Sloped Shoulders: Causes, Exercises and Posture Fixes

Why do I have sloped shoulders?

There are several reasons your shoulders could have a downward slant to them. These include:

Genetics

Most of your shoulder slope (or lack thereof) will be determined by your genetics.

Genes are responsible for a majority of the way your bone structure sits, including the layout of your shoulder bones. They can determine whether you have wide or narrow clavicles and influence the overall shape of your shoulders.

Muscle Imbalance

When we think about shoulder anatomy, it’s easier to contextualize what muscles, if underdeveloped, could make a slope.

If you lift weights, undertraining your deltoids while building up the trapezius muscles can cause your shoulders to look sloped.

This does not actually impact your bone structure, but it gives the illusion of a heavier slope if you have a significant mismatch between deltoid and trapezius training volume.

For more information on how genetics impact your physique, consider reading:

• Bad Bicep Genetics
• Bad Calf Genetics

Steroid Use

Bodybuilders who use anabolic steroids may notice enlarged trapezius muscles (traps).

Sometimes the deltoids grow excessively with steroid usage too.

Why?

These muscles are higher in androgen receptors. Androgen receptors are a type of nuclear receptor (a type of protein that detects steroids and hormones) that respond to androgen hormones.

This influences the male body type and can lead to an overdevelopment of both the deltoid and trapezius muscles.

Although both these muscles seem to be able to grow abnormally large with the misuse of anabolic steroids, many people see, in particular a ton of growth in the trapezius muscles.

These large, trapezoid-shaped muscles sit along the sides of your neck, and the tops of your shoulders and anchor down the upper back. Overinflating them by taking too many steroids often leads to a thick-necked look with a significant shoulder slope.

Carrying too much weight

You may be able to literally drag yourself down by carrying too much weight.

Simple things like carrying a heavy backpack without the shoulder muscle development under it could be part of the problem.

If you’re regularly loading up your shoulders with weight but not engaging the muscles, you may start to see a slope.

Conversely, carrying more weight on your shoulders actually helps some people to build stronger shoulders, so the jury’s still out on this one.

Health Conditions

Certain health issues can cause your shoulders to have a descending tilt. Scoliosis can be a cause for some people, where the spinal curve causes other joints like the shoulders or hips to tilt to compensate.

In Williams Syndrome as well, it’s common to see sloped shoulders. This is a connective tissue condition, where one of the primary signs is seeing a downward slope to your shoulder plane.

Do sloped shoulders mean you have bad posture?

No, not necessarily.

People with sloped shoulders can have bad posture or a hunch in their back.

Sloped shoulders, though, are just a variation in the natural shape that your shoulders can take on. It’s not correlated to one or the other issue.

Sloped shoulders have an upside-down V-shape to their tilt. They don’t have a horizontal line across the tops. People with bad shoulder genetics may have downward-sloped shoulders.

What exercises can correct sloped shoulders?

All this to say, if you have sloped shoulders, hope is not lost.

No, workouts won’t change your bone structure or genetics.

What they can do is help you make a whole lot of improvements to the way your shoulders look. They’re also a good way to strengthen your shoulders, which can have a significant impact on pain reduction and athletic performance.

Take a look at a few moves you can use to correct sloped shoulders.

Exercises for sloped shoulders

Lateral Raise

To balance out the look of your shoulders, start with your lateral deltoids.

Lateral raises often called “lat raises” are one of the most useful side delt exercises to work the sides of your shoulders. What this can do is help grow the deltoids to offset oversized trapezius muscles.

It won’t correct a slope due to bone structure, but it can make your muscles look more in sync.

For the mid deltoids, these are some of the top shoulder exercises that affect deltoid activation for people who resistance train. Let’s get to know the lateral raise.

