29 Jan The Ends Justify the Means
We have all heard it before, the old Machiavellian saying: The Ends Justify the Means.
Whether you realize it or not, we apply this principle on a daily basis here at Faster Fitness. We just don’t always tell you…
In this series, I am going to take some of our exercises that we perform and explain the anatomy, function, and rationale behind them. If you are anything like me, I perform better when I understand the “why” behind a given task.
Structural balance is something that you will hear often in this series. (I’ll try not to beat a dead horse, but it may come out more than a few times…) If our bodies were like scales, like Lady Justice, we would like to have our strength levels (front to back) balance out so that the scale doesn’t tip too far to one side or the other.
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the almighty scales of justice
So with that brief introduction let us begin.
Scap Retractions and the Trap 3 Raise:
I get asked in almost every session: Brad, why are we doing this?
I have said many times it is a means to an end, but now, let’s go further in depth shall we.
Anatomy:
The shoulder is made of three bones: the scapula (shoulder blades or “scaps”), the clavicle (collar bone), and the humerus (the long bone of the upper arm. The movement of scapular retraction (aka scapular adduction) is when we pull the scaps toward the spine. The main muscles that we use to perform this movement are the Rhomboid Major, the Rhomboid minor, and the Trapezius.
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The musculature of the upper back
Function:
As you can see in the picture, only half of the Trapezius (Traps from here on out) are shown to allow us to see underneath to the deeper muscles, namely the Rhomboids (major is the big one, minor is the small one above it) Those muscles pull that bone (the scaps) towards our spine for us. They can pull the shoulder blade in many different directions: it can pull to the spine (retract), pull up like a shrug (elevate), rotate up and down (upward and downward rotation respectively), pull down (depress), tilt forward and backward (anterior and posterior tilt respectively) As you can see, there is A LOT going on back there.
Rationale:
In an ideal world, those muscles would have enough strength to keep the scaps in their proper position at all times.
However, we don’t live in an ideal world. Every thing we do is out in front of us; our cell phones, driving a car, laptops, the remote control, the list goes on and on. Life happens out front. This repetitive and consistent motion and positioning pull us forward and create unequal strength between the the muscles in the back and the muscles in the front (namely the pectoralis minor, aka the pec minor)
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The bane of our existence, the pec minor
The pec minor is short and strong. It attaches to our shoulder as well, only in the front. It is turned on almost all the time in most of us and causes our shoulders to round forward (that’s why so many of us have a black band and the accompanying shoulder pain and lack of mobility that gives us a blue band.)
Through soft tissue work (rolling with a lacrosse ball), omitting chest strengthening work, proper stretching, and strengthening the muscles of our upper back we can create equal amounts of strength in the front and back (structural balance); thus leveling out our “scales of justice”.
What to take away:
Keep in mind this is a process. I often tell my pitching clients that adjustments like this are not like a light switch where I tell you to do something (flip the switch) and its done for good (the light goes on and stays on indefinitely).
Even training with me four sessions a week comes out to 3 hours of your week. If you do the math (I did it for you, put your calculators away) that is only 2% of your week; not very much. Focusing on staying pulled back while you drive, sit at your desk, watch TV, etc will go a long way to helping. (Every minute you are pulled back is a minute you are not forward and it adds up over time)
Over time, this will get better, but only as quickly as you truly put effort into it. It all depends on how much you want it.
I hope this helps, if you have more questions, please ask me, leave a comment on Facebook or twitter. If there is anything else you want to know more about, let me know. I’d love to answer your questions for you.
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