Correcting upper back posture

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brikis98

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Jul 5, 2005
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When looking at my body from the side in a completely relaxed pose, my shoulders slope/slouch down and forward. It looks kind of dumb and I suspect is partially responsible for the various rotator cuff issues I've had over the years. If I straighten out and lift my chest, my shoulders move into a proper posture, aligning with my ears and hips, but this takes conscious effort and is not something I maintain most of the time. I've had this issue for most of my life and probably made it worse during my early lifting days by doing way too much bench press and not enough pulling motions to counter it. I'd like to start working to correct this problem.

So far, I plan on doing two things:

1. Stretching my chest every day after workouts to loosen up the pectorals.
2. Doing (weighted) inverted rows 3-4 times per week to strengthen the pulling muscles in the upper back.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing and any advice on what else I should do?
 
Mar 22, 2002
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Does "proper posture" actually entail shoulder alignment with ears and hips? It seems like even with all the stretching in the world that for a lot of people, that wouldn't work. I used to stretch my chest every day when doing PT for my shoulder, but never got anywhere near that. I have a medium pull forward of my shoulders, but my back is just as strong proportionally. Proper posture, I feel is more of a natural alignment kinda thing and differs a bit for different builds. I may be wrong since I haven't really researched it, but I feel that different people (and bone/muscle build structures) will have different default healthy postures.
 

brikis98

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Jul 5, 2005
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Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Does "proper posture" actually entail shoulder alignment with ears and hips?

Not sure, to be honest, it's just something I've heard in the past. However, I have no doubt that I slouch and visually, it's quite obvious that my shoulders are way too far forward. Perhaps I'll never have them aligned with my ears/hips (if that's even necessary), but I'm sure I'd benefit from shifting them back at least a little bit.

 

conorvansmack

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Feb 24, 2004
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Strengthening the upper back sounds like a good idea, similar to the concept of stronger abs correcting lordosis. I think you're like me and have a desk-based job in front of a computer, which definitely doesn't help.

If you're still seeing the chiropractor/ART specialist, check with them for ideas.
 
S

SlitheryDee

I had a Tae Kwon Do instructor who held self defense courses on occasion. When I was helping him with one I heard him mention that one of the best deterrents against assault was keeping one's head erect and projecting a sense of confidence and awareness. This struck me as being so obviously true that I began at once to train myself to do so at all times. Now before that I had also suffered from poor posture and sloping shoulders, but when I finally trained myself to the point where it felt natural to keep my head back and meet the world at eye level rather than looking at the ground in front of my feet, I found that my posture was also necessarily corrected by my head position.

Maybe your problem is different, but if you notice that you tend to hang your head forward somewhat by habit; simply learning to reorient it back and directly above your shoulders may help more than beefing up your back muscles to forcefully pull your posture into shape.
 

Sealy

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Aug 4, 2002
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Doing chest opener stretches is a great way to help with slouching....see my noodle thread :p
 

crt1530

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Apr 15, 2001
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Stretching, strengthening, and always being conscious of your posture.
 
Mar 22, 2002
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Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Does "proper posture" actually entail shoulder alignment with ears and hips?

Not sure, to be honest, it's just something I've heard in the past. However, I have no doubt that I slouch and visually, it's quite obvious that my shoulders are way too far forward. Perhaps I'll never have them aligned with my ears/hips (if that's even necessary), but I'm sure I'd benefit from shifting them back at least a little bit.

Fair enough. I seem to maintain the best posture when I maintain a solid kinetic chain while seated and standing. When I cross my legs or rest the sides of my feet while sitting, I can't help but slouch. When I have both feet flat on the ground though, my posture by default is much improved. The same applies for standing for me. If I'm leaning against a wall or have one leg crossed with the tip of my toe on the ground, my posture is not as good as when I have both feet flat on the ground. My standing posture is actually pretty good, I feel. Perhaps being aware of this will help you maintain better posture through something as simple as foot arrangement (completion of the kinetic chain).
 

geokilla

Platinum Member
Oct 14, 2006
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I got the same problem as you. My shoulder slouches forward when I'm relaxed and I can't seem to keep a proper posture for long periods of time. I'm trying to remember to do daily sholder disolocations.
 

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
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Too much bench pressing movement has affected your posture. Upper back work, bent forward rows, wide grip pull ups, rows whilst lying down on a bench face first (not advised if your in prison).

Also just work on having your shoulders braced back and stand all with the natural curve of your spine. Just takes a lot to break what your use to doing. I have a mate like you also, he has benched a lot and ignored his upperback = rounded and probably also because he never use to have good posture in the first place so the imbalance in his pecs probably made it worse.

Koing
 

ericn

Junior Member
Jul 1, 2009
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Often, rounded shoulders is caused by a lot of tension in your shoulder and chest. If you try to mobilize your shoulder blades, you can help to relieve that tension. Bench presses can cause tightness in the chest and tension in the shoulder blades, as any weightlifter can tell you.

Try these exercises for rounded shoulders posture.
 
Mar 22, 2002
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Originally posted by: Koing
Too much bench pressing movement has affected your posture. Upper back work, bent forward rows, wide grip pull ups, rows whilst lying down on a bench face first (not advised if your in prison).

Also just work on having your shoulders braced back and stand all with the natural curve of your spine. Just takes a lot to break what your use to doing. I have a mate like you also, he has benched a lot and ignored his upperback = rounded and probably also because he never use to have good posture in the first place so the imbalance in his pecs probably made it worse.

Koing

Except brikis bench presses rarely since CF only has two WODs that I'm aware of that entail that exercise.
 
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