The so called experts say that the reason we all have poor posture is because we sit and drive too much. This is a lie, because when Grog the cavemen decided to sit on a tree stump instead of the ground, chairs have been used for a very long time. The Book The Posture of School Children is about 100 years old and talks about corrective methods because of poor posture. Number one solution? Get more exercise. What about athletes that are professional? Don’t they train enough? Perhaps, as posture is also about personality and lifestyle, but many problems with posture that are not bone structure are easily changed if the athlete believes it will help him or her perform better. I devices to write a few tips to get people understanding how better programming can help people perform better.
Integrate Posture- Posture is a quality, not an isolated element to work on. Sometimes isolation work must be done on top of a good program but replacing training for postural work is a bad idea because the changes never seem to hold.
Clean Pulls- I like pulling with the legs but the back does get developed in harmony when one deadlifts with olympic style methods. One of the reason people spend forever doing thoracic mobs is because they don’t train their backs. Again in moderation, as too much back development can spell problems. Middle ground always seems to make sense in the long run. Mobility and stability are talked about but the real need is to get stronger in areas that get tight from just being too weak.
Olympic Movements- I have a lot of great athletes that don’t olympic lift but do so some similar movements for flexibility and posture work. How many world class olympic lifters look like Mr. Burns? Posture is about distribution and recruitment and olympic lifting is great anti-gravity work. Forget anti-extension and anti-flexion as those concepts are very faddish and even I need to stop using voodoo mechanics terms.
Good Benching- Don’t blame benching on tight pecs, as not using those muscles are not going to loosen them! Good form and good volumes are necessary to balance out the upper body. Sloppy Dumbbell Rows and lack of volume in pulling are culprits we are familiar with.
Minimal Coaching- The Posture Police coach that is overzealous tends to get athletes bracing too much and living in a tight world instead of a balanced relaxation and contraction environment. Interesting to note the increase in hip tears,sports hernias, and lumbar injuries with Modern Core Training Performance. Coaches need to guide the trail not blaze it for the athlete.
In summary this is the tip of the iceberg, and it would be great for people to share what really has worked for them in the blog discussion.
Discuss entry