6 Best Workouts to get the ‘V’ shaped body – Train the right muscles

There are body builders that put up big muscles throughout their body and then there are body builders that have a perfectly V-shaped body.

Bodybuilders with a V-shaped Taper definitely stand out of the crowd. Even though the modern bodybuilders are more focussed on building big muscles, getting a V shaped physique is still desired by many.

Of course, you need to put up muscles and therefore, we won’t recommend you on not focusing on the muscle building exercises. But, one must never ignore the importance of having the right symmetry and good athletic physique as well. As we have become more and more acquainted with people having big muscles, it is found that many have forgotten the aesthetics of bodybuilding.

Body building is not simply limited to building big muscles. You need to give proper attention towards good physique and a balanced body.

A “V” shaped body consists of having broad shoulders and a narrow waist, which creates similar attractive physique as that of an athlete.

There are three particular muscles in the body that play an important role in building the “V” shaped body.

6 best Exercises that you can do to get a V-shaped Body

1. Lat Pull-down exercises

Lat Pulldowns are often done to produce the same activation as pull-ups. Being a compound exercise, lat pull downs help to recruit multiple muscle groups at a time.

Lat pull down exercises are performed using a machine. Different kinds of grips are used to target different areas of your back. Wide grip lat pull down exercises are recommended to widen your lats, hence work best to form the V-shape taper.

The form becomes very important while performing the lat exercise; you can adjust the angle of the lat pull downs to shift the muscle activation to different regions of your back. Keep in mind, the wider your grips on the lat pull down machine the more the lat muscles grow.

Steps–

1. Use a wide bar and attach it to the pulley. Sit on the pull down machine and make sure you adjust the knee pads.
2. Have a wide grip on the bar, which should be more than your shoulder width. Grab the bar with your palms. This shall target the lats.
3. Now, pull the bar, by squeezing your back and pulling through your elbows. Bring the bar lower till it touches your chest. It is important to put your focus on the squeezing the back and the posterior deltoids (back shoulder) as well.
4. Hold the bar at this position and slowly take it back to the original position to complete one rep.

Tips: Reps are to be performed till you fill the muscle failure as you pull down. However, doing 12-15 reps per set of 2-3 sets per session is recommended.

2. T-bar rowing exercises

Lat pull down exercises help you to get wider lats. But in order to have the perfect V-shaped body, it becomes important to focus on thickness of your back as well. The T-bar rowing exercises helps to increase the muscle density on your back, thus it is recommended.

The T-bar rows are considered as the strongest pull form exercise. You can use a neutral grip, with your palm facing each other. The T-bar rows are considerably better than the traditional row exercises. It allows, you to use both your hands, thus you can add more weights, which is not possible with dumbbell rows.

The T-bar rows are performed with a barbell which is attached to landmine hosel at one end and the other end is used to add weights. You can also use a normal barbell to create the same by putting some weights and using towels at one end to keep the support. One side of the T-bar is loaded with the weights that you can pick-up.

Steps–

1. Take a barbell and load it up with weights. One end should be positioned between the corners of walls using towels or attached to a landmine hosel.
2. Bend down, till your upper body forms an angle of 45⁰ with the floor, extend your arms.
3. You can use a V-grip handle generally available in gyms and place it under the bar and hold it with both hands.
4. Keep your lower back arched and pull the bar until it touches your chest.
5. Keep your knees bent and pull your elbows as high as possible, facing upwards.

As you pull up weights in the T-bar row exercises, the back muscles contract, which helps to increase the thickness. There are different versions of T-bar rows that you can add to your workout program.

Tips: T-bar rows allow you to pick heavy weights as both hands are used. So, you can increase the weights and lower the reps and workout accordingly. 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps per set are recommended with heavy weights.

