There are so many things I have learned over the past 20 years as a trainer and many of the best lessons were from mistakes I made. There are so many things I firmly believed in for years only to completely reverse my thinking years later. One of the best lessons was with regards to squeezing the glutes hard with strength exercises and even clenching the glutes constantly (also known gripping), which is something I did myself for many years believing I was doing a good thing. As a result I regularly suffered with all types of injuries all caused from my own training, or constant habits that I was not aware of that had become subconscious pain creators. In this article I take a look at what is a very common problem to many keen gym person and sporting athletes and how over doing something good can lead to causing problems with how you move.
How To Correctly Execute Rowing Exercises In The Gym For Optimal Shoulder Strength & Function
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.