If you have frequent shoulder problems, neck pain or lower back pain, and your shoulders are curving forward, it is time to correct your posture.
Having had hyperlordosis myself since I was very young, I will share with you all the advice that I have applied to myself to find a good posture, in order to feel better in your body, reduce pain in the back, inflammation around the shoulders, and get a beautiful figure with a proud look!
The first thing to do is to strengthen your abdominal belt. A solid “core” is the basis for good posture but also for good health in general. The most effective is to use different reinforcement methods and to work from all angles: we will then combine sheathing (isometric and dynamic), concentric movements in the sagittal plane (flexion-extension), but also in rotation … So all the muscles of the abdominal belt will be worked on: rectus, obliques, transverse, lumbar.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of really effective exercises to strengthen your abdominals:
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Great right work:
– High pulley crunch
– Suspended leg raise
– Rollout (forward extension to the abdominal wheel)
– Wood chopper (top to bottom)
– Reverse wood chopper (bottom to top)
– Bust rotation with a stick (sitting on swiss ball)
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Transverse work and sheathing (static and dynamic):
– Board (front sheathing)
– Lateral sheathing
– “V” cladding
– Dynamic shaping: in plank position, simultaneously raise left arm and right leg, then pose them by raising right arm and left leg, etc.
– Swiss ball pike
– Dragonflag
You can introduce these exercises at the end of each workout; if you do 3 workouts per week for example, do an exercise for the rectus abdominis, an exercise for the obliques, a static core and a dynamic one, at the rate of 2 to 4 sets of each (depending on your level of training and of your spare time).
Attention!
Strengthening the abdominals goes hand in hand with strengthening the glutes .
Indeed, strengthening your abs will allow retroversion of the pelvis by the shortening of these muscles (imagine a spring between two bars: the more the spring is stretched, the more the two bars will move closer to each other) . This is the effect on the front of the pelvis. But to help achieve this retroversion from the back of the pelvis, another “spring” will have to be used: the gluteal muscles. It is very important to strengthen your glutes if you want to optimally strengthen your abdominals.
Retroversion of the pelvis will correct posture, especially in people with lumbar hyperlordosis (arched lower back).
In the event that your abdominals (especially the rectus abdominis – the famous 6 pack) are very strong to the detriment of the lower back which is weak (you can notice this if you have a round back when you lift heavy loads ), then focus more on core exercises and lower back exercises, and avoid abdominal exercises such as crunches and leg raises that only target the rectus abdominis.
We talk a lot about the mobility of the shoulders in a functional aim. But it is even more important to focus on their stability ! There are a lot of possible solutions for this given the number of muscles located near the shoulders. But the first muscle group to strengthen is the rotator cuff . We will also think about strengthening the shoulders and in particular the posterior bundles, as well as the middle and lower trapezius and rhomboids, but also the dorsals (lowering muscles).
We will take the opportunity to bring our shoulders back by strengthening these weakened muscles (for lack of daily stress and unsuitable posture due to seated work for example), and by opening the rib cage.
You can strengthen your rotator cuff at the start of each of your workouts. The rest will be worked out twice a week for good results with one or two exercises in each zone per workout.
– Rotations external to the pulley
– External rotations with elastic
– Cuban developed
– Low pulley bird with one arm
– High pulley bird (two arms)
– Bust bird leaning with dumbbells
– Face Pull sitting on the low pulley
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Trapezoids and rhomboids:
– Horizontal row low pulley neutral grip
– Horizontal rowing low pulley supination grip
– High pulley pulling in neutral gear
– Rowing bar at 45 ° (pronation or supination)
– Vertical pulling pulley with straight arms
– Pullover (opens the rib cage)
Finally, to complete the work of strengthening weaker muscles such as the back shoulders, middle / lower trapezius, rotator cuff, as well as abdominals, hamstrings and glutes, it is important to stretch stronger muscles such as as the pecs at the shoulders and the lumbar and quadriceps at the pelvis.
chest stretching
supraspinatus stretch
internal rotator stretch
stretching of the lower back
quadriceps stretching
frontal split (large lateral gap)