My problem is that I have focused my training mainly on my upper body for so long that the muscles in my chest, shoulders, arms and back have grown too large when compared to my legs and my body is out of balance. My shoulders have gotten way too big and it looks a little weird because they are way out of proportion even with my chest, arms and back. I was told to keep lifting weights but should I dramatically decrease the weight in order to reduce the overall size of my upper body?
Building a big upper body is usually the result of a lot of shoulder presses, bench presses and deadlifts. These are all big, compound mass building movements for the upper body and are excellent exercises for packing on maximum muscle mass. It sounds like you already know the main issue with your upper body appearing too large and that’s because your legs are simply too small in comparison! You need to step it up a notch with your lower body training and get those quadriceps, hamstrings and calves up to par with the rest of your physique.
First of all, having a big muscular upper body is a good thing. It makes you look very strong and demanding especially when you have a thin waist which creates the incredible V-Taper look that every bodybuilder dreams of. Every person who starts weight lifting has a specific muscle group (or two) that responds better than other muscles. The muscle just seems to grow like a weed no matter what you do. In your case, this specific fast growing muscle group is the deltoids (shoulders). This is not a bad thing but you need to know how to manage your training so your entire physique is completely balanced and symmetrical.
To fix this problem I highly recommend working your legs and working them hard. Legs will help balance out your physique and will make your upper body look more in proportion with all of the other muscle groups, so stop slacking on your squats and get after it! There is nothing worse than a dude with an impressive upper body who has skinny little chicken legs. You don’t want this to be you, so get serious and do something about it!
Here are some simple steps you can take to fix your problem. First off, maintain the weights you lift when training your shoulders and don’t decrease the weight. Losing muscle is never a good thing and it won’t enhance your physique. One thing you can do is to include one exercise for shoulders, but greatly reduce the overall volume (reps and sets). This will allow your shoulders to get worked without decreasing the size. You should also limit your shoulder training to only once a week. This will help maintain the muscle you have, but won’t build any extra size. If you find your chest, back and arms growing too quickly then start limiting the overall number of workouts per week for these muscle groups also to maintain your upper body size as you bring up your legs to match the level of muscle with the rest of your body.
To bring up your legs, add in two lower body workouts per week. On day one, do heavy squats in a pyramid fashion. An example would be to start with your 12 rep max (after warming up), then add more weight to get 10 reps, then 8 reps, then 6 reps, then 4 reps. When setting up your overall repetition scheme, the exercise should start to feel pretty heavy once you reach your rep goal. If you can do more reps on a specific set, then increase the weight. This pyramid training style will help target muscle hypertrophy (build muscle size) and increase your strength levels.
Squats are the king of all lower body lifts and will surely add some great size to your entire lower body as it is a compound movement and literally hits your entire lower region. After squats, repeat this pyramid technique with the leg press exercise. The leg press machine allows you to go very heavy and since the machine is fixed, it is much safer and allows you to focus on your form so you can really hit your quads well. After leg press, repeat the pyramid style with leg extensions (quads) and leg curls (hamstrings). These will help isolate the leg muscles and drive in lots of blood and nutrients to the targeted areas.
On the second lower body workout, repeat the exact same routine, except do Romanian deadlifts in place of squats and lunges in place of leg press. This will allow you to hit your legs from different angles and stimulate more muscle growth. Deadlifts tend to work more of your hamstring (back of the legs) and glutes (butt). Lunges are excellent for your quadriceps and glutes and also help to stretch the muscle tissue allowing for more growth.
The bottom line is that your upper body is not really too big, but rather out of proportion with the rest of your physique. Building up your legs will help you achieve more of a symmetrical frame that all bodybuilders strive for and highly respect. This type of balanced physique consists of broad shoulders and a big upper body with a thin waist and large, powerful legs. Within a few months of backing off a little with your upper body training and focusing the majority of your energy on your legs, you should start seeing great results in your physique.
