by Kerry Taylor
During a recent training session, some clients and I dove into a conversation on posture, healthy shoulders, work and life and how they all tie together. I think everyone needs to work on their posture and keeping their shoulders healthy. To start that process, we need to not put so much focus on the mirror muscles. What I mean by that is that we should do a lot more rowing and pulling than we do pushing and pressing to help and create good posture and keep our shoulders healthy. By doing this, it will help combat what our daily lives have become. We have become a society that is constantly reinforcing rounded forward shoulders by the nature of what we do daily (Even typing this now, I'm reminding myself to not slouch over so much to look at the screen). Think of your day, I'm sure a lot of it is spent doing the following.
1. Looking down at our smartphones
2. Working or playing on computers
3. Driving
4. Sitting
And then we follow all that up with working on the muscles we see in the mirror the most and movements that reinforce pulling your shoulders forward, which would be a lot of upper body presses and pushes. There are many ways to help keep your shoulders healthy and improve your posture. Here is just one idea and a basic plan of attack for you if you feel what I'm saying is applying to you and your life.
1. Lessen the time you're doing the activities that pull your shoulders forward. Be aware and try to pull those shoulders back when you can. ie; sit more upright or raise your computer screen
2. Learn how to use SMR (Self Myofascial Release) tools and the techniques that go with them to help massage and open up those areas. ie; foam rollers, P-Knots, massage sticks, softballs/golfballs/lacrosse balls
3. Perform different heavy carries with heavy stuff in your training. Keeping in mind standing up tall as you perform your carries. There is a reason we do a lot of different carry variations in our training.
4. Try to create an overall 3 to 1 ratio of rowing/pulling (3) to pressing/pushing (1). Either within each training session or over the course of your training week. That can be by number of exercises or number of total repetitions you do.
5. Be careful of over doing your vertical pulling like pull ups, that I know everyone wants to be able to do. If your shoulders are already in a bad position, we don't want to do too much vertical pulling on a bad foundation, like we wouldn't want to press from a bad foundation. Just be aware and be careful and play with your hand positions. Adjusting your hand positions may help you to be able to press and pull successfully.
Here are some of the drills you should have in your training arsenal to help with your posture and with keeping those shoulders happy.
If these are not in your training arsenal, then make sure you start to add them in to help your shoulders feel better and help you to walk a little taller. Remember, it will take some time to reverse bad habits, so stay consistent and be patient. Until next time, continue to live life 1 degree above the rest.