Posts Tagged ‘Poor Posture’

Bodybuilding Exercises For Everybody

Help for shoulder pain

If you have poor posture, you’ll need to work with exercises that will help align your posture and your body overall. Good posture is going to help you before you even begin. Because many bodybuilders have good posture naturally, their programs don’t include this information specifically. However, having proper posture can make you look more if it simply because you’re holding yourself better.

When you are engaging in a bodybuilding exercise program, you also need to make sure that your shoulders are stable. If they’re not, you could injure yourself. If you injure your shoulders, you could find yourself in pain because you did things wrong. This is something you don’t want, of course, and assuming the proper techniques will assure that you don’t have this problem.

Another thing you’ll need for proper bodybuilding exercise is core stability. Core stability helps protect your lower back by strengthening your core muscles. Doing things wrong could cause you a lifetime of lower back pain. Therefore, if you’ve been engaging in bodybuilding workouts and you find you have lower back pain, stop. Those workouts are designed for people who already have core stability. Stabilize your core before you begin a weight-training program to help you gain weight. If you don’t, you’ll only risk injuring yourself.

The right bodybuilding exercise program will also help make you flexible and focus on the training that’s right for your particular body type. You are going to need both your lower and upper body flexible. You cannot be stiff before you begin to work out or you can injure yourself. Therefore, you’ll need to stretch and warm up, again with exercises perfect for your body type, to give you maximum flexibility and therefore lower your risk of injury.

You might also find that you have parts of your body that are more developed than others. This is normal, but it will need to be corrected. You’ll need to have a bodybuilding exercise program that focuses on all muscles of your body equally so that none are more developed than others. Having parts of your body overdeveloped while the parts are underdeveloped can make the overdeveloped parts work harder and can cause injury. This also slows you down when it comes to getting in your best shape.

In addition to building muscle mass, you’re also going to need to work on cardiovascular conditioning. Muscle mass is great because it can make you look toned and healthy, but conditioning your heart and lungs is just as important. Cardiovascular exercise is going to help keep you from injury and help keep you healthy while you gain the weight you need by engaging in the rest of your bodybuilding exercise program, where you add muscle. Remember that cardiovascular conditioning is just as important as building visible muscle, though.

Use ice to decrease pain

Posture Exercises

Help for shoulder pain

If bad posture has become a norm for you, then you may have realized that it’s time to do something about it. Of course, you can purchase a back or posture support to help you stand or sit straight, but you’ll notice that as soon as you remove the brace, your back goes right back to the same slouched position. Wearing a posture support only gives your back and neck short-term support. What you need is a method that will enable you to correct your posture and help you to stand upright.It’s known that poor posture can lead to serious complications such as respiratory problems, back and neck pain, as well as headaches. So you see, there is a need to take measures to correct your posture. One method that is proven to help correct poor posture are posture exercises. It’s the lack of muscles, which supports your spinal cord that causes you to bend over the way you do. Strengthening these muscles builds a stable structure around the bones of your spinal cord; allowing you to stand or sit straighter than before.Performing these posture exercises a few times throughout the day for approximately 6-8 weeks will help build your back and shoulder muscles. Here are a few examples to get you started1. Sit straight up in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Now, take your fingers and push your chin back as if you were pushing your chin through the back of your head. All you need is a light push and you will feel the stretch in your upper back. Do this exercise for about 3 times for about 10 seconds each.2. Using a large stability ball, lay on your back. Use the ball to stretch your back by pushing your body back on the ball as far as you can with your feet. Your head should be close to touching the floor. This exercise should allow you to feel a deep stretch in your back.3. Lie on the floor with our knees bent. Your feet should be positioned shoulder width apart and at a 90 degree angle. With your arms to your sides, lift your pelvis up and off the floor. Do this 5 times, holding up every 5 seconds as you tighten your stomach.4. Sitting in a chair, roll your shoulders in a circle frontwards. Do this 5 to 10 times. Now, roll your shoulders in a circle going backwards. Again, roll your shoulders in this direction 5-10 times.5. The best posture exercises you can perform to help strengthen your back are Yoga exercises. Yoga poses incorporate lots of strengthening movements. If you are a member of a gym, check with the front desk to see if your club offers free Yoga classes. After taking only a few classes, you will definitely feel and see a difference in your posture.Posture exercises work perfectly to improve weak muscles, causing poor posture. It’s best to perform these exercises on a daily basis to ensure the highest results. You can expect to see noticeable improvements within approximately 2 months of consistent practice. Dedication to practicing these posture exercises will allow you to sit and walk tall.

