My new training partner has that issue where his shoulders are pulled forward and upper back is rounded, I see it a lot down the gym. Too much benching and not enough back work I guess. What do I do to solve it, he obv now trains back and I get him to extreme strech his chest and will do the same with his shoulders. Any tips
ladies?

you'll probably have to do some scapula retraction exercises on him. My guess is that he probably doesn't retract them properly on the back work he does at the moment.

cleaver wrote:you'll probably have to do some scapula retraction exercises on him. My guess is that he probably doesn't retract them properly on the back work he does at the moment.

Hes been training chest for 1 year, the first time he did back was 1 month ago with me. Thanks for the tip............. time to google!

A lot of swimmers have this problem because the majority of strokes are chest and shoulder based. Some of the posture I see is awful.

I've always been OK because I'm a Backstroker so my back muscles are pretty strong, but I've also found with doing more freestyle in training now that I need to focus on my back more.

Other than increased strength training in the back, what I have found helps is basically constant focus on posture. Hips forward shoulders back. It takes a bit of retraining your mind to keep to it, but it definitely works. Combining that with some good strength training for the back has helped me no end I've found. Admittedly I never had a severe problem, but it can't do any harm.

I'd agree with Cleaver about the scapular retraction, I actually find myself doing that a lot during the day and it helps pull the shoulders back nicely.

So, for me...strength training and posture training! The posture can be done all the time which is a bonus.

find another training partner? lol

Some thoughts from me ...


Does he do a desk job? We desk jockeys all do it, sit at a desk and hunch over the keyboard and that doesn't help! - I'm doing it now... but not now lol - Awareness of your posture if you are at a desk is important to help correct back rounding - so think sitting up straight shoudler high and back & shoulders not rounded - Sitting on swiss ball at your desk helps but personally I don't cos I'd look a total plonker! Though I have seen it done. I very occassionally sit on a swiss ball on the computer at home though.

Do the stretch where you kneel down , hands on floor in front of head then sort of move hips back and shoulders to the floor so your back arches back and so you stretch upper back - hands on the floorin front means your upper back gets stretched - sort of opposite to a cat stretch if you see what I mean. Can also do it standing with hands on wall above head and then leanining forward to arch/stretch your upper back.

Lying on a foam roller to stretch upper back works well - Obviously you have to place it mid/upper back - Can do active stretch with this by rolling back and forth - A towel under your back does teh same thing.

As you say, pec strectches - maybe very light flys but going for a very full stretch rather than using them to shift any weight.

How about overhead squats - that will force the shoulders to loosen - you never see an Oly lifter with a hunched back.

Upper back work as said above to correct muscle imbalance...

Go and see an Oesteopath

A few exercises that may help:

Suitcase Deadlift/Rack Deadlift - Shifts load from lower back to mid/upper.

Cable Squat Row/Face Pull - Demands correct posture through the body for the movements to work.

Medium Grip Chin/Yate Row - Hits rear delts as well as mid/upper back so can help to balance posture.

DB Shrug & Extension Rotation/Power (Hang) Clean - As above.

Good Mornings - Posterior Chain, self explanitory.

Can't add much to the above, but good point by Ader on desk posture... can reinforce poor posture from imbalanced exercise.

I would think that once he's doing the work for his back consistently his posture will improve automatically... specific extra work in the long run might not be necessary. Some of the best exercises i've found for building the muscles that pull the scapula and shoulders back are cleans or high pulls, bent over laterals, and incline shrugs (lying face down on an incline bench and shrugging). The last exercise is good for bringing out the serratus too.

Tons of facepulls and pullups.
Put him on at least 2x as much pulling as pressing and make his pressing 50/50 vertical/horizontal.

Rilla wrote:Tons of facepulls and pullups.
Put him on at least 2x as much pulling as pressing and make his pressing 50/50 vertical/horizontal.

My plan is teaching him how to retract the scapula, face pulls, lat pull downs (his back is too weak for pull ups, his arms take over) and great attention on form on rows.

Add this to extreme streching for chest and shoulders to undo the damage he done by just benching

I used to have this problem. Lots of lower trap work, overhead stretching and pec stretches cured me.

-Face pulls/rows to neck/bent over raises
-Shoulder dislocations/ lots of OH BB pressing holding the top position ensuring to 'get under' the bar fully.
-Deep ring pressups with scap retract/protractions are very good if you've got access.

Had another thought on this - rotator cuff work. The forward henched shoulders posture is the first step to putting unequal strain on your RC's and injury... I'd maybe do some work on them too.

See this a lot and as said its too much chest over back

I have had a similar problem and Grandad Simon suggested some full ROM flyes last year

Problem now solved

Spit wrote:

Don't do lat pulldowns, they internally rotate the humeri and will make things worse rather than better. Strict seated cable rows would be a much better bet.

Eric Cressey wrote a three-part series on T-Nation called Shoulder series which is excellent, get your man to read those ASAP. Also another one on there called 'Push-ups, Face Pulls and Shrugs' which would be well worth hunting down.

He has no internet nor the base knowledge to understand any articles, I'll do the feckin reading!

Thanks for the tip on lat pulls though.

Seriously?

Dump him like a burgerwrapping and get a training partner that you can also benefit from.

Rilla wrote:Seriously?

Dump him like a burgerwrapping and get a training partner that you can also benefit from.

I don't normally do training partners but he asked nicely for my help.