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Posture exercises relevant to climbers

plumb-bob

9-May-2013
5:07:13 PM

I've been suffering from some pain in my neck and shoulders lately, including sharp headaches in my temple and shoulder tendonitis. I also have terrible posture.

After reading a lot of information in climbing forums about 'doing push ups' to build the opposing muscles, I came across the below video that better explains that the real issue is likely to be with lat tension (from pull-ups and climbing) and pec tension from my poor posture and lack of bicep stretching.

Although I won't stop doing push-ups, I will focus on doing dumbell presses, dumbell rows, and pec minor stretches to try to balance out my posture a bit and hopefully it will relieve some my issues.

I thought it may be of interest to some peeps on here:

http://www.muscle-balance-training.com/blog/how-to-fix-a-muscle-imbalance-in-the-neck-and-shoulders/#comments

billk

9-May-2013
5:22:36 PM

Thanks for sharing, that was really helpful.

All the advice I have received is to keep on doing pushups but to do lots of chest and shoulder stretches as well.

Plus less time on the f---ing computer.

Miguel75

9-May-2013
5:30:02 PM

Thanks Plum Bob, variety is the spice of life when it comes to exercise:)

pmonks

10-May-2013
1:39:29 AM

Two things have helped my posture a lot:
1. switching to a standing desk (much easier to focus on correct pelvis rotation)
2. dynamic blackburns - as many as I can handle without getting trap involvement

plumb-bob

10-May-2013
8:36:04 AM

Those dynamic blackburns look interesting. Will give them a shot over the weekend.

Standing desk is a possibility. I will speak to my OHS person about them. I know some people have them at work.

pmonks

10-May-2013
10:50:25 AM

Yeah the blackburns are great - not a difficult exercise and easy to ramp up (once you're comfortable) by adding small (500g) hand weights. That said it's really really important not to let your trap get activated - that'll cause problems in your neck. I have stiff shoulders, so if I'm not able to keep my trap quiet I'll just go to 9-and-3 then back again. I also do the movement a lot slower than in the video - 6 seconds out, 4 second pause, 6 seconds back, 2 second rest. If you can do 3 sets of 20 reps of that, you're doing better than me!

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