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| Ten bucks doesn't buy much nowadays. You could pick up a day pass at some commercial gym, or pull off the co-pay on a visit to the chiropractor. If you're lucky, you might even be able to swing a mediocre Russian mail order bride.
Or, you could just go the safe route with your $10, take our advice, and receive a lifetime of relief from the annoying tightness so many athletes and weekend warriors feel from incessantly beating on their bodies. Don't worry, this isn't an infomercial. We just want you to pick up a foam roller for self-myofascial release and deep tissue massage.
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| After reading Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, you've probably come to grips with the fact that you have a greater resemblance to Cro-Magnon man than you previously thought. Now, what are you going to do about it?
The program outlined below is designed to keep your current strength levels intact while correcting the muscle imbalances holding back your strength and physique. We have two primary goals:
1) Hit the global muscles hard and heavy with a four-day per week program.
2) Hit the local muscles daily (or at the very least on off days) to take advantage of the motor learning effects produced by frequent, low-intensity training.
What are "global" and "local" muscles? Local muscles (also known as the deep muscular system) are extremely important when we're discussing posture improvements. The primary roles of the deep muscular system are motor control, segmental stabilization, and fine-tuning of movements.
On the flip side, you have the global (or superficial) muscle system. The primary role of the superficial muscle system is to produce movement, power, and torque. As a general rule, when you have significant postural issues, your global or superficial system is overactive and the deeper system is inhibited or weak.
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| After covering all the "what's" and "how's" of the most common postural problems in Part I, we focused on some self-assessment tools in Part II. Those self-assessments are certainly valuable tools, but they can sometimes be too subjective if you aren't accustomed to assessing these problems. With that in mind, use the results of those tests in conjunction with the cases studies featured in this article to really get an idea of how significant your problems are and how to correct them.
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| After reading Part I you're probably thinking to yourself, "Maybe my posture isn’t so great after all, but how do I know?" Well, if you completed your homework assignment from last week, you should have been waiting for this week's update with a bunch of photos in hand. Time to put them to good use!
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| Disclaimer: What you're about to read is some very technical, very geeky stuff, but don't panic if you don't have your kinesiology degree just yet. In the future articles in this series, Eric and Mike will break it all down for you and show you how to fix your posture and improve your physique. For now, take off that poseur trucker hat and put on your thinking cap!
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| I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: for five months last year, I spent roughly 5-6 hours a week in a room with two-dozen cadavers. No, it's wasn't some sick hobby, and I didn't live in a funeral home. Rather, I was fortunate enough to experience the marvel known as ATC 333: Gross Anatomy. Although I didn't walk away from this class with any good pickup lines, cute girls' phone numbers, or a newfound love of eau-de-formaldehyde, I did manage to emerge with a broader knowledge of human anatomy and, in turn, an expanded training perspective.
In particular, I realized that the hip adductors are the Rodney Dangerfields of the thigh; they get no respect. Unless one is completely shredded or...uh…dissected, it's impossible to truly appreciate the contribution of these muscles of less notoriety and prominence to strength and physique development.
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| I bet we all see things in the gym that really, really, annoy us. There's the "belter," the guy who sports his trusty lifting belt for every exercise, including kickbacks with pink dumbbells and marathon sessions on the hip adductor machine. Then there's the guy who mindlessly bangs out fifteen sets of biceps curls in the power rack as you impatiently wait to do squats. And we certainly can't forget the "Third Musketeer," the geek who takes 45 minutes to do three sets of bench presses because he insists on reading the newspaper and sharing recipes with friends in between sets.
You get my point. Sometimes people in commercial gyms simply drive us nuts! And while idiotic gym behaviors definitely get on my nerves, they're far cries from my greatest pet peeve: individuals who constantly grumble about rotator cuff pain.
Why do their complaints aggravate me so much? Well, the sad truth is the vast majority of them have no idea what the rotator cuff is or what it does! Let's put an end to this unfortunate trend right now. I'll also show you how to reap the benefits of direct rotator cuff training!
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LEARN
HOW TO
DEADLIFT
- Avoid the most common deadlifting mistakes
- 9 - minute instructional video
- 3 part follow up series
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