Fixing Posture - Part 3: Upper Body
Happy Monday Steemit, I had someone ask me about fixing and improving their shoulder pain they had. Sorry for the delay had a really busy weekend, so part 3 will be about how to fix the upper back and shoulders. It would be a mix of static holds, stretches, and conditioning exercises.
Shoulders
Before we start this routine, I want you to give yourself a little test. Stand up straight in your most relaxed position, take a couple deep breath keeping your arm to your side stick out your thumbs (like a thumbs up) without moving your arms in any way. Take a look down and see where your thumbs points. if they are point towards each other, like "/ \" then you have rounded shoulders. Our goal is to have our thumbs point straight forward.
I like to do the most complex and muscle taxing exercises in the beginning of the workout routine because you are able maintain best possible form throughout the routine.
Overhead Press / Handstand push-up
If you have access to the gym, doing overhead press is a great compound exercise that improves upper body strength. it recruits your abs, obliques, lower back and spinal stabilizers (what we worked on with the isometric holds) throughout the movement. As well as strengthening the upper pectorals and the front and upper deltoids.
If you have no gym access then handstand push-ups are great alternative. Even if you can just do assisted handstands, I recommending doing them here's why. I personally feel that handstands help with my tense shoulders due my computer usage, it help pushes my shoulder downwards.
Wall Slides
After doing some heavy muscle overload, I would recommend mobility and stability exercises. This is all about focus and contraction, you will feel which part of your upper body need the most work. Wall slide shown above helps with the shoulder blade mobility and reduces rounded shoulders.
Towel Pulls
Pull the towel apart as hard as you can keeping tension constant lift both your arms up above your shoulders and back down to in front of your shoulder. Optional, you can do a squat with it if you like. This helps with the rear deltoids that most people never work on.
Shoulder Dislocate
Don't worry about the name of the exercise, this is one of the stretches that most heavy lifters do to help reduces all the stress in their shoulders. Focus on bracing your core, slowly move the pole/stick/towel over your head and finish behind your back. If you are not able to get it pass behind your head then your hands might be too close together. At certain point you feel that it might be uncomfortable or you feel stuck at a certain position, relax and hold it there for a little bit before continuing the motion.
Shoulders are sensitive muscles. I never really do any heavy weights when I work out my shoulders except for overhead press and handstands. I would rather you do light weight and work them out with strong contractions rather than using heavy weights. Compare your shoulders to your legs, I can ask you to jog for 20 minutes and you will most likely be able to finish it, but if I asked to do 10 minutes of arm circles you would probably not complete the task. Make sure you listen to your body, always push yourself but know the limits.