Postural Tug-O-War - Who ends up winning?

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Have you ever been told that you have rounded shoulders or that your hip flexors are tight? Has your physiotherapist or gym instructor prescribed you back exercises or glute exercises to overcome these postural deviations? Well you are probably fighting a losing battle. Massage and resistance training act as two peas in a pod when trying to correct your posture, but there is a correct order to doing it properly. 

Let’s take rounded shoulders for example. Usually this is due to always having our hands in front of us, surfing Instagram on our phones or Facebook on our computers, I mean working *cough cough*. This makes the muscles at the front of our body in our chest and shoulder very tight. 


To correct this posture and bring our shoulders back, our muscles on our back need to be strengthened. However tight chest muscles and increasingly tight back muscles from resistance work can cause a tug-of-war effect on your body, causing you to not see any changes and just really really hurt. 

Well massage can help! Massaging the chest muscles before taking on an intensive Arnold Schwarzenegger back regime in the hope to have your mum stop reminding you to pull your shoulder back is sort of like playing a game of Tug-Of-War, but kicking the opponent in the nuts before you start pulling.

Massaging the chest and the front of the shoulders will help to lengthen and relax these muscles, allowing for a greater range of motion and less tension in the front therefore and allowing the back muscles to fight an easy fight and finally please your mum for the family photo.

Learn more about Under Pressure Therapy

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