Transcription
I'm not going to sugarcoat this by telling you that Botox or a few stretches will get rid of that tightness in your neck and shoulders because Botox doesn't fix rounded shoulders or weaknesses in the body. It paralyzes the very muscle that's been working overtime to hold you up. And stretching alone won't fix it either.
Because most people don't need more stretching, they need more stability in the back, the shoulders, and the core. Because your body works as one system, and when one part gets weak, another takes over and tightness begins. One of the most common areas where this happens is the upper back. The largest muscle that runs across your upper back from your neck to your shoulders is called the trapezius. And it's divided into three parts. The upper, the middle, and the lower traps. And the main muscles that stabilize them are the lower traps, your serratus, your rhomboids, as well as your deep core. And when they're weak, your upper traps take over and your back collapses forward.
That means if you have overactive traps like I used to have, you probably have underactive stabilizer muscles which make your traps compensate and grow. And this leads to constant headaches, neck pain, and rounded shoulders that always feel like they're hanging forward, making your collar bones droop down instead of angle up how they're supposed to be. And most people who have this try and stretch it, but stretching alone won't do anything for you. Because if you stretch and don't activate and strengthen your stabilizers, the tightness always comes back because the real issue never got fixed.
So, what we're going to do is stretch what's tight and restricting, warm up and get blood flowing, and then retrain and strengthen those muscles that are supposed to hold us up. Because when those muscles start doing their job again, the tension in your traps go away, they slim down, and your shoulders and collar bones come back into alignment. And all the movements we're going to do are regressions of calisthenics moves using your own body weight that anyone can do at home. Calisthenics truly trans your body the way it was designed to move.
First, the stretches. We only want to stretch what is tight. You never want to stretch what doesn't need stretching. And if you feel at any time one side of your body is tighter than the other, focus more on the tighter side. If you don't feel any tightness at all, you can skip the stretches.
Starting with the pec minor stretch. It's really common for this muscle to be tight for people with forward shoulders because when this muscle is tight, it pulls your shoulders and shoulder blades forward and down. So releasing this will give you a better range of movement and shoulder flexion. You can use a Swiss ball for this stretch or you can also use a bench, stall, or side of your bed. Place your shoulder on the stool. Drop your upper body down as you go into the stretch. Let your shoulder blade move toward your spine by tilting your shoulder back. Have your elbow bend at a right angle or you can move it to any angle to where you feel the stretch in your pec minor. Breathe in and press your shoulder into the chair for 5 seconds. Then breathe out and lower into the stretch holding it for 5 seconds. Again, you should feel it here. And you want to do this on both sides.
Next, we will stretch the pec major in the same exact position, this time with your forearm on the chair or the ball instead. Now, this will stretch your entire pec muscle. Again, drop your body toward the floor when you reach a comfortable stretch. Breathe in and press your forearm into the chair for 5 seconds. Breathe out as you move further into the stretch. There should be no pain in your shoulders or joint, only a stretch in your entire chest.
Now for the leva stretch. This stretches the levator muscle across the side of your neck. And again, for a lot of people, this muscle is very tight. Sitting up, place one hand behind your neck. Turn your head away from that arm and look down. Let your other hand rest gently on the top of your head without pulling. Take a deep breath and let your head go further into the stretch. Hold this for 5 seconds and repeat on both sides.
Now, our final stretch will be for the lats because when your lats are tight, they pull your ribs down and this stops your shoulder blades from lifting properly, which makes it harder to raise your arms. Lean into your chair or ball as you go into the stretch. You can twist side to side as you feel this in your lats. Holding for 5 seconds each side.
Now that we finished the stretching, we move on to strength and stability. Starting with the warm up. Now, these are the perfect activators to really warm up and bring blood flow to your upper body. Sit up tall. Bend your elbows to your sides, keeping your chest open and neck relaxed. Think of squeezing your shoulder blades on your way out, letting them touch. As you bring your arms back in, don't let your shoulders round forward or your chest collapse. Think about the movement coming from your upper back, not just your arms. Doing these for 30 to 60 seconds.
Next, in the same position, this time, bring your hands overhead and back down, letting your shoulder blades touch on your way down, keeping that tall position for another 30 to 60 seconds. [Music]
Finishing the warm up with our wrists because our wrists are the foundation to all of the next coming up movements. So, it's really important that we warm these up. Start with wrist rotations around the world and floor stretches, moving them for 1 to two seconds in different directions and angles. Doing these for a total of 60 seconds. Warm up is finished.
