Get Behind Your Strength
Here’s a fun fact for anyone wishing to start a strength training regime or for those wanting to change up an existing routine. Some of the strongest muscles in our body are the very same muscles that pull us into a fetal position. The muscles in the front of your hips (hip flexors) and the muscles in the front of your shoulders and arms tend to be stronger than our back end muscles. Our anterior chain muscles draw our limbs towards us to protect our organs, our brain, and yes – our babies too. It’s a clever built in feature that serves the body well. However, add to this our daily movement (or lack thereof) most of which tends to also emphasize the muscles in the front of our body and it can be a bit of a snowball effect. Think raking the lawn, pulling weeds, pulling the groceries out the car or sitting bent over our devices (which of course is not moving, but has us in a folded position). All of this feeds into the same imbalance and we can start to fold in on ourselves.
What if we approached our strength training with this in mind and focused a little more on our back end? Posterior chain strength training can address this imbalance with a focus on muscles that include the back of your shoulders, arms, back, hips and legs. If you were looking for an excellent strategy for injury prevention, this is it. Did you know that stronger hamstrings and glute muscles can help support our knees, hips and back? And that stronger triceps and mid back muscles (trapezius, rhomboids) can better support our shoulder girdle?
A strong posterior chain will also have you standing taller with a more youthful posture. Strong mid back muscles help to open our chest and lengthen the spine (think tall as you read this), and stronger glutes and hamstrings can help to “unfold” and open the front of our hips, support our lower back and can counteract the dreaded stooped position. A tall spine and open chest also supports easier breathing. Try taking a deep breath hunched over – then sit up tall and fill your lungs. The difference is remarkable.
Some straight forward posterior chain strengthening exercises can include tricep extensions, reverse flys, seated or dumbbell row (bonus as it works biceps too!), bird dogs, bridges, squats (bonus as it works your quads too!) and superhumans (formerly known as supermans). Remember to check in with your health and wellness professional before you start a new program to ensure it’s the best fit for you.
Better posture, injury prevention and creating space for our vital breathing capacity can all be yours with a backend strength approach. What’s not to love? To be clear, this doesn’t mean to ignore your front body muscles. And flexibility plays an important role too. As does core strength. But these are topics for another time. Bottom line? It just makes good sense to understand where our strengths and weaknesses reside so we can make an informed choice and make our precious gym time count.
