How To Look Good In a Suit

Though this gent above is trim and not a weight lifting muscle head, he still has full shoulders. They fill out the corners of the suit nicely and they give him a good V shape for the most part and he’s off to the races. Now some people are born with genetically well built shoulders. If you’re not, it’s going to take a bit of weight training to build them up. Here’s what to do.

Every day, as I’m out walking around in my sweat pants as a personal trainer in downtown Vancouver between sessions, I often notice many folks dressed sharply. Now notice I say “dressed” sharply. The key here of course is that as a trainer, I see things a little bit differently. Namely, not how clothes fit on bodies but more so how the bodies fit in the clothes. Now most of us are doing very well in this fine town but trainers are nuts and we like to push and try to go for more all the time so, here we are.

First, Spot Bad Shoulders

Every guy should look good in a suit. And a shirt, polo and without any frigging shirt at all but who wants to weight lift forever anyway right? Right. Here’s what to do. I see this all the time. The chest isn’t doing too badly but the shoulders of the suit can be pinched. This means you can grab the tips of the corners of a guy’s blazer because there be air in there my friends.

This is not a good look in my opinion. You’ve probably seen it. Look head on at the ends of the shoulders and there’s a straight drop off. We don’t want the straight drop off, we want something a bit more rounded. Notice how our camera man here has a square shoulder? This would leave his suit with a tiny air pocket in the top corner of our red right angle. Not the look we’re going for. So what to do?

Second, Train The Coat Hanger Muscles

We’re going to add some shape to a man’s shoulders. This will help with the “V” look and with the width look and act as a platform for the shoulders which I have a fabulous name for: The Coat Hanger Muscles. Fitness competitors (female and male) always go after these muscles and develop them because they make us look more like superheroes.

What are the coat hanger muscles? They’re the muscles that make up your body’s coat hanger lines. Since we are our clothes’ hanger when they’re on us, we want to create and define a good line for them to hang on. Make sense?

If you don’t build up these muscles, a suit, shirt or sweater for that matter isn’t going to hang as nicely on you. Now here’s the good news: It doesn’t take much to get these muscles built up a little. I’d even venture to say that you could do most of this training at home. Let’s look at how you can look better in a suit.

Third, Learn These Exercises

Exercise #1: Lateral Raises

Lateral raises are a simple shoulder exercise that builds width into your shoulders and give them a nice lateral rounded look instead of that straight down drop off look our camera man had in the first picture of this article. Start with 3 sets of 10-12 reps and don’t go above parallel at the top of each rep or you’re likely to crank your neck. If you have a bad neck for that matter, avoid this exercises all together.

Exercise #2: Bent Over Rear Dealt Fly

You might not have heard of this one but it’s vital. It builds out the back of our shoulders so we don’t look as rolled forward from the side. Lack of this muscle kind of contributes to that “hunchy” look we get especially when we get a bit older.

Try 3 sets of 10-12 reps of this exercise too to begin with and go slow. It’s very form specific and you don’t want to make a mistake and strain your lower back while performing it.

Exercise #3: Arms

That’s right, a little bit of biceps and triceps work will add some muscle into your arms which will give you separation between your arms and your torso. We can build a better shoulder but if there’s nothing below it, well, that’s just not going to look very good. 6 sets of your favourite biceps and triceps exercises should do the trick. Try 8-10 reps per muscle group to get yourself started.

Skip These Exercises Or Train Less

There probably aren’t exercises you should avoid per se but, you would be best to focus on the ones above versus the rest of the lot. Here are some exercises that people often think will bring about a nice shoulder line and they certainly can, it may just be how much of them you would want to do as they develop a slightly different aesthetic.

These exercises are common but they may not be necessary to getting you the shoulder line you’re after. Use your personal preference to decide how much you need of them.

Exercise #1: Shoulder Press

Shoulder press is good for building a ball on the top of your shoulder. It’ll give you more of a mound instead of lateral width. You’re welcome to train this exercise but be careful in the type of shoulder press you do as it can damage and impinge the shoulder if done incorrectly.

Exercise #2: Shrugs

Shrugs build the traps and if you want big traps, build away however, they’re not pivotal to filling out a suit. Shrugs can also be one of those exercises that may upset the neck a touch so be gentle if you venture into trap building with this exercise.

Exercise #3 Shoulder Rows

Shoulder rows do work the shoulder in a similar fashion to lateral raises and though some people can get away with performing them, they often cause shoulder issues. Because of the closed motion and tight range of shoulder rows, they sometimes cause impingement and soreness in the top of the shoulder.

In Conclusion

I prescribe the above recommendations to almost all of my male clients and some of my female clients when they start a fitness program with me. Shoulders are the start of filling out a suit and looking sharp and feeling like you’ve got some separation across those coat hanger muscles. It’s nice to have a good shoulder line and fit well in a suit.

Try these exercises and see how you do and if you want more advice on really looking and feeling good, Contact Us today for more info!

Cheers,

FS Studios