Exercise Scientist Reveals 10 Top Tips to Grow Thick and Wide

Skinny guys can have abs in no time—and with minimal effort. But developing thickness in your back and chest—more specifically, your traps, delts, and pecs—really translates into strength and advanced fitness. “Guys tend to focus too much on the ‘beach muscles’—the things they can see in the mirror,” Arent says. But neglecting exercises that have withstood the test of time won’t help you create that broad, dominant frame. And you don’t have to get overly creative, either.

“You need to perform exercises that target the largest mass of muscle,” he explains. “Thickness and width boil down to compound lifts: deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, rows, squats.” Squats, in particular, are one of the best exercises for developing overall size, he says. Accessory lifts—like the bent over dumbbell raise or lateral raise—are important to this whole conversation, too, but you need to involve multiple joints and big muscle groups to really transform your physique. These four compound moves will forge massive biceps and triceps.

Broad shoulders don’t just cap off a well-balanced physique—they arguably make a well-balanced physique. Bulking and bulletproofing the shoulders will make you a better, healthier lifter and reduce your risk for injury during back and chest exercises. So, when you’re trying to add width and three-dimensional muscle, you need to remember there are three heads to the deltoids: anterior, medial, and posterior.

“I see a lot of people ignore the posterior and just hope it gets worked enough when they train their back, and specifically train the interior during chest and shoulder press variations; but, honestly, the medial and posterior delts add a tremendous amount of size, shape, and width to your physique,” Arent explains. Putting a good program together still comes down to doing your basic exercises (correctly!): one-arm rows, shoulder press, Arnold press, lateral raises, reverse pecs deck, bent over raises, and shrugs.

“And don’t stress about using barbells over dumbbells,” he adds. “You won’t get any bigger using a barbell vs. dumbbells [or kettlebells], and your muscles don’t know the difference. It’s all about applied resistance.” Want more tips for bulking and broadening your shoulders? Try these 10 methods.

If there’s one piece of advice you should take away from this list and implement forever, it’s this: Don’t surrender form for the big-number lift. If you’re a beginner in the gym, take the time, effort, and money to meet with a personal trainer and learn the fundamentals of form for each major lift. And if you’ve been lifting for years, it doesn’t hurt to ask a trainer or buddy to watch your form from time to time.

“For exercises like rows, deadlifts, and squats, it’s important to maintain a neutral spine base to prevent injury when you go heavier,” Arent says. That means you want to keep the three natural curves (your cervical or neck region is bent inward, the thoracic or upper back region is bent outward, and the lumbar or lower back region is bent inward) in your spine as you complete these movements. This is where it’s crucial to have an experienced coach watch you. If they witness your good form and you can tell how the movement should feel when executed correctly, you’re more apt to replicate that going forward.

Lifting properly goes beyond biomechanics, too. Focus on range-of-motion: You want to make sure you’re going down deep enough on squats, not bouncing the bar off your chest for bench presses, and not jerking the bar off the ground during deadlifts. “‘Heavy’ is relative to being able to maintain good form,” Arent says. “Focus on the feel of the lift, not just moving the weight.”

“For hypertrophy and muscle size, training volume makes a big difference,” Arent says. That’s why he suggests completing a minimum of 6-12 reps per set. That range works incredibly well, but don’t get too hung up on it. Your end goal is overloading your muscles.

Research shows that higher rep ranges (30 reps for a set, for example) can give you hypertrophy effects—you just need to take them within a few reps of momentary muscular failure. Training to total failure may not be necessary for muscle growth, especially if you’re using heavy loads or training with high frequency. Plus, going to total failure may also increase the risk of overtraining and injury if you’re doing heavy sets with compound lifts, which are highly fatiguing. 

“At best, giant sets are just as good as heavy weight and fewer reps,” Arent explains. Ideally, switching your reps and sets up is best (more on the next slide). Learn more about how many reps and sets you should do for muscle growth.

Periodization is a fancy term for any plan that allows you to make long-term gains while side-stepping plateaus and injuries along the way. “When I work with athletes who are trying to build size, I tell them you can’t do the same thing all the time,” Arent says. But the same goes for any guy—amateur and professional alike.

“For most nonathletes, you’ll have periods of time during which you go a little heavier—maybe seven reps for compound exercises—and other times during which you lighten it up a little bit, getting more of a pump in the 10- to 12-rep range,” he says. This isn’t slacking off. It’s strategic. Don’t look for the perfect program. Change your exercises frequently, do more/less reps and sets, and reduce rest between sets so you’re constantly providing an obstacle and room for growth.

Every seventh or eighth week of training, take a week off to rebound and rest. De-loading weeks relieve stress from your joints, promote overall recovery, and, when you come back to the gym, set you up for even more success. The mantra “no days off” is an ego trip, not a sign of power or peak fitness.

“If you’re training high-intensity and high-volume constantly, over time, it adds up—even just from a mental stress standpoint,” Arent explains. “In athletic literature, we know those rebounding weeks are essential for peak performance, too. Think of lifters and how they prepare for a contest: They taper to get ready for maximal effort.” 

And you don’t have to take the whole week off. You can unload and use about 50% of the weight you were lifting the week before and keep your reps and sets the same. This will maintain what you’ve built. Arent also suggests mixing in some other activities that aren’t geared toward the weight room as a refresher. Alternatively, cut your workout days in half or hit the gym two days instead of four or five.

Using a classic push-pull split will simplify your training—especially when it comes to getting thick and wide. Here’s why it works: “In between those lifts, you give your antagonist muscle groups recovery time,” Arent says. “When you go from bench press to deadlift, then back to an inclined press or shoulder press, you’ve given those pushing muscles and your neuromuscular system three to five sets [in which you were deadlifting] to recover, so you can handle heavier weight.” 

Arent recommends it as a good fundamental routine for most lifters. Here’s a push-pull routine that will simplify your training.

Most guys look at a program they see a pro bodybuilder using and think it’s their magic bullet for how to get thick and wide in the shortest amount of time. 

Here’s the problem (actually, multiple problems) with that logic: “Pro bodybuilders split their body up to seven different ways, they train every day, they probably have a genetic advantage over you, and they might have a chemical advantage over you,” Arent says. Hitting each smaller muscle group one day a week is not the best way to grow muscle if you are a natural lifter, according to science.

Simplicity is your best bet here. Hypertrophy is your end-all, be-all goal. Stick to that.

“The way to go: Slow, chronic progress during which you’re building lean mass without feeling the need to bulk and eat until you can’t anymore,” Arent says. He recommends aiming for around 1g of protein per pound of body weight. “Studies have shown that even slightly more than that can positively impact lean mass, particularly while trying to lose body fat,” he explains. 

The most recent data suggests a range of 0.9-1.07 grams of protein per pound of body weight is suitable for men who want to gain muscle, with the higher end of the range being optimal. Break your protein up into 20 to 40-gram doses per meal, and aim to eat 20–40g of protein before bed, and don’t be afraid of carbohydrates. “They’re not as evil as everyone wants you to believe,” Arent says. “In fact, carbs help spare protein. You need to fuel the machine!”

“If you don’t sleep, you don’t grow,” Arent stresses. Nighttime is when all the recovery takes place; it’s when your growth hormone is at its peak and when cortisol starts to get suppressed.”

A lack of sleep can suppress muscle protein synthesis by 18%, according to research, so if you want the best chances of growing thick and wide, prioritize a solid bedtime schedule. Stick with seven to nine hours as a guideline.