If You Push, You Must Pull (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the excess of pressing exercises in the average gym goer’s routine and how this only exacerbates the rounded shoulders and shoulder pain that many of us already experience. As we mentioned in the previous article, you must first start by considering how you spend your day and focus on posture. Second, you must work to restore tissue length and quality.

In today’s article, we will be reviewing what exercises at the gym will best help to reestablish good posture and balance, while helping you to avoid injury. As we talked about in the last post, if you have any postural concerns, it would be best to limit your pressing. A good rule of thumb is that for every pushing/pressing exercise, you should do 2-3 pulling exercises. I would also say that your pressing exercises should consist mostly of push up variations. There are a variety of push up progressions that can challenge you while not risking injury or furthering your imbalances.

When, Why, and How to Push

When you do decide to include pressing exercises in your routine, start with a clear understanding of what you hope to achieve through using these movements. Most people just throw together a bunch of exercises that they found in a magazine and call it a day. When you put together a program for yourself, you should always start by thinking about what you want to achieve, and how the movements you have included will help to achieve that goal. There can be a number of benefits to including pressing in a routine, but there are certain factors to consider.  First, are you someone that sits a lot? If so, pressing may not need to take a large role in your routine. Second, have you had a past shoulder injury? Is so, you may also want to limit your pressing. Third, what are your goals? If you have the sole purpose of increasing shoulder/chest size, then yes, pressing will help. But you have to weigh the costs and benefits. If you answered yes to the first two questions, then your first step toward increasing chest/shoulder strength and size will be to correct posture. It may seem unrelated, but if you end up injured then you won’t be doing any exercise at all!

For most people, I recommend finding the appropriate push up variation and going from there. Below you will see a variety of push ups that range in difficulty. The key in all of this is to focus on technique and posture. If you ever attempt an exercise and it causes pain or loss of posture, it is not the right exercise for you. Scale it back until you have an exercise that you can do perfectly. The videos below are in order from least challenging to most challenging, so start from first exercise and work your way up!

Pull, Pull, and Then Pull Some More

For most of us, the only reason we exercise is to look and feel better. Not that this is a small goal by any means, but it is sometimes odd when the average gym goer uses exercises that are counterproductive in regards to these goals. A hunched position is neither attractive nor comfortable, so let’s see what exercises we can do at the gym that will help us to undo this postural limitation. The first type of exercise is something I like to call a horizontal pull. This would be your rowing variations. There are a wide variety of rows, a few of which you will see in the video below. The second type of pull is what I like to call vertical pulls, and this will include exercises such as the pull up and pull down.  

When performing these exercises there are a few things that you MUST remember and focus on. First, it is critical that you keep your shoulder blades/shoulders in a back and down position. This means that you should feel as if you are pinching the lower part of your shoulder blades together, right around the mid-back. If you can keep this position, you will avoid shrugging during the movements (which would only act to reinforce poor movement and poor shoulder position). Second, don’t forget your core. Make sure that you keep your abs and hips stable while performing these movements to protect your lower back. This is a good rule for all lifting so don’t let yourself perform a single rep if you are not stable.

Fixing Posture and Imbalance

What all of these exercises work toward is strengthening and shortening those muscles that can become weak and stretched over time from frequent sitting or from an over-emphasis on pressing motions. There is very little in our daily activity that helps us to straighten up and keep our shoulders and backs in an upright position. Therefore, it is important that we take every opportunity to fight our life-long regression toward the fetal position. Include more pulling and be wise with your pressing, and your posture and overall well-being will be greatly improved.