Addressing Common Muscular Imbalances
Shoulders & Hip Flexors
Bad habits over the day can lead to muscular imbalances which can cause pain and inhibit your movement.
Shoulders
When sitting down for long periods of time most individuals will set their shoulders in an internally rotated position. This may happen from working a desk job, driving, texting and watching television. Furthermore, it is very important to be conscious of your posture and try to keep your shoulders set down and back. One key tip would be to put a sticky note on your computer to set your shoulders, this will remind you over the day to maintain a nice posture.
Issue
When your shoulder sits in that bad position for prolonged periods of time your anterior (front) muscles surrounding the shoulder will become extremely tight. This includes the front of your shoulder and chest muscles. On the other hand, the muscles at the back of your shoulder will become weak and possibly over stretched. This will cause the imbalance in your shoulder.
Remedy
To prevent or fix this imbalance it is important to stretch the muscles at the front. Next, strengthen the muscles which retract your shoulders. This will include your rear delts and rhomboids. You can use exercises like face pulls to strengthen your rear delts. The combination of stretching the muscles at the front and strengthening the muscles at the back will help to fix the muscular imbalance and keep your shoulder healthy and happy.
If you have an office job check out these tips for improving shoulders from the office.
Hips
Now let’s shift over to our hip flexors. Your hip flexors are a big band of muscles that function to pull your body closer to your midline.
Issue
When sitting down for prolonged periods of time your hip flexors stay in a constant state of flexion (shortens the muscle fibres). This will cause your hip flexors to become very tight and lead to muscular imbalances and pain in your hips. Additionally, tight hip flexors can also lead to pain in other places of your body like your lower back.
Remedy
It is very important to stretch your hips regularly to undue the damage of sitting. If you have a desk job it would be recommended to get a standing desk that way your hips will not be in a constant state of flexion all day. If you cannot get a standing desk take breaks, go for a walk and stretch your hips throughout the day.
Be conscious of your tight muscle groups. Stretch the tight and strengthen the weak to fix your stubborn muscular imbalances. Take care of your body!
Learn how to improve your hip mobility from the office.
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