Edited by Roberto Rillo - Book Author: Calisthenics BodyBuilding
One of the perhaps most undervalued aspects of body building is the general posture of the subject. Some authors talk about some textbooks, but then the training card is always written referring to a hypothetical subject with theoretically perfect areas of the chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and abdominals. This aspect should instead be the first situation to analyze, even before the height, weight or body fat.
Posture is the indicator of the skeletal condition in relation to the subject's muscles, it is not just an aesthetic question of good posture.
Therefore an incorrect posture always indicates a problem of the general structure of the subject.
A problematic general arrangement has repercussions on all the movements that are performed and in particular on those falling within the weak postural area. In this way an exercise designed to work certain muscles, with a wrong attitude does not make them work or partially recruit them and exacerbates the general imbalance.
An example? Here it is: have you ever wondered why some subjects are better at flexion than parallel rather than bench press? Because almost always these subjects, besides being thin and light, have a kyphotic posture with curved and anteriorized shoulders. With such a posture, normally also combined with a flat chest, the great pectoral cannot fully extend and consequently develop the necessary strength; it will work halfway down yielding prematurely and transferring the effort to the triceps, which being the weak link in the kinetic chain in the bench stress relieving, will yield earlier. The same subject will succeed better instead in the bending to the parallels, since in such an exercise the humerus working adjacent to the trunk, however, exploits the strength of the great pectoralis, recruiting then above all the small pectoralis.
For these subjects the story is pretty sad, they try the bench with poor results, they try the pre-boring with just as many poor results, they go to the parallels, but in the end the pectorals grow little anyway and if they do they look like "tits". more and more posture.
Analyzing the posture first, it would be enough instead to eliminate all the exercises for the pectorals and the pull-ups with supine grip, to concentrate on an intense card for the back and at the end of a month, such subjects will be able to show off a greatly improved posture and without having trained it also an overall shape of the chest and pectorals improved. Certainly a month is enough to catch a glimpse of the result, but for this to consolidate into a correct posture, it takes at least a year. The incorrect posture does not only affect the pectorals, for example it also involves the abdominals and the legs etc., because it is so fundamental in the training of bb.
Have you ever wondered why some people, while training their abs with lots of exercises and hundreds of repetitions, show a bulging abdomen?
Or why do other subjects religiously perform the squat with a correct execution, complain of fatigue of the lower back higher than that of the quadriceps?
And why do other subjects still develop big biceps even though barbell curls are running?
The answer is almost always the same: an incorrect posture, an unbalanced attitude, a weight discharge not on the target muscles but on the vertebral and skeletal structures.
An incorrect posture nullifies the benefits of exercises designed to involve skeletal muscles according to a precise trajectory, a trajectory that is altered with incorrect posture. Furthermore, the muscular development thought on a postural balanced subject takes completely different forms on an unbalanced subject, often exacerbating the existing defects.
Now let's see in detail how to understand if our posture is correct or not.
Postural analysis, which of course should be verified in orthostastism by an orthopedist, can be followed with sufficient approximation with a "do it yourself" system.
It should be performed in the company of someone who, from the outside, can first of all be more objective than the subject himself is generally and then he can effectively analyze the lateral and posterior vision, impossible to verify alone.
This analysis must be carried out through an objective type examination, carried out with a "graduated" reference placed behind the subject. A "graduated" reference is sufficient for a wall with tiles or a brick wall, so that the offset of the right body part with respect to the left side will be easily detectable. A plumb line is also useful to verify the right / left shift in case of scoliosis.
Put yourself then, bare and bare, in a relaxed frontal position, with the arms at your sides, palms towards the thighs, feet slightly apart but parallel to each other. Do not make any contraction, retraction, extension or other action that changes your structure; if you do it you will only deceive yourself.
We then analyze the main aspects of posture, performing a frontal, a lateral and a posterior analysis.
- Frontal analysis :
- shoulder height: if one shoulder is higher than another, scoliosis is usually present.
- hand level on the thighs: if the shoulders are asymmetrical the hands should also be at a slightly different height, but the difference can be concealed by the different extension of the arms and wrists.
- angle between the shoulders and the neck: if the line of the shoulders with the neck forms an angle greater than 90 °, the shoulders are said to "bottiglione" and are generally combined with kyphosis and winged scapulas.
- hip level: if one iliac crest is higher than the other, a scoliosis or a different length of the lower limbs may be present.
- leg line: straight, arched or x-shaped with reference to the knee and tibio-tarsal joint.
- Lateral analysis :
- curve of the spine at shoulder level: if the physiological curve is more accentuated, kyphosis is present, the so-called "hump", it is generally associated also with anteriorised shoulders (forward movement).
