A way of determining shoulder width is as follows:
Take off your shirt and stand with your back next to a smooth
wall.
Hang your hands in a relaxed manner and touch the sides of your
thighs. Do not flare your elbows or widen your lats. (By flaring
your elbows you can get another inch or so on the measurement, but
you're simply fooling yourself.)
Have a buddy stand in front, and with a yardstick in his hand,
place one end next to your right deltoid and extend it to the
front. Have him make a light pencil mark on the wall at the inside
edge of the yardstick, which signifies the protrusion of your right
shoulder.
Apply the same procedure, with the yardstick and pencil, on your
left deltoid.
Step away from the wall and measure, with the yardstick or tape
measure, the horizontal distance between the two pencil
marks.
That horizontal measurement (which includes both deltoids), in
inches and fractions of inches, is your shoulder width.
The average man in the United States is 5-foot 10-inches
tall(1.78m), and weighs 172 pounds(78kg). His shoulder width is
18-1/4 inches. (46+cm)
Using that as a starting number, if your shoulder width is
approximately 18-1/4 inches . . . then, your shoulder width is
AVERAGE or NORMAL.
A little bit goes a long way in shoulder width . . . 20-inch-wide
shoulders look significantly broader than average shoulders;
21-inch shoulders will get plenty of attention; 22-inch shoulders
will draw stares from almost everyone; 23-inch shoulders are super
heroic and will get you a ticket on the front row of Mr. Olympia
contests.
