TRAINING TUESDAY : Shoulder Joint

Today we are going to take a look at the shoulder joint. It engages the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and back. It seems to me that everyone is more concerned about having a stronger, toned chest, but strong shoulders and back are important too. They mean better posture, a better core, and more flexibility.

The shoulder joint is referred to as the "ball-and-socket joint", which is the most mobile joint in the human body. It can abduct, adduct, rotate, and raise in many places. It has an incredible range of motion, but because of this, it tends to be one of the most injured joints.

The shoulder joint muscles moves and works a variety of different major muscle groups: the chest, shoulders, and back. More specifically, there are the deltoids (anterior, lateral, and posterior), which provide flexibility and range of motion, and enables you to move your arms forward, back, up, and down; the trapezius muscles, which form the triangle of your shoulder and upper back; the rhomboids, which pull your shoulder blades inward; the rotator cuff (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis), which enables you to move your shoulder without any pain; the pectorals, your chest muscles, which flex and adduct your upper arm; and finally, the latissimus dorsi, which are large muscles on the outside (lateral side) of your trunk, and which extend, adduct, and internally rotate the shoulder joint.

Some examples of shoulder joint movement exercises that will work the muscle groups mentioned above are: shoulder presses, push-ups, pull-ups, dumbbell presses, shoulder flys, lat pull-downs, bent-over rows, and lateral arm raises.

Because of its incredible range of motion, the shoulder is often the source of pain at some point in one's life. For the most part, however, this pain can be prevented through proper maintenance of the rotator cuff muscles, which internally and externally rotate the arm (through shoulder flys and internal/external rotation).

Until next time Team, don't neglect those little muscles and chances are you'll live with pain-free shoulders for many years to come.

Health respect & happiness,
Beki

Training Tuesday - The Barbell Chest Press

Never done a chest press off a bench with a barbell?

Here are a few key pointers: (see picture above fore visual reference)

1 - Hand grip is a little wider than shoulder width apart.
2 - Have the bar rest just above the 'chest line' (for women, it'd be the bottom half of your bra line). Be careful NOT to let it rise towards the neck or chin area!
3 - As you bring the bar towards your body, your elbows bend outwards (to the left & right) and should stop at a 90 degree angle beside your shoulders.
4 - Keep the wrists locked during the entire exercise (No flimsy wrists!).
5 - Inhale as the bar comes towards the body, exhale when you press the weight upwards.


Some big No-No's:

1 - Do not let the back arch at any time, keep a flat upper back, shoulder blades on the bench.
2 - Do not hyperextend the shoulder joint (pulling elbows/shoulders way beyond the height of the bench or shoulder)
3 - Do NOT ever ever hold your breath!


Want to feel the intensity? Try these little tips to focus more on the muscle group:

1 - Grip the bar a little tighter than normal (so squeeze the hands around the barbell).
2 - Holding that grip, now squeeze the hands towards the center of the bar (without actually moving the hands).
3 - You should now feel the entire pectoral muscle engage just a little more, go ahead and hold that grip with the hands and do your chest press.


Until next time Team, focus on the little subtle changes to see and feel the biggest improvements!
Health respect & happiness,
Beki