who has bad posture here?
- Thread starter thinkgod1
- Start date
LauraMax
Cathlete
I do. I sit hunched over a desk all d*mn day & in mtgs all d*mn night. And no amount of pilates or core work will help. Sometimes I make a conscious effort to sit up straight, but it feels so unnatural, plus it's tiring, plus I forget after a while & end up slumping back into my usual poor posture.
yuck..I have the worst posture at work. I try to remember to keep my shoulders back and all, but it's so hard to keep it up all the time. To make it worse, I have a large chest that I have never been comfortable about and I know I slump to hide it at times-which of course just makes you look big-boobed and fat. ugh.
Muffin Top
Cathlete
Me! It started in Junior High when I was overdeveloped for my age. I began slouching to hide it and I've just never been able to stop. I actually still feel self-conscious when I stand up straight...weird, huh?
kathryn
Cathlete
>i was told that (over working) chest and biceps can make it
>worse
I don't see what connection biceps would have to it, but definitely overworking chest and/or front shoulder contributes to it. And since most daily activities for most people involve more pushing and leaning forward and sitting than pulling (unless you're a fisherman hauling in nets all day, or a rower, or someone who saws down trees with an old-fashioned saw, perhaps) the chest and front delt are often too tight from that, while the rear shoulder and upper back are relatively weaker, which leads to bad posture as well as shoulder problems (usually some sort on impingement).
I think it's very important to keep the chest/back imbalance in mind, and avoid overdoing chest work vs. back (which usually means doing a bit more back than chest, and definitely NOT more chest than back). I also believe, along with Jerry Robinson and some other weight training authors, that isolated anterior shoulder work is unnecessary, because this muscle gets enough work when the chest is worked.
In answer to your question: I have had bad-ish posture in the past (especially times when I haven't done resistance training for a while), but not recently, and it's gotten even better since I've paid more attention to keeping scapular retraction during all upper-body exercises, and including upper back, posterior delt work in my workouts (and reducing the number of sets of chest exercises in some workouts, like Slow and Heavy, that do more chest than back.
>worse
I don't see what connection biceps would have to it, but definitely overworking chest and/or front shoulder contributes to it. And since most daily activities for most people involve more pushing and leaning forward and sitting than pulling (unless you're a fisherman hauling in nets all day, or a rower, or someone who saws down trees with an old-fashioned saw, perhaps) the chest and front delt are often too tight from that, while the rear shoulder and upper back are relatively weaker, which leads to bad posture as well as shoulder problems (usually some sort on impingement).
I think it's very important to keep the chest/back imbalance in mind, and avoid overdoing chest work vs. back (which usually means doing a bit more back than chest, and definitely NOT more chest than back). I also believe, along with Jerry Robinson and some other weight training authors, that isolated anterior shoulder work is unnecessary, because this muscle gets enough work when the chest is worked.
In answer to your question: I have had bad-ish posture in the past (especially times when I haven't done resistance training for a while), but not recently, and it's gotten even better since I've paid more attention to keeping scapular retraction during all upper-body exercises, and including upper back, posterior delt work in my workouts (and reducing the number of sets of chest exercises in some workouts, like Slow and Heavy, that do more chest than back.
I think "bad posture" is an overused term. I think that everyone has *different* posture and we shouldn't hold ourselves up to some sort of strange 'perfect posture' standard. Yes, some people probably slump more than they should, but that doesn't mean they need to stand totally erect either. Keeping our backs in an abnormal 'perfect posture' pose can also end up creating more problems in the end. We should feel comfortable in how we stand and it is only when we feel pain that we should start messing with things. Just my .20 cents!
carolyn
carolyn
acatalina
Cathlete
I do, and I don't believe for a minute that mine came from sitting slouched over. I have had this problem since before I was 15, I believe mine is just in my spine some how..... I have always tried to make my posture as good as possible, but its never perfect, but I do see others that have mostly the same problem I do....
Rhonda
Rhonda