Original article on Posture and Injury prevention

[KopyKat]

Well ive worked on an article and asked some people about it. I am choosing to post it now.

I have written this article mostly on my 2 year stuggle with pretty big muscle imbalances. I hope that some of you can benefit from its information especially those with similar issues. Well here goes nothing:



An Original Article on Posture and Injury Prevention


By Jon Bodnar


Are you one of those people who notice that they have an unsymmetrical chest or shoulders or just your two sides in general? Have you checked your posture lately and really gave an honest effort to stretch your body fully? Well then this writeup could be for you!

I first remember noticing my chest was uneven awhile ago when i was still working out at home of course and that my right shoulder was a bit bigger along with my right lat. My left pec was a bit bigger and always took over in every movement. My left lower back was even a bit more dominant and always felt waay more burning after any kind of posterior chain workout. I was a mess posturally and it seemed that my right limbs were doing all the work and my left torso was doing all the work. Go figure that one out lol!

Anyways, after a year and a half or so it finally got to the point where i injured myself pretty seriously in my low back, hip and groin. This was very painful and it felt so random when and in which muscle group the pain striked. I even think it was sciatica for awhile there since it felt that way in my left leg. I knew i had to find a way to get rid of this pain and this major imbalance after going to 4 professionals, 2 chiropractors and 2 doctors and with still next to no relief.

What i found out was that it was not about what either of these professional factions told me to do or at least they sure didn't go into as much detail as they should have! So i did some experimenting for what would take the pain away.

I found that things like stomach vacuums over a period of a month or so multiple times a day while doing my regular routine really made my lower back feel like it was stimulated more evenly and took the pain away from the injured places much better than anything else so far. I combined this with crunches with my low back rounded totally during the movement. I would get my ab walls (transverse abdominus) into the best position for equal pull by slowly sucking in my ab wall a slight bit and then flexing my abs in the position where it gives equal pull and didn't hurt and do a set of crunches until i almost hit failure but not quite so i didn't coax the imbalance back.

These two things helped me the most and i found that they literally started helped the injured places within three weeks to a month but it still went on for an addition couple months while due to the nature of 3 injured muscles always being used everyday.


For the shoulder girdle i found that my left shoulder would not want to take any of the stress and my right shoulder was always in on it especially the front delt and the same went for the lats and triceps. My traps were the opposite, left one took it all and right one barely ever did along with my pecs the same way.

I found that the broomstick stretch helped alot with thise along with BTN press of all things. It taught me to keep my traps and rhomboids tight in the back and make sure the shoulder blades were squeezed together and down during the lift. I found this helped alot with keeping the shoulder under pressure while keeping it in a safer position with the traps stabilizing it and my chest and back felt more like they were doing equal work now as well! This seemed to really help with the combination of doing strict broomstick stretches while utilizing the above mentioned technique. The BTN press is great for teaching this but only after you gain some of the flexibility benefits from the broomstick stretches and other standard shoulder stretches. Or you can just use in front press, i just chose this one since it works for me. The most important things during or after all these things is to lighten up the weight in the gym to a weight that you can use properly and feel the muscles being worked more accuratly and only then start moving up in weights again.

Of course this is a guide based off only my experience and research, i can in no way guarantee that it will completely cure an uneven chest or certain things because that can also totally depend on your muscle insertion points or bone lengths and or shape. But i can say one thing, it has helped me in the best way possible and now i feel that i can do anything in or out of the gym with little to no discomfort, i say discomfort because it rarely ever gives out any pain at all anymore. It took a long time but i did it and i am so greatful its nothing more serious that got to the point of no return without surgury. It also made most of my asymmetries not so bad anymore even in my own eyes, which means no one else probably even notices it which is usually the case anyways.

Well i hope i helped someone out there with this little writeup and that it shed some light on my experience with the side to side dilemma that alot of use seem to have or had. Good luck to all my fellow gym patrons!

[Ibanez]

Yeah, it's almost like one kink can mess everything up. Have you ever considered yoga? It's suppose to help with muscle imbalances in the body. It's pretty funny how even just having one hand elevated on a desk and the other down for a long period of time can mess you up. Oh, you might also want to check out SMR too.

[KopyKat]

Originally Posted by Ibanez

Yeah, it's almost like one kink can mess everything up. Have you ever considered yoga? It's suppose to help with muscle imbalances in the body. It's pretty funny how even just having one hand elevated on a desk and the other down for a long period of time can mess you up. Oh, you might also want to check out SMR too.

