Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2642: The Top 10 Posture Fixing Techniques
Episode Date: July 17, 2025The Top 10 Posture Fixing Techniques Why it’s NECESSARY to strengthen good posture. (0:57) The Top 10 Posture Fixing Techniques #1 - Seated rows. (8:30) #2 - Prone cobra. (11:01) #3 - Stat...ic stretching of the pecs/delts. (12:17) #4 - Standing straight arm pulldown. (15:42) #5 - Farmer walks. (17:15) #6 - Planks with posterior tilt. (18:13) #7 - Physio ball crunches. (21:27) #8 - Thread the needle. (24:22) #9 - Hip bridge. (26:21) #10 - Child’s pose with reach. (28:22) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** No code to receive 20% off your first order. ** July Special: MAPS Split or Anabolic Metabolism Bundle 50% off! ** Code JULY50 at checkout ** Mind Pump TV - YouTube – Find all exercises listed above Ask Mind Pump Trainer Bonus Series Episode 3: Assessments That Sell Training How to do a PROPER Plank Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources
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If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast in podcast
history.
This is Mind Pump.
Today we talk about fixing your posture.
You won't want to miss this.
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Here comes the show.
Do you slouch at your desk?
Do you have tightness in your neck?
Do you feel dragged down by bad posture?
We're gonna talk about the best techniques
that can fix that.
You're not gonna wanna miss this look.
You're gonna feel taller, you're gonna stand taller,
you're gonna look more confident,
and you're gonna be stronger.
Stay tuned, here we go.
So awkward you saying that while I'm slouching.
I feel attacked.
I feel attacked.
I was like, I'm over here like this,
and I'm like, oh, let's start this podcast. Sitting way too much these days. Well, I'm glad you like this, I'm like, let's start this podcast. I'm sitting way too much these days.
Well, I'm glad you said that, Adam,
because it's not just that you can sit in a way
where your posture isn't great,
it's that your bad posture starts to hurt.
That's really what it is, right?
If you have good strength in posture,
then you can sit those ways, stand up,
and not feel the neck tightness
and the thoracic area tightness at mid-back,
or stand in line and not get low back pain
or tightness and that kind of stuff.
That's what happens when your posture is off.
I mean, when your head moves forward just a little bit,
it becomes exponentially more challenging
for the muscles of your, that surround the neck
or support the skull.
It adds up.
To support it.
When your posture is not ideal,
or your muscle recruitment patterns aren't ideal
for your posture, lifting a weight off the floor,
playing with your kids,
it becomes exponentially more difficult.
And we are in environments that do not encourage
good, strong posture.
So it is necessary for most people
to strengthen good posture,
because your everyday life isn't gonna do that.
In fact, it's gonna do the opposite.
Well, it's funny, because even you just mentioned it,
it makes you conscious of it almost immediately.
And I think that's important to be constantly reminded
of just how you're holding the position of your body.
And just the accumulation of volume
of how you end up holding these positions
really does matter and it affects you long term.
I love this conversation.
I 100% agree, Justin, I think step one
is becoming aware of it.
Step two, once you become aware of what good posture
and bad posture looks like,
the inevitable is gonna happen.
You're gonna slouch in a chair, you're gonna be in a plane, you, you're going to be in these positions where you're like, oh my god,
I'm totally slouching or doing the thing. What's cool is that when I'm excited about it, as we go
over these movements and exercises to correct bad posture, once you understand how to correctly do
them, you can actually cue yourself when you catch those moments. So like, I don't know if you guys
do this or not,
but it's like, I'll find myself sometimes on the plane
and I'm like slouching and then because it's a long flight,
also and I do feel like tightening up the low back
and I'm like, oh God, and then you'll,
and then I'll literally like, I'll rotate my pelvis,
I'll activate my core, I'll pull my shoulder blades
and depress and like, which is all what you're doing
in these corrective exercise movements
you're gonna talk about. And so once you become aware, obviously step one, and then two, you know
the things to do to help correct that posture, then it's not just, oh, you do these exercises,
you know, every time you warm up in the gym or every once in a while, or just when things
get bad, but you become more aware of how you're holding yourself throughout the day.
