Put the "Tank in the Top" by building the Deltoids & Trapezius Muscles

As the temperature rises and the weather improves, many of y'all weight-lifting champs and/or physical fitness fanatics may like to sport your sexy bods and muscular stature by wearing "tank tops" this year. Well, unfortunately, many of you will strive to fill out those tank tops to the best of your ability and fail miserably during the process.

This post is just a quick reminder, as to what to focus on when it comes to putting the "tank" in the "top" of those, uh, "tank tops." Ha!

When it comes to looking your best in that particular choice of attire, working/pumping/training the deltoids and the trapezius muscles to the fullest, is your best bet. Believe it or not, a lot of people who train hard, workout with weights and/or strive for higher levels of physical fitness, are not even familiar with common anatomic terms. So, with that being said, in case you don't know, the deltoids are the shoulder muscles, and the trapezius muscles are right beside the neck and also extend from the back of the neck and down the middle region of the upper back.

Since the trapezius muscles are spread out, I'll provide an image below to help clarify the actual location of this often-neglected muscle group:

By looking at the image above, you may be thinking, "how does working the trapezius muscles (aka "traps") help me look good in a 'tank top' or whatever, when they look more like minuscule back muscles?" Well, that particular image shows the trapezius muscle group from the rear, but really, it is all about getting that bulge beside your neck, next to your shoulders, that you will see from the front. If you train hard and build up some big deltoids, what better to compliment them by setting down some good muscle bulk right beside them, next to your neck? Ya know, it sort of gives you that bulldog, thick neck, upper-stack-heavy type of "chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out" sort of look. Yeah, the nice guy look... Ha-ha!

Anyway, I've already briefly wrote about building up your deltoids on a post I did a few months ago, and you can check that out here, if interested: "Simple ways to Build Powerful Deltoids."

What makes this even more simple, is that one of the main exercises I promoted for building up your deltoids also works the trapezius muscles out, very well. If you're wondering, this simple exercise that is best performed with individual, heavy dumbbells, is called "arm raises." It is where you slowly (or quickly) raise and lower the weight/dumbbell that you're holding from your sides or in front of you, up to shoulder level, then back down to your side or in front of your hips (starting position). I prefer the lateral raise (from the sides) because to me, the side motion works more of the deltoid and trapezius region than it does from the front. These types of lifts also work the outer portion of your forearms, which is always a plus.

Update: Something I forgot to mention on this post, which is another often neglected area, is the rear deltoids. By developing your rear delts, it will help give your shoulder that "capped" and/or more of a 3-dimensional look. My favorite exercise for rear deltoids is the seated, bent over, rear delt raises. You can alternate one arm at a time, but I find that doing both at the same time works best; plus, it also works the upper trapezius muscles. Pull-ups hit the rear delts as well, but the rear delt raises really target them more, in my opinion. ---End of Update 

Of course, there are many other muscles that you may want to focus on when it comes to looking good in a "tank top," but the point of this post is to simply state that the true "tank in the top" mostly comes from an impressive set of deltoids and the neck-bulging trapezius muscles. Hell, if all you mainly got is big arms and a muscular chest, a tight tee-shirt may be more complimentary for you as opposed to a tank top. ...But those sexy beach babes who have a fetish for men in tank tops, might make you focus more on other muscular focal points besides arms & chest, such as what I mentioned prior... Okay, I have to stop right here... Ha-ha! That sounds a bit too funny for me, even after writing that little sentence about beach babes. I'm the modest type who would rather stay fully dressed in public and couldn't care less how I look in a tank top because I will be too busy taking her top & bottom off, and would much rather show my "bedroom muscle" to the ladies in private besides my deltoids, biceps, triceps, pectorals, latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles; but then again, I'm trying to give advice on this health blog while I keep my composure at the same time. Damn, I'm confused now... LOL!

At any rate, enjoy the nice weather while it lasts and have fun with whatever you do!

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