Use ice to decrease pain

Exercises For Busy Moms: 4 Quick, But Effective Exercises To Keep Busy Moms Strong

Help for shoulder pain

We all know how difficult it is to stay in shape and find time to exercise – but most especially for women with babies or small kids. There’s the sleep-deprivation factor, no time and priority changes. So what are the fitness options for busy Moms?

The fact is, the more you can take of yourself and the better you feel, the stronger you will be physically and emotionally to take on the day with the “little ones” and all of life’s challenges.

Below are some quick, but effective, exercises – specifically designed for the busy Mom – for the back and shoulders to keep you strong and prevent future injuries that may occur with poor lifting biomechanics and poor posture. The heavy weight of not just the baby, but also all the fun gadgets you’re expected to lug around. It’s no surprise that our bodies need a little help to get through the day.

Rotator Cuff Strengthener

For this workout you will need a light theraband. The beauty about this piece of equipment is that it’s small enough to carry in your bag or your stroller. Now you have no excuses – you can do these exercises on the go, at the park or when you have a few moments to spare.

You can do this exercise either seated or standing; hold the elbows close to the waist with palms facing the sky holding the theraband. Pulling the hands away from each other externally rotating the shoulders

Reps:
3 sets of 10-15 reps

Muscle focus:

Rotator cuff muscles are the small muscles that stabilize the shoulder joint. If these get weak from over use you could end up with bicep tendonitis or other potential injuries. This is very common with Moms as everything is usually done with one hand while holding the “little one” in the other.

Tricep push-up extension

This is the one time in your life you are going to need arm strength, the biceps are going to get over worked from the motion of picking up the baby so it’s important to balance these out and keep the triceps strong as not to put unwanted strain on them.

Hands are directly under your shoulders and knees are on the ground in a modified push-up. The pelvis is slightly pressed forward creating work in the abdominals that stabilize the spine. Place the theraband under the right hand on the floor and extend opposite arm in a tricep extension. Whilst extending the working arm be careful to keep the wrist in line with the hand not to create any unwanted tension/strain.

Reps:
3 sets of 10-15 reps on each side

Muscle Focus:
• Drawing your shoulder blades down activating your upper back muscles, engaging abs at all times. Keeping your abs strong and being aware of contracting them is very important as they play an important role in stabilizing and protecting the back.

• Translating this in to functional activities such as picking the baby up out of the crib will really save your back.

Spine extension with pulses

Over time in pregnancy our posture completely changes due to the increased weight of the baby bringing our body forward and causing the spine to round forward with the shoulders. This causes the back muscles to become very stretched out and weak.

Seated up right with legs in front of body shoulder width apart, hands over your head. Hinge forward from the hips leading with the sternum, biceps are by your ears. Hold this position and slightly pulse the arms behind the body mobilizing the shoulders and working the upper back. Return back to an upright position to repeat the movement again.

Reps:
3 sets of 10 Pulses

Muscle Focus:

Upper back and hamstring flexibility. This exercise will strengthen the mid upper back and open up the tight thoracic area of the spine, correcting bad habits that the body formed through pregnancy.

Butterfly ab curls

Keeping you abs strong is essential for keeping your whole body strong and restoring poor posture left over from pregnancy.

Lying on the floor with heals of feet together and knees bent to the side in a frog like position. Arms are straight over you head, circle arms around and lift the head neck shoulders off the floor exhaling pulling in the abs hold for 5 seconds and return back to starting position.

Reps:
3 sets of 10 reps

Muscle Focus:

As you exhale and bring the head neck and shoulders off the floor think of pulling your abdominals in up and back to the spine. Moms, this is a time you can practice doing your kegal on the contraction working the pelvic floor.

