Last week we discussed the importance of horizontal and vertical pulling in relation to horizontal and vertical pressing. Protracted shoulders can be a nasty condition; what makes it even worse is 70% of the people that have it aren't even aware that they have it nor of the condition itself! And people wonder why rotator cuff injuries are the most frequent injury in the fitness center.
First off, lets again analyze the posture and its cause. Protracted shoulders comes from overactive pushing muscles and underdeveloped pulling muscles; it is a condition of the internal rotators overpowering the external rotators. The internal rotators of the shoulders are the lats, pectorals and anterior deltoids. The external rotators are the trapeziums, rhomboids, posterior deltoids, infraspinatus and teres minor.
The main cause of the condition in terms of movement specificity is performing bench presses and overhead presses without working their opposites: the row and pullup. Bench presses and overhead presses, however, are not the only cause of the condition. In fact, there are some people that do not even lift weights with protracted shoulders!
Driving and office seated jobs (those including secretaries, bus drivers and general computer works all the way to a regular school student) are prone to and often do suffer from the condition. When their internal rotators tighten up and their external rotators get long and weak from sitting and slouching forward for the majority of the day, the result is your body and posture naturally leaning the way.
The solution to this condition is to stretch the shoulders internal rotators (pecs, lats, anterior deltoids) and strengthen external rotators (rhomboids, lower traps, infraspinatus, teres minor). The question you're probably wondering is - HOW! The answer? Horizontal pulling. Barbell rowing has an important aspect that most other pulling movements do not compromise of - and that is scapula retraction. You must contract the scapula to perform a proper bench over barbell row.
Now, lets give an activity to you to see if you have this condition. Go to the nearest room and grab a pencil. Hold that pencil and ball your first up with the tip of the pencil facing forwards. If the pencil tip faces inward (towards you) then your humerus is internally rotated and the result is protracted shoulders. If the pencil tip faces directly forwards, then you have health shoulders.
The shoulder consists of the deltoids muscles: anterior deltoids (front of the shoulder), lateral deltoids (side of the muscle), and posterior deltoids (rear of the shoulder). All deltoids need to be strengthened in order to overcome the condition. We should, as weightlifters, work every aspect of the shoulder. The rotator cuff muscles consist of SITS: Supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis.
Overhead pressing focus on development of the protractors of the shoulder more specifically then the retractors, on top of that you're already bench pressing. Overhead pressing gives slight work to the rotator cuff by is by no means a solution to protracted shoulders. It works different parts of the shoulders differently and if protracted does not allow specific muscles to fully contract.
During the concentric phase of your bent over barbell row, make sure your body is parallel to the floor. Once you make sure of this: keep your elbows flared out and pull the external resistance towards you and pause at the top focusing on the retraction phase of the scapula. Before each workout, incorporate cuban rotations and the poor mans shoulder horn to focus on development of the rotator cuff. You should also include scapular depressions (reverse shrugs) three times per week (after each workout) and eventually begin adding weight to those.
Pullups are often believed to be "all you need" for back development and this is a false statement. Pullups specifically target the lats and do not target the inner back muscles and external rotators: posterior deltoids, rhomboids, trapeziums as specifically a barbell rows do. Pullups also predominantly focus on development of the lats which are part of the internal rotators and not the external rotators.
Solutions: incorporate rotator cuff work pre-workout before each session, incorporate doorway stretches to stretch the internal shoulder rotators, incorporate horizontal pulling to a 2:1 ratio of horizontal pushes and vertical pulling with a 1:1 ratio of vertical pushing. Incorporate scapular depressions if you have access to a dip station and if necessary, incorporate face pulls and bent over lateral raises.
| Will "MVP" Riggs Personal Trainer/Nutrition Consultant/PA Student Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Will_E_Riggs | |
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