• Set-Up: Sit on a bench with your feet flat on the floor. You can also do this move standing up, feet shoulder-width apart. Face your palms in towards each other, holding a light dumbbell in each hand. Roll your shoulders back to stand with your chest proud. Engage your core.
• Raise: Lift your arms straight out to the sides at the same time. Stop when your arms hit shoulder height. Your body should be making a “T” or cross shape here. Hold for a moment.
• Reverse: Slowly lower your weights with control to bring your hands back to your sides.
• Reps: 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Shrugs

Although shrugs will build up your trapezius muscles, they can help you 0gain more conscious awareness of these strong muscles.

By strengthening your trapezius muscles and stretching them out afterwards (more on this up next), you promote more understanding of how they work in your body.

Stretching your traps out after shrugs also helps release tension in these powerful muscles.

• • Set-Up: Stand and hold a barbell with a shoulder-width overhand grip.

• Body Position:
• Lift: Draw your shoulder blades backwards and downwards, then shrug your shoulders upwards as high as possible, keeping your arms straight. Briefly hold.
• Reverse: Slowly lower the barbell until your shoulders are neutral.
• Reps: Aim for 2-4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Ear to Shoulder Stretch

This stretch should give you a nice bit of tension release along the sides of your neck.

Tightness in the trapezius muscles can cause them to tense up, looking enlarged in comparison to the rest of the shoulders.

To stretch these muscles out:

• Set-Up: Grab the left side of your head with the right hand.
• Stretch: Gently pull the side of your head so your right ear comes toward your right shoulder. You should feel a stretch along the left side of your neck into the trapezius muscle.
• Hold: Hold for up to 30 seconds and gently release the stretch. Repeat on the other side. You can do this stretch alternating sides as many times as you need. Try to make sure you stretch for the same amount of time on each side of your neck.

Arnold Press

To execute this move:

• Set-Up: Sit on a weight bench with your feet in a comfortable stance on the floor. You can also perform this move standing up. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart if you choose to stand.
• Equipment: Grab a dumbbell in each hand with an underhand grip. Start the move off by bending your elbows to bring your hands up to a bicep curl position with your weights hovering near your collarbones and your palms facing your body. This is your starting position.
• Press: Rotate your wrists outward while you simultaneously rotate your wrists outward while you start to press your dumbbells up and away from your chest. Keep lifting your weights until your arms extend overhead, twisting your wrists to flip your palms. Don’t lock out your elbows, but maintain muscular activation in the arms so they should be almost straightened. At the top of the movement, your palms should be rotated 180 degrees to face forward.
• Reverse: From the top of this movement, slowly lower your dumbbells and twist your wrists inward, in the opposite direction, so your palms are facing you at the bottom of the move.
• Reps: Repeat this pattern for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps with medium-weight dumbbells.

The takeaway

Sloped shoulders can be caused by many things.

From genetics to improper training causing muscle imbalances, your shoulders can take on a downward tilt across the horizontal plane.

Although you can’t change your genes or bone structure, there are a lot of simple fixes you can use to improve the look of your shoulders.

Not only this, but many of these exercises will help build up your muscular strength and stretch out your shoulders for healthier, pain-free muscles.

The key muscle groups that impact the slope of your shoulder are the deltoids and trapezius muscles. Deltoids cap your shoulders and are made up of front delts, side delts and rear delts.

The trapezius muscles are long trapezoidal muscles that line the sides of your neck, and tops of your shoulders and insert along your mid-spine.

If you have sloping shoulders, you may have certain health conditions, stronger trapezius muscles than deltoids, scoliosis or lifestyle issues.

All of these situations can create a slope.

Work on moves like ear-to-shoulder stretches, shrugs for your traps, and lateral raises for the deltoids. If you work on these moves diligently and track your progress it’s possible for you to see progress, even with the most challenging shoulders.

References

Kadi, F., Bonnerud, P., Eriksson, A., & Thornell, L. E. (2000). The expression of androgen receptors in human neck and limb muscles: effects of training and self-administration of androgenic-anabolic steroids. Histochemistry and cell biology, 113(1), 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004180050003

Morris CA. Williams Syndrome. 1999 Apr 9 [Updated 2023 Apr 13]. In: Adam MP, Feldman J, Mirzaa GM, et al., editors. GeneReviews® [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2024. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1249/