And then when you become aware of it, you
take a moment to kind of engage the antagonist muscles and boy does that go a long way just by
becoming aware and doing those little things. Yeah, without getting too deep into the weeds,
so your body holds itself in the way that it deems to be the safest, okay? And it's using
lots of information to decide this and part of this information
is do we have the strength and stability to hold ourselves in an ideal position? No we
don't. So we're going to take the second best or third best or tenth best position.
So what this feels like is tightness or instability. It feels like tension, it feels like pain, it feels like
immobility. And so what you're doing with quote-unquote posture correcting
exercise, and this is a bit controversial by the way in the trainer space because
they'll argue there is no ideal posture. Yeah okay yes I can't take a picture and
say this is perfect posture for everybody but there's more ideal posture
for you and there's more ideal posture for you
and there's less ideal posture for you.
And the more ideal posture simply means
that your central nervous system's holding you in a position
that is more advantageous, it's better,
it's gonna improve mobility and reduce the strain
on muscles trying to do more work than they're supposed to
because other muscles aren't doing their job.
The practice of trying to achieve better posture and more optimal positions does nothing but
benefit you.
That's right.
So why would we discard that and just work in a direction where we're just, okay, well
this is what your posture is now.
We're just going to keep it as is and let's improve that.
Right.
So what we're going to be doing is is we're gonna be going through 10 movements. It's movements because it includes
strength training exercises, correctional exercises,
and stretches.
And all of them play a role here, right?
Stretches, they weaken, I shouldn't say weaken,
they reduce the central nervous system signal,
allowing those tight muscles to relax a little bit.
This is important for some people.
And then in combination with that,
you strengthen muscles that need to be strengthened
so that other muscles aren't doing more of the job
than they're supposed to do.
By the way, this is oftentimes why people feel
like neck tension.
Like, why is my neck always tight?
Like, I don't understand why my neck's always tight.
It probably is tight because there's muscles there
that are doing more work than they should to stabilize you.
To stabilize either your neck or your shoulders because there's muscles that that are doing more work than they should to stabilize you. To stabilize either your neck or your shoulders
because there's muscles that are not doing their job.
So it's like if we're all rowing in the same direction
but you're not doing any of the work
and we need to go a certain speed,
that means I gotta do more work to get us to keep moving.
This is what your body does.
Your body doesn't care.
It's just like I gotta hold you up
and we gotta figure out how to do this.
So I'm just gonna pick up the slack.
That's right.
So that's what's happening with the combination
of movements that we're gonna talk about.
And some of these are traditional strength training
exercises and others not so much.
So some of them you can do in your workouts,
others you can do outside of your workouts to help.
But I'll look to speaking to trainers watching this
right now, like this is key.
You figure this out, you can do this on most clients,
and they're gonna feel a profound difference that session.
That session they'll feel a difference
in how they're standing.
And yes, it does exude confidence to stand
with better posture.
Not just because the posture looks different,
because you feel different.
So a lot of this has to do with how you feel as well.
And these are so common that when I look at the list
of 10 that you've created
When I in I connect them to like my programming to my clients Especially the back half of my career maybe not so much the front half but all of these are it were integrated
Yep, because everybody is everybody has got some sort of upper cross syndrome will across syndrome to what would head
Yeah to what extent there's a wide range
But we're all doing all these things in front of us and we're closing in and rounding all day long
Yeah, so yes, so these movements become paramount to all clients and so a good trend
It's also this this episode could also be titled titled a good sign or signs
You have a good trainer is if your trainer is incorporating a lot of these movements within your training program because these are
The I thought in my early years tedious silly movements for the most part. These are dumb
I why am I trying to get through as much as fast as possible?
Yeah back in the day when it was all about getting you sore burning calories teaching wowing you with difficult movements
But some of these these fundamental stretches and mobility drills and movements
are paramount to keeping somebody with good strong posture.
