The old saying, “you can sometimes have too much of a good thing” is very true when it comes to rowing exercises in the gym. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this movement pattern with regards to posture, and especially shoulder and neck rehabilitation. I must admit I was one of the people who always thought you just can never have too much rowing exercises. More the better, sticking to a ratio of 3 rowing exercises to one pushing movement, and that pulling your shoulders down and back is a good thing. Only to find out years later I had developed a depressed shoulder that led to a shoulder impingement! The very thing I was trying to avoid! For gym beginners this is rarely an issue as we see them overcompensate with too much upper trap involvement but it is very common the educated gym participant, athletes and anyone who has some postural awareness. As with all exercises is is all about stability and quality of movement. In this article, I am going to help explain what that really means and to understand exactly how the shoulder moves so you can base programs, exercise choices around what your body needs to move freely and without restriction, as opposed to rigid rules based on isolating muscle, that only serve to create dysfunction and pain.
Why It Is So Important To Learn Good Exercise Technique In The Gym
When it comes to learning a musical instrument we know that technique is everything and coaching will make it so much easier to learn the necessary skills required. The learning process is simple in the beginning before gradually progressing to more complex skills as you improve. Simply practicing more with poor technique will not make you a better guitar player. This is same principle is linked to exercise, yet many ignore the need for learning technique in the sake of getting more done. This is a dangerous road to head down for if we lack fundamental movement skills and place more emphasis on quantity instead of quality we are now building fitness on a dysfunctional body. Unlike the musical instrument where poor technique just sounds bad, poor technique with exercise over a period of time inevitably leads to poor performance, injury and pain. Today’s society tend to treat exercise like going to war with their body, instead of trying to gradually challenge and allow the body to adapt. We forget there must be a balance between quality work and rest to ensure we move well. In this article we take a close look at everything to do with exercise technique and why quality beats quantity every time.