It’s interesting to see how people exercise in the year 2010. Everyone is trying very hard to impress the opposite sex (the number 1 reason for going to the gym) by losing weight and improving their appearance. However, it seems that what is being performed in the gym is producing the absolute opposite of what the opposite sex is really looking for.
Here’s why…
Working life has changed drastically with the advent of the computer and most of us spend hours in front of a computer every day. Think about your posture during your 8 hour day: head is coming forward, shoulders are rounding, back is arching forwards, legs are bent and muscles are shortening.
Now look at the most common exercises that you see down the gym: cycling, men doing chest presses, hundreds of sit-ups and crunches.
Now lets take a look at the impact of these common exercises:
Cycling….This exercise hugely develops your hip flexors. These are the muscles responsible for bringing your knees to your chest. These muscles are attached to your lower spine and the top of your thighs. The more you work these muscles the more you encourage an excessive arch in your lower back (lordosis) to counter balance the pull on the upper thighs. Think about pushing your belly out and buttocks backwards and you have some idea of what this posture will look like. Now compare this to how you sit in front of a desk all day, already with your knees bent and hip flexors shortened.
Chest Presses….guys love a big chest. Lying on a bench and pushing out hundreds of reps with a bar or dumbells will certainly enhance the size of your chest. But is this really what you want? Chest presses encourage your shoulders to come around even further and this not only exaggerates your daily desk sitting posture but also hides the very chest you are try to develop.
Sit-Ups and Crunches….further pulling your chin towards your hips will not cause you to get a flat stomach it will only exaggerate again your desk sitting posture. Do you really want to encourage a bent over and chin forward position.
Your exercise workouts need to change.
You need to be spending time in the gym correcting all the bad posture that you are getting from 8 hours of desk sitting. Take a look at yourself right now….how are you sitting?? Don’t you think that it would be better to devote your exercise workouts to pulling your shoulders backwards (not forwards with chest exercises), increasing your hip extension (rather than flexion from knees to chest), working on spine extension (not flexion as in sit-ups).
Most people work on muscles that they believe the opposite sex find attractive. Guys work their chest, women their abs. If you were to change your exercises to help enhance your posture you would not only enhance your appearance but your general movement too! Now that makes a lot more sense doesn’t it…??
You can find out exactly what exercises to do here at my Personal Training Secrets
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