Im hoping maybe someone can help me out. My shoulders seem to pull forward too much. I dont look hunched over, but they seem to be pulled too far forward. Someone told me that it was due to a chest/back muscle imbalance. I was wondering if that was the case, and if so, what the best fix would be. I can say my trap developement sucks, and I can push quite a bit more with my chest than I can pull with my back…any suggestions?
thanks
Work your back! Make sure you have the shoulders set back (scapular retraction) on every back movement, incuding deadlifts. Make sure also that you have your shoulders pinned back when benching. If doing shrugs, either use a trap bar or dumbells.
Sounds like you need to work on your rhomboid development. Bringing them along should help your problem.
For those of you who remember that I was using the tag ‘Mark’ a little while ago, well I still do. Mark - just a heads up that a few people use the tag ‘Mark’ from time to time, so you’re likely to get mixed up if you post with any regularity. OK, like the others are saying, work your back, and do some serious deadlifting. Cheers bud. Mark-AUS.
Yes, its possible for your shoulders to be pulled forward after a period of doing a lot of horizontal pressing exercises relative to horizontal pulling. This can cause an imbalance and lead to injury. To correct this type of imbalance you should do at least as much rowing as pressing, and maybe more rowing than pressing depending on the severity of the imbalance. Ian King has a recent article here, A Closer Look at the Seated Row, which addresses this. Another point here, you’ll likely never row as much as you can press. But, a huge benefit of the deadlift is that it provides the opportunity for the back muscles to experience some heavy load if you contract the scapula during the lift. Deadlifts can strap some beef on your back, traps, and rear delts.
Consider cutting way back on all bench pressing, chinning, upright rows, anterior shoulder presses, anterior delt work and dips.
This is only temporary! Don’t panic! The reason your traps look poor may be because your scapula is abducted thus “flattening” out the trapezius muscles. Put the scapula back where they belong and PRESTO! instant traps. I suspect you have very tight or even contracted anterior structures and lenghtend posterior structures. Begin to perform more rowing movements especially seated rows as outlined by Ian King. Barbell and dumbbell rows using 1 1/4 movements are excellent focusing on scapula retraction. Postural awarness is key as well. Especially in everyday activities like computer work, driving, school and “lean-forward toys”. Correcting posture in the weightroom will have no lasting effect if you practice poor posture the rest of the day. Scapula should be flat against the rib cage without any abduction or forward tip. There should be minimal of upper back viewable when standing sideways to a mirror. I suspect you may also have tight hip flexors and underdevopled transverse abdominals. Twice a day stretching of the pectorals, anterior delts, biceps and latissimus is mandatory. Any corrective exercises you perform will not work if the anterior structures remain short. Hold each stretch for at least 3-5 minutes. This condition probably took years to develop. It may take quite a long time to reverse it. Good luck.
Two answers. you answered one by symptom display. If your back strength is markedly lower than that of your chest, then specialize on your back strenght.
Muscle resting length is under cerebellar control. Although the work done is focused with the muscle being worked, the correction occurs in the noodle.
Mark, as you may or may not recall, in a feature article from Ian quite some time ago, he brought up a useful gauge of back to chest balance. Take off your shirt, go to a mirror and turn sideways, standing with your normal posture. If you can see too much of your upper back and traps, chances are excellent you have a very pronounced imbalance. I also had a similar ‘issue’ as many lifter do several months ago. Basically I began doing more core, practical strength exercises, (see all of Coach Davies articles)deads, renegade squat pulls, bent over rows etc. in addition to MAKING SURE that I keep the vollume of my pulling exercises AT LEAST equal to if not greater than my pushing exercises, in my case I actually increased the pulling vollume, always making sure to get a hard squeeze between my shoulder blades, for about 6 weeks in order to squash the imbalance and it has worked very well. Obviously, the site is FULL of back wo’s…now get to it man, your physique is like your life, it needs to be balanced!
OK, I’m not sure what I was on when I posted that last message, but I meant to say that I “DIDN’T” use the tag ‘Mark’ anymore! Must be the lack of carbs… sorry to jerk people around. I’ll get down off my soap box now… [grin]
Actually, none of my posts here are making much sense… “Doctor, valium please…!”
I’m experiencing a similar problem as a result of benching like mad for two years, without enough pulling exercises. To correct this, I’m doing twice as much pulling as pushing in my upper-body workouts, with emphasis on rows.
Do yourself a favour and get checked out by someone who practises ART and/or physiotherapy. This is the best way to find out if you have a muscle imbalances. They can give you excersizes to strengthen areas that need it. It sounds like you have the same thing I had…