and poise.

It makes sense to isolate on a particular muscle group if, after training all your muscles equally you see that one area lags behind. Then you can attack that weak area with vigor (most people would do well to do extra calf work; most women would do well to do extra posterior delt and rhomboid work ).

Isolating for any other reason starts to make silly looking and non-functional bodies.