How to Fix Your Posture: Shoulders Rounded Forward

Posted December 14, 2022 in Health, Your Questions 4 Comments »
Your Questions

I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form. In particular, this topic of how to fix your posture is intriguing to investigate from a fitness programming standing for myself and for all athletes.

Generally, I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.

The category, Your Health Questions is a more proactive approach to answering your questions so that everyone can benefit from the Q & A.

Dick wrote:

“I need to concentrate on the rear head of my shoulder.

I think I have overtrained the front head with all the benching and what not.

Someone told me my shoulders stick out of the front which wouldn’t be a problem if they stuck out of the back too.

What work out should I use to build them up?”

Response:

If all you do for work is sitting down, you probably have tight pecs from slouching and tight hip flexors from sitting.

If all you do for exercise is bench pressing, you probably have tight, over-developed pecs and front delts, and under-developed lats (back) and rear delts.

These conditions will facilitate injury and make you look like a neanderthal ogre.

How to Fix Your Back

posture comparison

You need to stop benching so frequently and start training your whole body. A generic full-body workout routine would be fine. You should stick with it for at least 2 months, focusing on the back and legs in addition to, and with priority over, the chest and shoulders.

Your top priority should be to bring your back up to speed. Dumbbell and barbell rowing will be vital to your progress, although pull-ups and chin-ups are great too.

You should be able to barbell row as much as you can bench press or at least 90%. If you can bench 250 for 5 reps, you should be able to row 225 for 5 reps.

One of the great side effects of having a strong back is having a strong chest. You can bet that your bench press will actually increase once you have increased your rowing strength.

Now go do heavy bent-over barbell rows like it’s your job.

How to Fix Your Legs

I am willing to be that you also neglect training your legs, which is fine if you want women on the beach to laugh at your chicken legs. Stick to the full-body workout routine by training your back and legs!

Squats, deadlifts, lunges, and sprints will be hugely beneficial to your progress. You will also be surprised by the improvements in your upper body strength development once you have a solid lower body. When you fix your posture you will notice all major muscle groups improve, even if just slightly.

Furthermore, stop laying down to exercise. The reality is that nearly every muscle can be trained from a standing position. Granted, some exercises require us to lay on a bench, but the idea is that if your upper body can be perpendicular to the floor during the exercise, you should probably be standing.

Now go do some deadlifting as if your life depends on it.

How to Fix Your Shoulders

All the rowing that you will do in the coming months will pull your shoulders back and add some meat to your rear delts. You don’t really have to do much else with your shoulders to fix your posture.

However, if you want one exercise that will focus exclusively on the rear delts, you should check out reverse dumbbell flies. But before you do that, make sure you are rowing!

I will let this chick who can most likely kick your ass, show you how to do them:

Here are a couple of great habits that you can develop in order to help your body maintain a healthy posture til the day you die.

Consciously maintain a healthy posture all day long. Throughout the day whether sitting or standing, your chin and chest should be out and up, your shoulders should be pulled back, and your upper body should be straight. Think about pulling your belly button in to touch your spine from time to time – it will help train the transverse abdominus to keep your core compact and straight.

Stretch for 10 minutes after each workout too. Focus at first on your pecs, hips, quads, and shoulders, as they are probably WAY over-tight, but be sure to stretch your whole body as often as possible. Give foam rolling a try if you have a particularly tight or slightly injured area.

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4 Responses to “How to Fix Your Posture: Shoulders Rounded Forward”

  1. […] How to Fix Your Posture: Shoulders Rounded Forward (projectswole.com) Related Posts […]

  2. The entire time i was reading this post i kept thinking one of my co-workers. He is the textbook example of too much bench, and not enough of everything else. His shoulders are constantly bowed forward and his forearms are always swinging far out by his side. I just laugh every time i see him. 🙂
    Some people have it in their head that the Bench Press is the Number One Exercise and if they do just that they will be the strongest person alive. I train my legs and back 3 times harder than my chest, and my posture has improved dramatically compared to before i started working out. I had lazy ass computer chair back! lmao

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