Use ice to decrease pain

Back Pain Alert – the Increasing Problem of Poor Workplace Posture

Help for shoulder pain

People who regularly ’surf the net’ probably know all about the minor aches and pains that can arise when using computers for long hours. These back, shoulder and neck pains often seem insignificant to the user. Others subconsciously link the cause to other areas of their life such as an overindulgent exercise session, their workload or even their age, using a ‘quick fix’ pain relief as a solution! Age does not stimulate back pain, repetitively positioning your body in an incorrect position will. Poor posture is the cause, shoulder, neck and lower and upper back pain are the symptons. I’ve noticed that most people set about easing the sympton whilst ignoring the deep rooted cause.

Most of us know that those minor chronic aches and pains can, if ignored, sometimes develop into much more serious issues that can cause a lot of pain and potentially threaten our ability to work. OK, so this isn’t a dramatic risk like working on a fishing boat, down a coal-mine or in the army, but it can still be career-threatening and life-changing.

These problems are only likely to get more common. Computer use is has grown dramatically over the past decade and continues to grow, both in and out of the workplace.

I like to point out the following – when I was growing up, extensive computer use (including gaming) was only for computer geeks, like myself. But with the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and CompetitiveUrge, even cool kids are using computers for very long periods at a time, and from much earlier ages than ever before. In fact, I visited a number nurseries the other day on a mission to find the most suitable for my baby son. I was amazed to find the amount of computers present, and the age of the children using them. I’m not talking about kids preparing for school life, boys and girls as young as 3 navigating PC’s with considerable aplomb!

As impressive as such feats appear,  this also has worrying implications – studies of schoolchildren in Scotland and Scandinavian countries in recent years have shown that they start suffering musculoskeletal pain from an early age. Much of this is correctly concluded as down to carrying heavy schoolbags and poor school furniture, but they’ve also shown clear correlation between the amount of time spent using computers and experiencing pain symptoms.

The 2007 ViewSonic survey of 1500 computer workers reported 71% of respondents suffered back pain at their computer. But when they looked at the figures for 16-24 year olds, that jumped to 80%.

Either these young peoples’ problems will settle down in time – or the fact they’ve been using computers from a young age, together with other social trends such as obesity, mean that posture-related problems are going to significantly increase over time.

I know which my money’s on…

Use ice to decrease pain

Posture and Frozen Shoulder Exercise

Help for shoulder pain

Treating a frozen shoulder with proper exercise early in the diagnosis is the single most effective action a person can take to assure quicker recovery from this condition. While there are many different exercises and programs available to restore range of motion and regain function, this article will focus on the effects of correct posture on stretching and strengthening the upper quarter. Performing exercise improperly with poor posture will delay return of motion and function and in some cases cause impingement of the rotator cuff which further contributes to pain and stiffness.To begin with, if you observe your posture in a mirror from the side you should take notice of your shoulders . Are they rounded forward? If so then this will limit the amount of forward elevation (raising your arm overhead from the front) you will be able to effectively achieve because the shoulder joint is at a mechanical disadvantage from the start. Simply by rolling your shoulders backwards you place the shoulder joint in a better position for stretching.Next, look at the amount of forward curve you have in your upper spine. If there is an excessive “hump” in your upper back (called kyphosis) any range of motion exercise or stretching will also be limited as the shoulder joint is now placed outside of the plane of the scapulae (shoulder blades). One should focus on extending the spine in this situation each day to enable a more natural curve of the upper spine. This can be done sitting in a chair with a rolled towel place just below the apex (greatest point of curve) and then leaning backwards until a mild to medium stretch is felt in the upper spine. This should be held for up to 30 seconds to allow proper stretching of the soft and connective tissues and repeated several times each day. There should be no pain felt with this exercise and if so it should be stopped immediately.Lastly, look at your head position in the mirror. Is your chin protruding forward excessively? If it is then a more natural head position can be achieved by retracting your chin slightly to put the head more in line with the shoulders. Again, this exercise should be done several times during the day as long as no pain is felt.Putting this altogether, when you are sitting or standing, your ears should line up with your shoulders and hips. You can have a friend tell you if you are assuming good posture by looking at your posture from the side. These simple observations will place the shoulder joint in a more effective position for maximum motion gains and increase the amount of range you will be able to achieve in during your stretching efforts. Always make sure you have consulted with your physician prior to beginning any frozen shoulder exercise program.

Use ice to decrease pain