Do you have an even back?

Think about the following:

The average person weighs 3.6 kg. If your chin is pushed forward about 7 cm - which often happens when you are working at a computer - the muscles of the neck, shoulders and upper back have to support a weight of 5 kg. This increase in weight by 38 percent - often for several hours. If you do not take the necessary measures, a constant sitting at the table can lead to postural dysfunction, known to you as a "stoop."

As a result, your appearance does not just deteriorate; this condition is a common cause of the lack of progress in lifting weights, as well as pain and trauma. If you constantly work at a table or lift weights, there is a possibility that you already suffer - or soon will suffer - with a sinistral syndrome. Your risk rises if you do both.

Using our test, you can determine whether you are a victim of this syndrome. Then check your posture again with our guide. He will tell you what to do if you have already encountered this problem, as well as how to prevent it in the future.

Bonus: Your shoulders will be bigger, stronger and healthier than ever.

Self-test: Do you suffer stoop?

Place two fingers on the upper part of your right shoulder and feel the bone process. This is your acromion. Now take the ruler and lie on your back on the floor, the right hand is adjacent to the body. With your left hand, measure the distance between the right acromion and the floor, be careful: do not raise or lower your right shoulder while performing the measurement. If the distance exceeds 3 cm, then you have problems with posture.

Do you need another confirmation? Ask a friend to photograph you - without a shirt - from the side. Be straight, but in a relaxed position, as you usually stand, not thinking about your posture. In the photo, check that the middle of your ear was on the line with the middle of your shoulder, hip and ankle. If you can not draw a straight line through these points, then the diagnosis is correct.

Problem # 1: Your Exercises

The shoulder is the most complex and unstable joint of the human body. For its proper functioning, you must train all the muscles that help it to stabilize. The problem is that many guys think that the shoulder muscles are just the deltoid muscles, the superficial muscles of the shoulder. They argue as follows - if I do not see this muscle, why should I swing it.

This means that they perform a lot of pressures over their heads and dilution of hands to the sides - exercises aimed at the front and middle of the deltoid muscles - but absolutely does not involve the small, less noticeable muscles in the back of the shoulder joint. The result: imbalance of strength, which reduces the stability of the shoulder muscles.

Poor stability not only increases the risk of injury - the displacement and rupture of the rotator cuff of the shoulder - but also reduces your strength capabilities with almost all lifting movements for the upper body. In fact, weak shoulder muscles are the most common cause of prolonged "plateaus" when lifting weights.

Another problem: bench press and traction on a high block, the two most popular exercises in any gym (not counting biceps flexion). The first exercise is aimed at the large pectoral muscle - the main muscle of the breast - and the second - on the latissimus muscle of the back. Both these large muscles are attached to the inner surface of the humeral part of the arm, which means that they rotate it inward. If you perform these exercises more often than the movements on the external rotation of the hands - such as tilting in the slope and pulling on the low block - the large pectoral muscle and the broadest muscle of the back will pull your hands in the inner side, so your shoulders will be tilted forward.

The following describes how to train "other" shoulder muscles. It is necessary to consider the total number of approaches of bench presses, presses from the shoulders and pulls of the lower block, which you do during the week, and make sure that you carry out the same number of approaches of exercises that the following muscle groups develop:

• Rear deltoids

The deltoid muscle consists of three separate fascicles: anterior, middle and posterior. Although presses from the shoulders and dilution of hands to the sides develop front and middle deltoid, they ignore the rear deltoid.

Recommended exercises: Try lifting dumbbells in the slope and pulling dumbbells in a slope, using a wide grip. Carry out traction in the sitting position, pull the handle of the rope towards the neck, and not to the bottom of the chest.

• Rotating cuff of shoulder

The rotator cuff of the shoulder is formed by the tendons of the following muscles - supraspinous, subacute, small round and suprapular - they stabilize the humerus, allowing you to rotate your arm in any direction.

Recommended exercises: Strengthen the rotator cuff of the shoulder, developing it at least twice a week with exercises with external rotations and motion called PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular protraction).

• Scapular muscles

These muscles - a trapezius muscle, an anterior jagged muscle, a small pectoral muscle, a large diamond-shaped muscle and a small rhomboid muscle - set in motion and stabilize your shoulder blades. According to the study, 100 percent of people with shoulder problems have unstable scapula.

Recommended exercises: Focus on rowing movements, such as tilting in the slope and pulling on the low block. At the beginning of these exercises, pull the shoulder blades together.

Problem # 2: Your job

If you have a bad posture, changing the exercise program does not guarantee you a solution to the problem. 30 minutes a day, which you devote to the exercises, do not compensate for all the time you spend sitting in one position.

If your shoulders are tilted forward for a long period of time, your chest muscles are shortened. Since these muscles are brought to your arms, the distance they need to stretch when you are slouched is less than when your shoulders are laid back.

Over time, the muscles of the breast adapt to this position, as if it is their natural state. As a result, many stabilizing muscles of the shoulder become too stretched, which makes them weaker.

Recommended exercises: Do stretching exercises every day. They cause your pectoral muscles to stretch, which prevents their constant shortening.

If you work at a computer, perform 10 shoulders back in the standing position every hour. Become and take your shoulders back, pulling the shoulder blades. Each repetition lasts 3 seconds. And do not forget to keep the head and shoulders on the same line with the pelvis - this is an easy way to ensure the correct position of your body.

[1], [2], [3], [4]