The Three Best Gym Exercises to Improve Work Posture and Decrease Shoulder Pain
Between work and home, the average american sits for over 12 hours a day! When sitting for that long of time, it becomes impossible to maintain posture. Building strength of our upper back and posterior shoulders we can help our body maintain good positions without having to consciously think about posture every 30 minutes.
Today we cover the the three best exercises to do at the gym to improve work posture and decrease shoulder pain.
1. Face Pull
Our favorite postural shoulder exercise! The facepull is a great way to strength and condition the muscles of our upper back and shoulder by maintaining constant shoulder tension.
To perform: Hook a band at chest/head level – pull the band to your
chin. Pull with elbows above your shoulders and keep constant tension on the band.
2. Rear Delt Fly's
The deltoid is the 'ball' shaped muscle that surrounds our shoulder joint. Poor Posture can cause an overdevelop the anterior fibers while leaving the posterior fibers weak - creating an imbalance that contributes to shoulder/back and neck pain.
The rear delt fly is a great way to target the upper back and posterior deltoid muscle to correct this imbalance and help decrease posture related shoulder pain.
3. Birddog Rows
Engage your core while strengthening your posterior shoulders. Birddog Rows are a full body exercise that lead to better core activation while sitting at a desk for less back and shoulder pain.
Most of the pain we see in the clinic is caused (or contributed to) by long periods of inactivity. One of our favorite clients came to us after suffering for months with neck/shoulder pain. While living an active life, his job still required long hours of sitting which he reported made pain worse by the end of the day. After a month of care that combined full body chiropractic adjustments, manual therapy with his custom exercise plan to build strength of the upper back he was able to decrease the intensity and frequency of his pain as well as sit for longer periods of time without any pain - improving his performance at work as well.
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