Absolutely, so we'll start with number one,
which is a great general posture improving exercise,
especially for the mid, upper back,
and that's a seated row.
So now, by the way, you have to do these things right
for them to work, because you could do a seated row in a way that makes your posture worse.
So the way you do a seated row especially to improve posture is you
got to sit real tall when you row the weight the shoulder blades need to come
back and down. So you're looking for a retraction and depression of the
scapula. What you don't want to do is keep the shoulders rolled forward as you row the weight,
and you also don't want to shrug your shoulders
as you row the weight.
That's actually gonna make things much worse.
So think about taking your shoulder blades
and putting them in your back pockets.
That's what I used to tell my clients.
Now this is more difficult than it sounds for a lot of people.
In fact, for a lot of clients,
they couldn't do this without me holding their shoulders
and placing them in position. This is a go-to assessment for
trainers. I mean this is like one of the first exercises to really kind of assess
where you know what we're working with right now in terms of how severe because
there's various degrees of what you'll see in terms of compensations but for
your average person you're gonna find a lot
of compensation, especially in this type of an exercise. Well, yeah, we do everything in front of
us. And so if we are driving, riding on whiteboards, I mean, you name it. Computer. Cutting hair,
computer. I mean, we do it all. We do it all in front of our body, which puts us in this kind of
forward shoulder forward
rounded shoulder forward head position. Especially now with phones. Yeah and yeah especially now with
phones we're like this and so that becomes your default position so if that becomes your default
position and then you put somebody in a seated row they go right to their default position and
then you ask that person pull that in the default movement to that is for the biceps to activate
and pull in while they stay in that
rounded position. You actually have to cue and do what you said Sal, which is be able to get them
to retract and depress those shoulders, which is unnatural for the average person, yet so beneficial
to counter what they're doing all day long on their job or driving or phone or all those things.
And so learning this movement properly and then integrate,
this is a staple.
I don't think I trained a client that seated row was not in every single.
That's right.
I don't, I can't think of a client I trained that we didn't do seated row.
That's right. Same, same here.
So use lighter weight because technique is everything when you're trying to
correct posture. Next is the prone Cobra.
So you could do this lying on the floor or you could do this supported on a physio ball.
And with this what you're doing is you're rounding
and then coming up so you're getting some back extension.
You're rotating or supinating the hands
with the arms at your sides
and you're pulling the shoulder blades back.
You're squeezing everything back and down again.
Bring the shoulder blades back and down.
This is not a muscle builder.
This is, the seated rows are a muscle builder as well.
Prone Cobra is pure correctional exercise.
Like this is not for bodybuilders who are just trying to,
this is like, I do this to get better posture.
In fact, prone Cobras are a great way to set up
the seated row because it gets you in that position.
Then you can go to the seated row and now you're not in the.
Well you are literally unwinding what, you know,
forward, rounded shoulder, forward head is, right? So as you round what, you know, forward,
rounded shoulder, forward head is, right?
So as you round forward, you-
It's the antidote to that.
Yeah, exactly.
So you're internally rotating,
you're coming forward like this.
And so prone cobra is the opposite.
So you're literally unwinding that
and all the muscles that are weakened,
because what happens when you get so dominant this way,
these muscles become dominant overactive, the ones in the back that are responsible for pulling you
back into posture become weak and what you're doing in that prone cobra is
unwinding and waking up all those muscles that oppose that poor posture.
That's right. Next are static stretches of the pecs and delts. Now why would I
want to do that? Well, sometimes, oftentimes,
what gets in the way of strengthening the mid-back
is tight pecs and delts.
They're so tight, in fact,
that trying to get in better position,
it's like holding me back.
Oftentimes with clients,
we would start a posture correcting workout
with static stretches of the pecs and the delts,
which by the way feels amazing to these people.
Now the stretch itself doesn't feel so good,
can be a little bit painful, but afterwards like,
oh my god, I can breathe.
Everything feels so much better.