I now understand the whole "chain" concept and yes, one kink CAN screw everything, literally. No i haven't but im already pretty much "cured" of this issue. Im not too worried but i like stretching it once in awhile to keep it at bay and improve it further.

[Ibanez]

oh, you have any problems with lordosis at all? I see this a lot, although it's more common in overweight people.

I forget, is it the lat that is mainly responsible for pulling down the shoulder?

[dasicvtec]

Thanks for the article

I to have bad posture, and my shoulders hunch forward quite a bit. Ive got to actually do some stuff to help it as i relaise now nothing gets done by iteself, especially in this sport.

Do you have any reccomended shoulder stretchs ? Or hip stretches ? As im very tight in my legs and hip areas to a point where i can even parallel squat.

What kind of injury did you get ? how did it happen ?

Thanks again

[KopyKat]

Originally Posted by Ibanez

oh, you have any problems with lordosis at all? I see this a lot, although it's more common in overweight people.

I forget, is it the lat that is mainly responsible for pulling down the shoulder?

The lats seem to pull down the shoulder girdle and internally rotates the shoulder joint when in full use. They are mostly used when the rhomboids are flattened out and not in use. They kinda take over the movement of the rhomboids when the shoulder girdle is protracted instead of retracted.

People use a closer grip to make sure the girdle stays protracted and doesn't become overally retracted to the point where their rhomboids take over the movement.

Also try to replace any close grip lat movement with a wider grip one WHILE still in the protracted shoulder girdle postion. You will feel your teres majors like crazy

Lordosis you say? I guess sorta yeah, remember i had the whole left ot right side thing going so they were kinda different on both sides. But yeah that sounds like what helped me. Stretching the low back in the rounded postion ( crunches) and stretching of the hip flexors (which i did not do enough lol) help this big time. Check this site out for more details about that exact issue:

http://www.exrx.net/ExInfo/Posture.html

Thanks

[KopyKat]

Originally Posted by dasicvtec

Thanks for the article

I to have bad posture, and my shoulders hunch forward quite a bit. Ive got to actually do some stuff to help it as i relaise now nothing gets done by iteself, especially in this sport.

Do you have any reccomended shoulder stretchs ? Or hip stretches ? As im very tight in my legs and hip areas to a point where i can even parallel squat.

What kind of injury did you get ? how did it happen ?

Thanks again

Not much of an injury, more of horrible posture coming back to haunt me big time. Shoulder stretches that are good are the broomstick stretch and bodyweight lunges are decent hip stretches. Ill post another page i used for info too show you this info futher:

http://www.forum.bodybuilding.com/sh...d.php?t=917925

[JOHN GARGANI]

this is an excellent article by KOPY, of which I had the pleasure of reading before it got up here.......

such fantastic words of advice coming from this young lifter who has had his head in the right place ever since he has posted on BB.com......

I hope more people read this and give response......

[KopyKat]

Bump for those who are interested.

[nickortego]

Good article.

[cssprophet]

Nice article.

I have similar postural problems as you mentioned in the article, and I think I'm going to try some of the stuff you recommended. I also think I have a bit of a shoulder injury, and I think that's also contributing to my imbalances. Maybe I'll see a PT or something.

[JOHN GARGANI]

Kopy: little by little, more people are coming on and reading and noticing your fine thread!

[KopyKat]

Originally Posted by JOHN GARGANI

Kopy: little by little, more people are coming on and reading and noticing your fine thread!

Thanks John, it just feels great knowing that some people that have similar issues are benefiting off of it!

Thanks for the support guys!

[TheCore]

Good thread, haven't dome here in a long while...

Liked this link a lot also; http://www.exrx.net/ExInfo/Posture.html

I saved it, good to hear things are going better KopyKat, but maybe you should look into yoga a bit, it couldn't hurt. I'm thinking of doing that myself also...

Stretching did me good (broomstick exericises and deadhangs, all kinds of stretches), so I don't think yoga will hurt...!

[DeGermaan]

Lol, yoga, I googled yoga and bodybuilding and came to this site; http://yoga.org.nz/benefits/physiolo...dybuilding.htm

Does anyone here do yoga?

[Ibanez]

Originally Posted by DeGermaan

Lol, yoga, I googled yoga and bodybuilding and came to this site; http://yoga.org.nz/benefits/physiolo...dybuilding.htm

Does anyone here do yoga?