3. Standing Overhead (Dumbbell) shoulder Presses

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You have to focus on your deltoids to ensure you widen your shoulder to get the broader area of the V-shaped body. Overhead press is an effective shoulder exercise, because of the compound movement it offers. Though this exercise focuses on different muscles, including your core muscles and side muscles, it primarily targets the lateral and anterior heads of the deltoids. Moreover, studies show that different versions of overhead presses can be used to lay more emphasis on anterior deltoids (front shoulders).

This becomes an important exercise to include in your workout regime to work out your deltoids. An extensive research,consisting of four different versions of overhead presses showed that standing dumbbell press have the highest amount of deltoids activation. This means, it recruits the anterior, lateral and posterior deltoids more than any other exercise.

Steps–

1. Take a dumbbell in each hand and stand with a stance little wider than shoulder width.
2. Raise the dumbbells to the head height, keeping your elbows out at an angle of 90⁰, which shall be the starting position.
3. Keep the form right without leaning back or forward. Push through your elbow and raise the weights above your head.
4. Hold there and then bring back slowly to the starting position, to complete one rep.

Tips: Overhead presses enable you to pick heavy weights. However, stick to 10-12 reps per set of 2-3 sets per workout sessions in your upper body workout days. Keep the form right to avoid any injuries.

4. Lateral raise with dumbbells

This exercise is recommended to work out the lateral heads of the deltoids. This exercise also involves the anterior deltoid muscles and some part of the traps as well.

Lateral raises are found to create the highest activation of the lateral deltoid muscles, in comparison to any other exercises. This makes it one of the popular exercises among the bodybuilders.

Maintaining the form of the exercise becomes very important to maximize the shoulder activation and to minimize shoulder stress.

Steps-

1. Stand straight with a shoulder width stance and grab a dumbbell in each hand with palms facing inward. Allow the dumbbells to hang at your sides.
2. Raise your arms to your sides keeping the wrist straight, till its gets in a line to your shoulders.
3. Hold and bring it back slowly to its starting position to complete the rep.

There are different ways of doing the lateral raises

• You can bend your knees a little to bring your shoulders in line with the centre of gravity.
• Or perform the exercise with some kind of chest support, keeping the impacts on shoulders completely.

Tips: Focus on maintaining the motion of the exercise, do not move or bend your shoulders. Do not bounce while doing the lateral raises as it might cause muscle imbalances and lead to injuries. Doing 10-15 reps per set of 3-4 sets per session is beneficial.

5. Reverse Crunches

When you look to have a V-shaped body, you need to focus on having a narrow waist. Thus, we recommend, not doing too much of heavy weight or resistance exercise, as it might build up more muscles.

Instead, we recommend doing the best body exercise for ripped abs, i.e. crunches, specifically reverse crunches. The reverse crunches help you to structure your lower abs or the abdominal muscles. They help you to put more emphasis on the waist as compared to the traditional crunches.

Before you choose to do the exercise, you have to make sure you understand the form of the exercise. This is essential if you want to get desired results from the reverse crunches you do.

Steps–

1. Lie down on the floor with your legs fully extended and arms at the sides of your body keeping the palms on the floor.
2. Move your legs up, making your thighs perpendicular to the floor.
3. Now, as you inhale move your legs towards your body by rolling your hips backwards. Raise your hips off the floor.
4. Keep doing it, till your knees touch your chest.
5. Hold and move back slowly as you exhale and bring the legs back to the starting position.

Tips: Doing 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps per set is recommended.

6. Vertical leg raise crunches

This is another great crunch exercise that you can add to your workout regime, to get chiselled and ripped abs. Vertical leg raise crunches are a low-impact exercise and very effective for strengthening the abdominal muscles.

Steps-

1. Lie down on the floor, with your hands behind your head.
2. Lift your legs up and keep them straight, without actually locking your knees. Cross your ankles. This is the starting position.
3. Lift your torso and bend towards your knees. Here, you need to contract your abs; either you can push your head close to the knees or try to touch your toes with your hands. Exhale as you do it.
4. Hold and get back to the starting position by inhaling.

Tips: Doing 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps per set is recommended.