Now for strength and stability. First thing we need to get comfortable with is our scapular control. Your scapula is your shoulder blades and they control everything about your shoulders, neck, and collar bones. When your shoulder blade muscles are weak, your collar bones can slope downwards and appear flat instead of tilting slightly upwards. This just puts more strain on your neck and traps as well as the nerve running down your arm. And this isn't the same as just pulling your shoulders back and down because forcing it isn't natural since you'll always come back to this rounded position because your stabilizers are weak.
One of the most powerful ways to help your shoulder blades work better is by strengthening your serrus anterior. This is the muscle that wraps around your ribs and keeps your shoulder blades flat against your rib cage and rotated upwards in its correct position. So your traps don't have to overwork and your posture and collar bones stay lifted. From here we will do scapular push-ups. We do this with retraction and protraction. This is retracted and this is protracted. When retracting, think of pulling your shoulder blades back and down towards your spine while protracting your scapula is pushing away from your spine. This is going to work your serratus stabilizer. We start in this position. If you're a beginner, you can do these on your knees. We don't want to do this and we don't want to do this. We want to keep everything neutral and stable. Now turn your triceps towards your underarms, rotating them inwards and protract your scapula. You'll feel this down the side of your rib cage. That's your serrus anterior working. And if you're doing this in the plank position, you'll also feel this in your shoulders and core because it's a whole body movement. But we mainly want to feel it in our serratus. Hold this for 3 seconds at the top. Retract and protract. Doing this for three sets of six reps.
Now, if your elbows do this and hyper extend, or if you feel more unstable at your joints, you might have something called joint laxicity. So, the best thing to do for beginners is to have a slight bend at the elbows as you flex your triceps. This will put the pressure onto your muscles and not your joints. And by doing these, you'll eventually progress to the full push-up, which everyone should learn to do with these because the push-up is the best way to get the most out of your body because it engages multiple muscle groups and requires no equipment.
Next, we do Y raises on the floor. This strengthens your lower traps. So doing this after the serratus work is perfect because they work together to keep your scapula controlled and this counteracts habits like using your phone, laptop or sitting a lot. Lie face down, arms in a Y position and thumbs up. Move your shoulder blades down and together. This is retraction plus depression. Now lift your arms off the floor and keep your ribs down. You should feel this in your lower traps. If you don't feel it yet, find the best direction for your arms. You might feel it more with your arms a little closer or wider apart, but still in that Y position. And you can do this with one arm first on each side if that's easier. If you find you don't have that shoulder mobility to do both arms at once. Doing this for three sets of eight reps.
Now we have Y raises on rings. The raises we did before eventually progresses to using a pair of rings to add more resistance that strengthens and stabilize even more. And the rings make this perfect for beginners since they're more adjustable. You can walk your feet back to make this easier or walk forward and lean back more to make it more challenging. Three sets of eight reps.
Next is inverted rows for our rhomboids. Inverted rows will help you build your back strength the most, which will benefit you in getting your first pull-up as well as your posture because now we're working the entire body as one. And again, all of the movements we've been doing are regressions of calisthenics moves. Rows help you get your first pull-up. Rows build your grip strength and pulling power, helping your shoulder blades stay in a healthy position, as well as your deep core. You can do these on rings, a bar, or under a table. Remember to retract your scapula during these and not have a rounded back because scapular retraction will strengthen lats, your mid traps, your lower traps, romboids, and rear delts. All of the stabilizers. Another three sets of eight reps.
Now, our final exercise is the prone cobra, thoracic extension. This movement is designed to strengthen and retrain your postural muscles. Postural muscles are mainly made up of slow twitch fibers, which means they're built for endurance and holding you upright for long periods throughout the day, not short bursts of strength. That's why the key with this movement isn't doing quick repetitions up and down. We want to hold the position for longer periods. So, by holding and practicing this, you're essentially retraining your muscles to lock in that good posture and resist the rounded shoulders and slouching that comes from sitting too much. So, it's best to make it your goal to hold this position for long periods, aiming up to a 1 to 3 minute hold. Keep your arms by your sides. Lift your chest a little off the floor. Rotate your arms so your thumbs face the ceiling. Keeping your head straight, hold the pose. Start with 20 seconds and rest for half of that time, 10 seconds. Repeating until you reach 3 minutes total. You should feel the muscles in your midback and shoulder blades working.
Okay, so you've stretched what was tight and restricting. You've warmed up and activated your muscles. Then you've stabilized and strengthened your serratus, then your lower traps into your rhomboids, ending with thoracic extension. Now comes your deep core because your core is by far the most important part of your body, which has the largest impact on your functional health. Without proper core strength, every movement will be faulty. And the way you want to train your core is by training your transverse abdominis. These are your lower abs, which make up your deep core. Your TVA is also known as your natural core set. You can watch the next video for the full routine and breakdown to training your TVA correctly. [Music]