- position of the shoulder blades: if the lower corner of the shoulder blades (they are triangular bones) is visibly out, the so-called "winged shoulder blades" exist, the failure to add the aforementioned does not depend on the thinness of the subject.
- curve of the spine at lumbar level: if the physiological curve is more accentuated lordosis is usually present, with accentuated retroversion or anteversion.
- Back analysis :
- all the points of the frontal analysis are valid, but related to the rear view.
- The presence of scoliosis is detectable posteriorly by a marked contraction and hypertrophy of one side compared to the other. Taking as a point of support for the plumb line the center of the nape or prominence of the 7 cervical vertebra and as an escape point the intergluteal fold, it will be evident the displacement of the vertebral column on one side or the other in the presence of scoliosis.
At this point I would say that always in a summarily exhaustive way, the main postural problems detected (scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis, winged shoulder blades, anterior shoulders and "stud" shoulders) can cause problems in the development of the pectorals, biceps, legs and abdominals .
And this could be the lesser of evils. Think about what can happen to a person with scoliosis who performs a "heavy" detachment from the ground. His "heavy" will never be an interesting lifting record, muscle development will not be appreciable and will end before forty with the herniated disc !!!
Let's deepen the pectoral problem, already mentioned.
As we have seen, the modified structure of the vertebral column and the clavicles causes the shortening of the great pectoralis which is enclosed in itself and will be incapable of extending and contracting in a complete range of movement, thus losing even up to 50% of its strength .
If we load on this arrangement an intense work of bench and tractions at the bar with supine grip, we will aggravate the incorrect posture with the only result of shortening more and more the great pectoralis that will assume together with the small pectoral a round shape. In addition, hypertrophy or, better, the shortening of the pectoralis major along with that of the latissimus dorsi will increasingly contribute to anteriorising and lowering the shoulders.
A correct strategy for this problem can be:
- Keep all pectoral and anterior deltoid exercises to a minimum, eliminate the parallels.
- eliminate tractions at the bar with supine grip replacing them (if you are able) with traction with wide grip, forward, back or sternal, otherwise at the lat machine.
- insert an intense and varied program for the back that includes as exercises multiarticular bases: detachments (if not present scoliosis), shakes, oarsman with barbell, pulled on the pulley with wide grip bar and prone.
In particular, pulley pulls or even rowers must be performed with a weight much lower than that usually used. The muscular attention must be reserved to the adduction of the scapulae and not to the lifting through the arms of a big load.
Let us now analyze another typical problem linked to posture, that of the biceps in the classical barbell exercise. If the shoulders fall forward, they are already weak, if we add a weight they will be literally torn forward, decreasing the excursion of the bar in the curl, causing the center of gravity to fall inside the bust instead of outside it. The overall shape of the biceps will appear more voluminous in the upper part at the deltoid. In this situation you will also feel at the end of a series of bicep curls with a barbell, a trapezoid fatigue that is greater than that of the biceps, since in practice you are almost doing shakes. The solution lies in adopting simple measures that place the biceps in lengthening and in isolation. For example, perform the curl with dumbbells sitting on a 45 ° inclined bench or perform the barbell curl with the shoulders resting on the wall. Another typical situation of bad posture is the destabilization of the basin. This problem creates negative repercussions on all exercises, but in part on the squat.
On problems related to the execution of the squat you never stop talking and a perfect execution of the squat, which includes the lowering of the pelvis to the point where the back is not rounded, does not leave free from injury. In fact everyone pays attention to the fact that the low back should not be rounded, but no one mentions the fact that the same should not even be arched !!! A subject with a kyphotic attitude and consequent secondary or lordotic adaptive lordosis, performing the squat "naturally" raises the lower back, appearing as a perfect squat performer.
In reality, excessive buckling, besides causing dangerous pressures on the vertebral discs, aggravates the dislocation of the pelvis. And what to say, if the subject has scoliosis? The buckle necessary for the "safe squat" will be at a high price: the vertebral column under load and bound to the ground, will rotate on itself to find its balance and to recreate the physiological curves, doing so we enroll in the pension programs "safe hernia" and "cartilages consumed"!
In this case a strategy for this problem could be to:
- replace the squat with the leg press or even with the leg extension.
- engage in intense abdominal strengthening work with particular attention to pelvic retroversion.
- in the most serious cases eliminate any exercise where the weight of the barbell is serious on the vertebral column.
Finally, choose suitable exercises for your physical possibilities. This will take you further on the path of muscle development, than you can get if you want to perform exercises deemed fundamental for muscle development but dangerous for you at all costs.
The postural problems represented so far serve to create interest in an aspect that is too often overlooked while the strategies adopted use a body building approach that can be good for those who do not have serious problems and possess a good level of general strength.
In no case what is written in this article intends to replace the visit and therapy recommended by an orthopedic specialist.