Yeah, it does wonders for flexibility. Although, for myself it's more so for sport peformance. Yoga helps with muscloskeletal balance. I'm not going to say give up weights for yoga, instead they should both be used to have a healthy , balanced, strong, muscloskeletal system.

I highly recommend this book, for 26 bucks it will help explain why yoga is such a good physical activity. It has stuff on posture and nueromuscular system. Pretty much reading this will help give you a better insight into your posture and if you have posture problems might give you just the information you need to fix them.
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Hatha-...ympiweightr-20

[DeGermaan]

Originally Posted by Ibanez

Yeah, it does wonders for flexibility. Although, for myself it's more so for sport peformance. Yoga helps with muscloskeletal balance. I'm not going to say give up weights for yoga, instead they should both be used to have a healthy , balanced, strong, muscloskeletal system.

I highly recommend this book, for 26 bucks it will help explain why yoga is such a good physical activity. It has stuff on posture and nueromuscular system. Pretty much reading this will help give you a better insight into your posture and if you have posture problems might give you just the information you need to fix them.
http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Hatha-...ympiweightr-20

Well I'm sold, sounds good to me.

[Ibanez]

Originally Posted by DeGermaan

Well I'm sold, sounds good to me.

Just to add a little more, I'm an olympic weightlifter and we are pretty flexible to begin with, but when I actually tried some yoga poses I realized I wasn't as flexible as I thought. I'm like damn, this is tough.

Plus if you have flat feet you should really do yoga, it will help strengthen the supporting muscles around the feet and stretch the tight muscles that collapse the arch. Also if you have hip problems, so poses will open the hips so to speak. Either way it's good stuff.

[DeGermaan]

Originally Posted by Ibanez

Just to add a little more, I'm an olympic weightlifter and we are pretty flexible to begin with, but when I actually tried some yoga poses I realized I wasn't as flexible as I thought. I'm like damn, this is tough.

Plus if you have flat feet you should really do yoga, it will help strengthen the supporting muscles around the feet and stretch the tight muscles that collapse the arch. Also if you have hip problems, so poses will open the hips so to speak. Either way it's good stuff.

Sounds indeed good either, couldn't hurt a bit. I wondered if there was some specific form of yoga to add to weightlifting, since I know nothing about it. But if you say that this book really helps you/me/us in that way, than I'll buy it for sure and give it a shot.

[MonarchX]

Oh man.. I have similar problems with left trap and shoulder.

I have SEVERE spasms in my left trap and now that I am attempting to fix I am at a loss.

I have been fixing it for about 2 weeks or so doing stretches and working my traps to break the asps and taking triple dosage of muscle relaxing medication.

It all helps, but after this time there is still MUCH spasm in my left trap.

I try to bend it the other way around and it causes pain. Almost any kind of trap usage causes pain.

What helped me best is to force my posture to the right position. This removes the trap pain as long as the trap is not being used.

If you had spasms...how long did it take you to get rid of them?

I do many contract/release exercises and stretches BESIDES lifting because physician told me that contrast/release exercises (like 60 per day) will release the spams eventually...


I do have a hard time keep my shoulder blades together....it doesn't hurt but it feels UNNATURAL...

I also do rubber expander exercises.

[Docfranco]

Great write up Kopy
As Kopy mentioned most posture problems are from muscle imbalances (postural muscles). It really is not rocket science, just balance out /stretch the muscles on both sides of the joints and presto your posture is improved.
It is important IF you see a healthcare professional be it MD,DO or DC that they understand both body mechanics and spinal correction methods.
Many MD's will look at the same x-ray I do and say there is nothing wrong, while I see major deviations form normal regarding cervical or lumbar curves, they are correctable in most cases. Which also means the usual accompanying symptoms are resolved as well.
Check out yoga in your local gym, make sure the instructor is gentle with "newbies". If they push you too hard in the beginning it will be discouraging and my cause damage. I recommend many of my patients look into yoga or pilates to gain or increase their flexibility.
Again, nice write up Kopy...

[funkymonk420]

Ibanez, you've definitely got the goods. i tried yoga a week ago, and i knew i wasn't very flexible but wow. definitely a good activity to supplement weights, it involves a lot of the same principles of control and mind/muscle connection but it hits you from a completely different direction. i feel like a hypocrite talking it up because i haven't gotten around to doing a full routine again, but just doing some of the stretches for a few minutes before bed does wonders for my sleep.

KopyKat, good article. imbalances can get really dangerous and discouraging, it's good to hear that even the tough inner critic has been quieted.