And static stretching, all that does by the way,
when you hold a stretch for a long period of time,
the CNS eventually weakens its signal to that muscle.
So what you're doing is you're allowing those muscles
to relax essentially.
That's it.
Yep, 100%.
There's actually a time for that,
it's approximately 30 seconds, right? 30 seconds and it relaxes and it allows you to relax essentially. That's it. Yep, 100%. There's actually a time for that. It's approximately 30 seconds, right?
30 seconds and it relaxes and it allows you to do that.
I like to go to a minute.
Gold G10 is your response.
Yeah, so I think that's one of the,
yeah, at least 30 seconds to a minute,
you wanna hold that.
So that's one of the most important things
that differentiates something from a, you know,
active type of stretch to a corrective type of stretch
is if you don't hold it for longer than that
You don't allow the CNS to relax
So it's important that when you are describing a static stretch that we also communicate that you get into that position and you hold it
Intensify it for a good solid 30 seconds to a minute to allow it to the CNS by the way
Yeah, I love static stretches from a correctional kind of perspective as well, especially when
you see how limited their range of motion wise.
Like I can't even get them into position now where I can stress that position and add load.
I have to really open up first and spend that time to incrementally achieve those new ranges.
This is also a good moment to discuss where there is some contention in the fitness space
around this conversation because it's pretty well known. Most trainers that have been doing this for a long time
know that static stretching before you go activate and work muscles typically is not
a good idea. But in the context of you trying to get somebody into correct posture to go
do a movement, it makes sense. So for example, if I, your point earlier, if someone is so tight and so rounded,
I can't even get them to retract and depress their shoulders and the major big muscle that's tight
is that that pec. And so static stretching relaxes it. So then I could then pull them back in that
posture. So then we can go in and work out. And so this is also why I don't like when trainers
criticize other trainers because
they may not know that that client that they're dealing with may need that static stretch in order
to get them in optimum position. Now it's not ideal to stretch a muscle that you're going to go
active explosively. Yeah, you don't do the static stretch and then do jumping push-ups.
You're going to reduce your performance. Right, right. So yeah, so that's not a good idea. So
there is a place and there is an exception
to every rule that we tend to hear.
And you do see a little bit of contention
and debate online about this.
You know, and you've probably heard,
oh, static stretching is good.
Then you hear, oh no, but this trainer says it's bad.
You don't do it for training.
It's a tool that needs to be used properly.
That's right, it is a tool and there is a place for it.
And it does make sense sometimes before you work out.
And this is the case. Yeah, like a screwdriver is a terrible way to hammer a nail, but it it does make sense sometimes before you work out and this is the case.
Yeah, like a screwdriver is a terrible way
to hammer a nail, but it's a great way
to screw in a screw, right?
So, and by the way, when you're doing a static stretch,
a mistake a lot of people make is they hold their breath.
That will tell your central nervous system
to stay tight, just stay activated.
So, breathe deep and relax your body
as you hold the static stretch, it's far more effective.
Next up is a straight arm pull down.
Okay, so what is a straight arm pull down?
Well, when we're trying to build muscle,
it's a lat exercise.
Is that what we're doing this for?
No, I'm not trying to build the lats.
Here's what I'm trying to do.
I'm trying to do a straight arm pull down,
let my lats activate, and also simultaneously
be able to pull my shoulder blades back and down.
Why?
Because I need to learn the muscle recruitment pattern
that says it's okay to activate my lats
while also retracting and depressing my scapula.
Oftentimes when people have poor posture,
whenever they activate their lats,
their scapula rolls forward.
Okay, so a pull down looks like this.
A row looks like this.
So really this is just teaching things to work
in the right way.
So a standing straight arm pull down
in the context of correctional exercise is lighter and the idea isn't to work my the right way. So a standing straight arm pull down in the context of correctional exercise is lighter
and the idea isn't to work my lats,
but rather can I work my lats
while pulling my shoulder blades back and down?
Anchoring those shoulder blades.
At the same time.
Super light movement.
That's right. Super light movement.
