The cervical spine has been under improper pressure for a long time, and of course it cannot be endured for a long time. For the cervical spine, the head is upright and tilted forward 60 degrees, the pressure may be 5 times different, and our chest and shoulders are the base of the head, if the base is crooked, of course, the building above can not be straightened.
So we must first understand, whether your posture is good or not, whether it is a round-shouldered, hunchback posture? Or keep your chest straight? There is a simple way to observe.
Round shoulders are spotted at a glance
First of all, the conclusion, looking at the direction of the thumb, the thumb facing inward relatively represents the round shoulder and hunchback; and the thumb parallel to the front is a good posture. Of course, if you want to observe, for example, the elbow socket, the tiger's mouth, or other locations, it is also possible, but the thumb is an easy target to observe.
The direction of the thumb is actually the final result, which represents the base, that is, the orientation of the shoulder joint.
When the chest is straightened, the shoulder blades will be adducted, and the position of the humerus (upper arm) will be rotated externally, except that the front chest area will open and show a straight chest, and the result of extending downwards will see the thumb facing forward.
So on the right side of the image above, it is a photo taken with an adduction of the shoulder blade, plus external rotation of the humerus.
The chest-straightening posture is a good one, but in the process of adjusting my posture, the biggest problem is how to "maintain" the posture of the chest. Everyone knows that straightening your chest is better, but it doesn't last long, and many times you remind yourself to straighten your chest, and the result is less than a minute to return to the original state.
So please "straighten your chest" and look at the 2 parts:
The first is when you do a chest-straightening motion, do you directly pinch the shoulder blades into the middle? Or is there some other way?
The second is, how long can you maintain a straight chest? Please observe the position of your thumb for yourself to know how long you can hold on after making a chest position.
The following article will provide some tips and lessons used in my own process of adjusting my posture^^
Tips for keeping your chest straight
If you hear "straighten your chest", do you just clip your shoulder blades back? Most people's instincts are this way, and I've been that way before.
The second question is, how long can it last? Very short, one did not pay attention and returned to the original posture. So in this way, what is the problem?
When we clamp the shoulder blade backwards, we are doing the adduction of the shoulder blade, and the muscles used at this time are only the middle fibers of the trapezius muscle and the diamond-shaped muscle, that is, we rely on two muscles to fight against the force of pulling the shoulder forward, and we must always maintain the action of straightening the chest... It should not last long.
So the problem here is not that we lack attention, but that we use too few muscles, so the effect is not good. Is there an easy way to recruit more muscles to support the movement of the chest?
Remember the mantra "turn shoulders, turn hands, chin tuck"
"Shoulder rotation" is to let the shoulder from the front, through the above draw an arc to the back of the shoulder position, although the final position and the shoulder blade directly backwards look similar, but the muscle group is not the same. When making a shoulder turn, the adductor muscles are not as hard, but more muscles are involved in the downward pressure, such as the lower fibers of the trapezius muscle and the anterior serratus. And because the last is a downward movement, the weight of the hand is connected to the shoulder, that is, the weight of the hand is added to help the downward pressure, which will save more effort.
"Turning hands" makes the palms forward and then outward, further allowing the humerus to rotate outward to make the chest straightening more pronounced. At this time, the pygmal joint will make simultaneous stretching and external rotation, including the fibers behind the deltoid muscle, the latissimus dorsif, the large round muscle, the small round muscle, the subspine muscle... They will participate in such an action together, so at this time, it should be obvious that in addition to the middle of the shoulder blade, the muscles under the shoulder blade will have a noticeable tightness. Congratulations, you have recruited multiple muscles of your back to join you in the ranks of chest lifting.
"Chin augmentation" is to straighten the cervical spine and avoid long-term injuries caused by the protrusion of the neck. After doing the shoulder rotation and hand change, in fact, even if the chest is completed, the so-called "head up" action is not recommended, so it is easy to make the neck protrude, and the real training is the action of closing the chin, please perform it together.
Of course, using more muscles to maintain the action of straightening the chest can make the maintenance time rise, but people's habits can not be changed in one or two days, so it is very important to make the action of "turning the shoulder, changing hands, and closing the chin" when I think of it, and I myself remind myself as soon as I notice, and then practice the habit, less than 3 seconds can be positioned to complete.
In addition, it is necessary to start from the training, relax the too tight chest muscles and superior trapezius muscles to reduce the strength of resistance; strengthen the shoulder blade adduction, downward pressure and back muscles, you can naturally maintain a longer chest posture, which is the next direction you can work in.