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Fitness: Fix rounded shoulders and improve your posture with these exercises
Summary
Given how much time we spend hunched up over a phone or a laptop, rounded shoulders are becoming a problem. Here are some easy exercises that can fix it
It’s like an epidemic of bad posture, of rounded shoulders. It’s is probably the most common postural defect in the modern day of mobile phones and computer screens. That is why everyone is shaking their shoulders at the desk after an hour. Or getting that feeling of a stitch in the upper back, radiating through the shoulder blades.
There is much about shoulder health that is not well known to most people. Yet, if you are suffering from rounded shoulders, it can be worked upon and fixed. This can be done through a selection of exercises that involve strength training, mobility, increasing muscle size, rotator cuff movements and other joint health measures. And while bad posture may not be just because of one’s shoulders, they play a large role.
I wrote about healthy posture and some routines to achieve it in a Lounge article in 2020, titled How To Beat Bad Posture Easily, but this story is more geared towards the shoulders. Because bad posture might start all the way in one’s feet, with something like plantar fasciitis also affecting it. Rounded shoulders, then, is more of a an activity-oriented issue. Driving a lot, using the phone a lot, and even lifting heavy bags might lead to this, even though the rest of the muscles and joints are healthy.
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With this in mind, here are four exercises that you can do to improve your shoulder health and your posture.
Jeff Cavaliere’s simple daily fix
The YouTube channel Athlean-X is a great place to learn useful muscle building workouts. It is also great for learning great formulas to make gym days more exciting. Given the technical nature of the workouts there, it was quite surprising when I saw Jeff Cavaliere (whose channel it is) show a floor exercise that is, quite simply, the easiest exercise to do to fix rounded shoulders.
He just calls it rocking yourself forward on the floor, with the legs extended on the feet and the palms back, as if you’re sitting back watching a movie. You can do it any time of the day, and anywhere, while doing any other activity. He also adds a little glute activation for good measure, doing a raised bridge on the palms.
Scapular wall-slides
I do these every day before touching the weights in the gym. The benefits are many. You can do them sitting or standing, it doesn’t really matter, but there are some thumb rules to get it right (even when it looks like a fairly simple exercise). Basically, all you need to do is to raise your hands up together while in contact with the wall. Start with your shoulders flush up against the wall, and make sure that the head, upper back, and glutes are also touching the wall. Raise up, hold, bring down, using the friction with the wall as your resistance.
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There is a progression to this exercise that isn’t popular enough, but is very useful if one can access a cable machine at the gym. Use the rope attachment, sit on a bench and then do a face pull with the arms at 90 degree angles and then raise up the rope and bring it down. This is brilliant because wall slides might eventually become boring.
“During the movement, avoid slipping into lower back hyperextension; maintain thoracic region extension; and be sure to maintain neutral head posture. Your target areas are the rotator cuff muscles, rear deltoids, and lower traps (as you raise the weight further overhead). When you start feeling this in other areas like the biceps and upper traps, readjust positioning and continue," writes sports performance coach Eric Cressey on his website. He calls the exercise resisted scapular wall slides.
Kettlebell windmills
If you suffer from rounded shoulders, it is quite common to have a persistent cramped feeling in the middle of the upper spine. Your thoracic spine or the t-spine is extremely important in how your upper body looks and feels. Kettlebell windmills are excellent for fixing this, and this exercise is something of a step up from the ones listed above.
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Take a kettlebell of desired weight and loop it into your wrist and arm for a strong hold. Stand with a stance slightly wider than hip-width. Remember, the kettlebell is in one hand, with the other hand free. “Keeping your right arm straight, shift your weight onto your left side and slowly descend by lowering your left arm along the inside of your left leg with your palm facing up. Focus on keeping contact with your hand and leg," states an article on GarageGymReviews.com titled, Thoracic Mobility Exercises: Welcome To Thoracic Park. Now switch the hands. Looking up at the kettlebell while going down helps and this is a great way to stretch the obliques as well and the sides of the lower back.
Other simple floor exercises
Basic moves like the downward dog, threading the needle, band tears, foam roller thoracic extensions, and even the cat-cow exercise are really good if you are just starting out. But over a period of time, it is important to not just keep the thoracic spine mobile, but also strong. Rounded shoulders can be caused by a lot of other issues as well, including a weak core. But all this can be fixed. A couple of months of regular work will give results and once that starts happening, you won’t stop.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator, podcaster and writer.
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