I always encourage trainers to teach clients this
with little to no way.
A band. Yes.
This is one of those things where
it's very difficult to articulate your scapula if you've
never trained yourself to do it. This is a great exercise and movement. Of the ones we've talked
about so far, I would say the more complex one to get someone to do correctly. So like the cedar row
is fairly easy. These other movements, pro and cobra, fairly easy to look at it, watch it,
okay I get it. This one's a little bit difficult and you do see a lot there's a lot more room for error and so really
pay attention to form a technique really go light but what a great movement to
teach you how to articulate that scapula. That's right next up farmer walks okay
farmer walks well normally farmer walk is great for your grip strengthens the
body you go really heavy that's not how're going to do farmer walks in this context.
The farmer walks here, you're holding resistance and what you're consciously doing while you're
walking is maintaining good posture.
So here's what you're going to do from the bottom up.
First off with your feet, your whole foot needs to make contact with the floor so you
roll from the heel to the toe.
You want to stand nice and tall but you don't want to over arch your back.
You want to tuck your pelvis a little bit, tighten your core, maintain your
chest high, keep your shoulder blades back and down. And again, what you're trying to
do with this is you're trying to teach your body to do things with good posture because
that's a skill as well. Can I get good posture while doing a seated row? Yes. But now can
you do it while you're walking? Or can you do it when you're pushing? Or can you do it
when you're doing an overhead press? Completely different skill.
Farmer walks, focusing on good posture,
help teach the skill of having good posture
while also doing something functional.
Next, planks with a posterior pelvic tilt.
I love this one, this was so controversial.
One of our first viral videos.
When we first showed this, right?
So everybody knows what a plank is, right?
But what we're gonna teach here
is how to do a plank
with a posture or pelvic tilt.
So, a common posture issue with a lot of people
is called an anterior pelvic tilt.
What does that look like?
Looks like I'm sticking my butt up.
I have a little bit of an excessive curve to my low back.
We call it Instagram model.
Instagram model butt, right?
That pose or whatever.
Well, when you're doing a plank,
when you're in that position,
well first off, this is gonna crush your abs, okay, because this really makes a plank an ab exercise. But you get
in that position, hold that position, take your butt which is sticking up, and tuck your tailbone.
Now hold that position. Now what we're doing is we're offsetting that anterior pelvic tilt. Yes,
it's an ab exercise. Intensifying that contraction. This is my, this was my favorite movement
for people with really bad anterior pelvic tilt.
What would people with anterior pelvic tilt complain of?
Low back pain and tightness when they did squats, overhead presses, even seated rows.
I'd have some clients do seated rows and they'd be like, oh, it's my low back.
I would go to do this planks with posterior pelvic tilt, go back to the rows and would
fix the problem.
Yeah, and what helps too is you can start really priming
and teaching these people these default positions
when normally if they're in a relaxed,
while they're going through the stress,
it's gonna all direct it towards their lower back,
but now if they have this where they've been
continuously practicing drawing and directing it more
for the core supporting it,
then now they're gonna have that at their benefit.
This to me is the seated row of the lower body,
meaning that it is that impactful
for like 99% of the people out there.
And the reason for that is that when we sit down,
which all of us do when we're driving,
when we're sitting at desk,
when we're sitting on our podcast chairs, whatever,
your hip flexors are in a shortened position,
and you're in that shortened position so much of the day that that becomes its default. So then
when you try to stand up, stay tight and then that not that that tilts the hips
in that position in the Instagram Instagram butt position we're talking
about where you're excessively arching the low back. It's a weak point for force. Right and so
this and why I love this tip because it is controversial
because somebody would debate that, oh, plank is supposed to be neutral spine. You shouldn't be
tucking the tailbone. But what you're doing is you're not only incorporating the core,
which is so important in the plank, but then you're also countering one of the most common
postural deviations, which is an anterior pelvic tilt. And so what a great
way to add that into your plank movement and so beneficial and difficult for a lot of people do.
And so many people- It's harder than it looks.
