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What Babies Can Teach Us About How We Should Exercise

By Greg Brookes

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What Babies Can Teach Us About How to Exercise

Have you ever noticed the postural similarities between a baby and the elderly?

Understanding the development of the human body will help you realise why certain exercises are great for your posture and why others are destroying it.

Later I’ll be showing you what exercises you should focus on but for now lets look at what human development teaches us.

It Starts with Pronation

When a child is born, and even prior to birth, they adopt the fetal position. In anatomical terms this is referred to as being in pronation.

During Pronation the arms and legs are turned inwards and the body is in flexion or bent forwards.

It is also interesting to note that this position is adopted as a defensive position during times of danger, it’s comfortable and protects the vital organs. Shock most people and they will instinctively move into pronation.


Moving into Supination

As time passes the body starts to open out like a flower in spring. The spine begins to straighten and the limbs, through the development of muscle, start to turn outwards. The body moves from Pronation into Supination.

Finally we get to a position, all being well, where the body is fully upright. The spine develops its natural “S Curve” and the strength of our back muscles and Buttocks keeps us upright and open.

Maintaining an upright and Supinated position signals to the world that we are strong, confident and mean business!


Ends Back in Pronation

As we age gravity starts to take its toll. Muscles start to weaken and the body, slowly at first, and quickly towards the end brings us back down towards the fetal position.

Just like a wilting flower the body starts flexing forwards and the limbs begin to travel inwards.

Elderly people in their final years struggle to straighten their limbs and spend most of their time looking at the ground 🙁


How to Prolong Your Healthy Posture

The way you exercise will have a huge impact on how your body looks and reacts.

If you want to maintain your upright posture and stay in Supination rather than moving back into Pronation then you need to take action.

Exercising to improve your posture is not as difficult as you may think. All you need to do is promote more Supination within the body.

Here are the 3 key areas you need to address:

# 1 – Extension

Rather than spending all of your time on Flexion based exercises like Crunches that take you further into the fetal position.

Work on exercises that promote extension like: Back extensions, Cobras, and Sky Divers.

Here’s an example of the Back Extension exercise (note how it counteracts forward flexion)


# 2 – External Rotation

Have you ever seen someone running and flicking their feet outwards at the back?

Take a look next time you are in your local park and you’ll be surprised! When the knees come in and the feet flick out at the back that is usually due to weak external rotation of the hips. In other words, their buttocks are too weak to keep their legs in a straight line. The legs are being pulled into a pronated position.

Question:  What is the biggest problem with feet today, and hence why the orthotic industry is booming? Answer: Pronation of the feet! Strengthen your External Rotation Muscles or Buttocks and the Pronation of the feet will more times than not disappear.

Work harder on exercises like: Bridges and Single Leg Deadlifts

Here’s a Tutorial video of a the Single Leg Deadlift:


# 3 – Supination

Most kinds of pushing exercises will put you into Pronation, or in other words fold everything inwards. Most kinds of pulling exercises will put you into Supination, or open everything outwards.

So hours spent on Push Ups and Bench Press Exercises will only help to promote bad posture, and turn the body inwards.

It’s ironic that most people work on their chest muscles to increase the appearance of their chest when they are actually only turning their posture in on itself and hiding their prized possessions. If you really want to reveal a good chest then work on exercises that lift the chest and open the body out like a beautiful flower.

Work harder on Pulling based exercises like: Rows, Deadlifts or Cable Pulls.

Here’s a video of an Single Leg Dumbbell Row:


Conclusions

We all only have a finite amount of time on this earth. We start off in a Pronated position and end in a Pronated position but how long you remain strong and upright is up to you.

You can either work hard to destroy your posture or you can work hard to improve it. With any luck you will work hard to maintain a beautiful flowing posture well into your twilight years.

 

 

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Comments

  1. Ellen says

    August 31, 2013 at 11:46 am

    Thanks Greg for some invaluable exercises which I find so helpful in giving me varieties to use in the gym and home to continue motivating me to try different exercises to improve my well being.This posture exercises will be next.

    Reply
    • Greg says

      September 2, 2013 at 8:54 am

      My pleasure Ellen, pleased that you find the exercises helpful. Once you understand the philosophy you can’t go wrong 🙂

      Reply
  2. Jenny Artichoke says

    August 31, 2013 at 9:18 am

    I love this post and of course, I read it because you promised these exercises would make me more attractive in your email! I shall think about my posture and will make like a flower – J x

    Reply
    • Greg says

      September 2, 2013 at 8:53 am

      Nice one Jenny, make like a beautiful flower and bloom!

      Reply
  3. Shimon Sandler says

    August 30, 2013 at 8:09 pm

    Another brilliant post.
    As I see it…It’s good to work opposing muscle groups. For example, the back & the chest.

    Here’s a sample of my morning workout today…

    200 push-ups. (Plyos, diamond, regular, wide). – Chest
    3×10 Inverted Rows. – upper back
    3×10 Prone Cobra – lower back
    2×10 Superman hyper extensions. – lower back.
    Hanging knee raises – on Dip bar. – Core.

    This was a nice workout that balances between back, chest and core.

    Keep these great posts coming.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  4. Shimon Sandler says

    August 30, 2013 at 8:09 pm

    Another brilliant post.
    As I see it…It’s good to work opposing muscle groups. For example, the back & the chest.

    Here’s a sample of my morning workout today…

    200 push-ups. (Plyos, diamond, regular, wide). – Chest
    3×10 Inverted Rows. – upper back
    3×10 Prone Cobra – lower back
    2×10 Superman hyper extensions. – lower back.
    Hanging knee raises – on Dip bar. – Core.

    This was a nice workout that balances between back, chest and core.

    Keep these great posts coming.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Greg says

      September 2, 2013 at 8:52 am

      Thanks Shimon, yes I would even say 2 or even 3 times more Supination exercises than Pronation based moves. Based on this 200 push ups is way too much! You could either increase the difficulty of your push ups or do just 1 or 2 sets. Enjoy!

      Reply

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GB Personal Training Ltd

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Greg Brookes is the founder of GB Personal Training Ltd and KettlebellsWorkouts.com. He has been featured in Men's Health, Women's Fitness, Men's Fitness, and Health & Fitness Magazine, where he wrote a monthly column. He has also been featured in the majority of UK national newspapers. Labelled as "the trainer to the trainers" he delivers seminars and a regular newsletter to help Personal Trainers improve their skills and achieve better results for their clients. Continue reading

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