Sunday 7 April 2013

Posture People!!!

I was standing at church this morning looking around at everyone and of course, the trainer in me is never turned off. The number of people with rounded shoulders and slouching was huge!! Many people are active and workout but do the train for BALANCE and posture? Do YOU??
Here are 2 key things to note when planning your workouts to help create better posture;

1.When we want to work upper body we tend to hit the chest, front and top of shoulders, bicep and triceps the most. When we do engage in a back exercise, many times it is not done with proper technique and the arms do most of the work, not our postural muscles and scapular (shoulder blades) stabilisers which are the MOST IMPORTANT. So here is what you need to do; when you perform any ROW exercise, focus on squeezing an orange between your shoulder blades when you pull back and then pause for 2-5sec and focus on pushing your chest up. You will feel muscles working that you never did before! Its not easy but it gives you great posture and you will have a tight, tones and strong back.

2. When you work your abs...do you work your whole CORE? Most people think Core work means crunches, bicycles, x-overs, etc but that only works the superficial "front" of the body core muscles. When someone says "CORE" what they mean is all the way around your trunk. The best core exercise is the plank; you can do front plank, side planks or bridges which all focus on the transverse abdominis and work it as a whole, not one "ab" muscle at a time. You should be planking just as much if not more than all those "other" ab exercises. You will see a difference in your stomach pretty quickly, you will stand taller and hold your belly in tighter and your pants will fit a little looser just from changing that one part of your workout.

So lets stand tall and proud! Your lower back will thank you and you will show off your confidence and determination when you enter a room!

Have a great week
Paula

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