And a lot of people, a lot of planks you see out there are done wrong. A lot of people are-
They're all anterior pelvic tilt.
Yes, they're resting on their low back and they don't even realize it because that's
their default position. And so you are again, going the opposite,
completely working the opposing muscles by doing that, by tilting all the way in.
And I think one and maybe 10,000 clients you'll ever have will have the
posterior public. I mean, I think I can only recall one client.
I think I have one client. Oh yeah. It looks weird. It looks, yeah had one client. And you know it. Oh yeah, it looks weird. It looks, yeah, they, they, they, they, they, they, they,
It looks like a shrimp.
Yeah, it looks really, really weird.
Yeah, which brings us to the next one,
which is physio ball crunches.
Now, now yes, it works your abs,
but here's how you do physio ball crunches
in the context of correctional exercise.
So when you're on the physio ball,
put your low back on the physio ball,
push your hips up and activate your glutes.
What that's gonna do,
it's gonna help deactivate the hip flexors.
Tight hip flexors, weak tight hip flexors
contribute to poor lower body posture,
especially in the low back.
So what we're trying to do is we're trying to deactivate
them, you activate the glutes, then do your crunches.
This is teaching your body to stop relying so much
on your hip flexors and rely a little bit more on your abs.
So it is a great ab exercise, but more importantly, it's separating the hip flexors and rely a little bit more on your abs. So it is a great ab exercise but more importantly it's separating the hip flexors from the abs
which people have a lot of trouble with. Anytime they have to stabilize
their core it's hip flexor dominant. This teaches them to
separate. Let's get those relaxed, let's get the core to work and without the hip
flexors my favorite exercise to do. You know speaking specifically to our
trainers that are potentially listening to this episode,
a common client that you will get, you will get a advanced age client who suffers from
chronic pain, has horrible posture, and they give two shits about how much muscle is on
their body or how much body fat to lose, and they are purely there for longevity, feeling
better.
You can literally build almost an entire routine around what we're talking about.
Oh yeah.
Like this, and then,
because there is a progression
to everything we're talking about, right?
You can eventually add load
and add things to challenge all of it,
but this is like a great foundational program
for a client, right?
Taking from these movements
and building an entire program that is around that,
like, and let me tell you,
this is a, it's very hard to take somebody
who's 75 years
old and show them five pounds of muscle or lose 15 pounds of body fat but you can immediately start
to impact the way they sleep they sit they walk they move the way they feel and so what a great
program is to do like take from all these movements build a program from and then as they get better
and stronger you can progress that.
And I think as we're talking about this right now,
I had a lot of clients that this was our workout right here.
Oh, I'd start with the stretches,
I'd go to the mobility stuff, and we'd
end with the strengthening.
Yeah.
100%.
This was an incredible workout and program right here
that we're building for a lot of people.
People loved it, too.
They were really feeling so good.
Yes, a lot.
As a trainer, I think we all...
How many bodybuilding clients you guys have?
Never. I was just going there. I'm like, when you get into personal training, you think you're going
to train someone like you, you're probably going to train one other person like you. You think maybe
you're going to get all these athletes and then maybe bodybuilders. It's like, those aren't your
clients. You get everyday normal people and the number one thing
they want to get rid of is pain.
Chronic pain and most chronic pain is from these poor,
these poor habits, these poor posture
and learning to correct that, boy,
is that this makes you incredibly valuable as a trainer
to be able to teach this stuff.
Totally, next up is thread the needle.
Now this is a movement that helps with thoracic mobility.
So this is kind of your upper back mobility.
Now when this is tight, here's what it ends up happening.
When your thoracic area is tight, your rib cage can't expand very well.
You tend to not breathe deeply.
It's kind of shallow and you don't even realize it.
You don't even realize it until you fix it.
And then all of a sudden
You feel relaxed you feel a sense of peace like wow this makes a big difference
Thoracic tightness also contributes to shoulder pain it also contributes to neck pain
Thread the needle is a great easy movement and this is not a this is more of a correction of mobility movement
Great way to start your workout
It's a very valuable again and we talked you said this earlier
Oftentimes someone start a workout with my clients. We would start with stuff like this.
