Is it possible to shape a muscle?


This question is often discussed in the fitness world, and it goes on and on, but the only true answer to that question is YES and NO. No because some aspects are determined by genetics, here comes an example, if you have flat shaped biceps, it doesn’t matter how many concentration curls you do, your biceps will never have a peak shape.

Yes you can shape a muscle by enhancing some parts, one good example is the chest, if you choose to train with incline press instead of the flat bench press your chest will have a different shape, it will look “square”, even from top to bottom, if you choose to do more flat work your chest will look rounder, more soft (not a men’s chest).

The purists who say that it’s not possible to shape a muscle like to talk about the all or nothing principle, that principle says that when you contract one muscle fibre, all fibers contract too, so they claim that to work one muscle all you need is one basic exercise.

Using the chest again as an example, they claim that if you do bench press that will be enough to work the entire chest because all the fibers will be contracting during the set. The all or nothing principle is true, but those purists don’t understand or don’t know something very simple about muscle fibers that changes everything they say.

The muscle fibers don’t run all in the same direction, that’s why when you do incline work for your chest , you give your chest a different shape, if you do close grip presses, your inner chest gets more developed, anatomically speaking there’s no such thing as inner or outer chest, but the truth is, you can enhance those areas of the chest with specific exercises.

The same is true for any muscle, so you can’t shape the way your muscle naturally is, where it’s inserted, the length and some other aspects, but you can sculpt your body using specific tools, the exercises, you can decide that you want an even chest from top to bottom with a square look, you can decide what area of your deltoids you want to enhance, you can decide if you want your legs to be as even as possible, instead of having large upper thighs with very thin lower thighs.

You can shape the way you want your body to look, the genetical aspects of your muscles, those you can’t change, but you can always train to sculpt your body, and be the best you can be.
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