Yeah.
I don't know what the research says or what the statistics are on injuries.
I know that low back is one of the most common. I know shoulders up there,
but I definitely recall a lot of clients that got hurt doing some sort of like
rotational movement, right?
Like something so basic. It was like reaching back to the back car seat or pulling a weed to the left.
Doing a shampoo bottle off the floor.
Yeah, like this really basic light, but they just moved out of a rotational, because we stop rotating like that.
I noticed this already in my own body. Like of all the things that we're listing right now,
this is one of the ones that I have to make sure I always do because I just don't do a lot of things
where I have to rotate that my teeth that much. I just don't do that. I don't move like that that often anymore.
I don't do a lot of physical sport like activities that require that and so this becomes one that even myself
I have to do on a regular basis. Speaking to your point earlier about the shortness or short breaths and like having low level
anxiety too, like a lot of clients would come in with like, you know, some of these issues
and it's like, you know, to get more expansive in your breathing and really open that up
and work on that thoracic mobility, it was transformative.
Yeah.
So next up, this looks like a glute, a hip thrust,
but it's on the floor and it's a hip bridge.
And this helps strengthen the glutes
and also helps get the hip flexors out of the way.
And you're not just pushing your hips up.
You're doing that posterior pelvic tilt
and then you're doing a hip bridge.
Squash the bub, then lift.
You're flattening your back into the floor,
so that's gonna involve a crunch of the abs,
and then maintain that position while doing the
hip bridge. This is really great for people with an anterior pelvic tilt. It
helps activate the glutes, helps deactivate for lack of a better term the
hip flexors. It's easy to do, don't add weight to this, great way to start a
workout. It's first step to addressing sleepy butt right which is very very
common in people and it's common because of all the things that we're talking about. So many people have
an anterior pelvic tilt, so many people are hip flexor tight, quad dominant, which
whenever you do any lower body movements tends to shift all the focus on the
anterior on the front of the body and they just can't seem to engage the butt
and glutes. This movement and done properly because you could do a hip bridge
and still not really lift your hips
Yeah
You just hit your hip flexors still engaged because that's gonna be the default the default is going to be
Hip flexors lift you up not the glutes lift you up and the way you eliminate that is the flat in the back or what?
We say squash the bug and activate that core then keep the core tight as you lift up
Do we always have them hold for an excessive? Yes three to five seconds. Yes, because we do not do enough extension throughout the day.
It's just not part of our routine.
I don't know anybody that does.
There's always just a little bit of that flex.
And to really emphasize extension and get that opportunity
for your body to react to that is very important.
So I'm with you.
It's a three to five second, not only hold, but intensify.
Because we know the benefits of isometrics
They flatten your back and then come up
Hold squeeze intensify the top three to five seconds come back down
Just a great movement for damn near everybody to prime before they do their workouts
Especially if you have a client who is complaining of less sleepy butt syndrome. Yeah, lastly, child's pose with reach. Okay, so in child's pose with reach, you're looking for thoracic
extension. So this helps with thoracic and simultaneously you're stretching the
lats out and the lats tend to be tight in people with forward shoulder because
they do everything with their lats. They do nothing with their upper back but you
also need that thoracic extension. Thoracic extension helps fight that upper back rounding. Actually, you see this a lot
with people who use their phones a lot, where they start to get that, it's almost like a humpback.
Yeah. Sometimes you can't even see it. A little nodule like behind their neck. And so this offsets,
it's opposite of that posture and it helps loosen things up. This is more of a stretch than it is anything else
By the way when you do this if this is good for you
Here's what you're gonna feel like when you stand up. I could take a deep breath again. Oh my god
I feel so so much better do something like this and hold it for about 30 seconds repeat it about two or three times
One of my favorite pose look if you like the show come find us on Instagram. Justin is that mind pump Justin?
I'm at my pump to Stefan Owen Adams at my pump out
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