- Morning, trainiacs.
We have a little bit of a precision mobility workout today.
What we're gonna talk about
is something that Erin Carson and I talked about
in our podcast and that is getting the proper posture.
If you sit at a desk, it applies to you 100%.
(lively music)
When Erin Carson and I did the podcast
while I was in Boulder,
something that she talked about a lot was proper posture.
Basically what she said is that before she does anything
as far as strength training, mobility, stability,
it all starts from having proper posture.
She said that us triathletes,
we tend to be office workers.
Because we are office workers,
we are slouched over a desk right here.
Because we are triathletes
and we are in the aerobar position
and we are running forward and we are swimming
and everything is in front of us,
basically what happens is our chest
becomes almost overdeveloped, tight,
and it ends up causing issues with our back,
which then lead to all kinds of issues.
Now what issue, you might say?
Think of it like a...
Think of your posture like a can.
If you have really, really good posture,
all of those forces of running,
they're gonna be nice and stable
because the can is upright and your posture is good.
But what happens if you've got bad posture?
Think of it like this.
What if we put a little crease in the can in the side
and then all of a sudden, we go for a run?
We're putting three to 20 times the force
of our body weight down our body.
All of a sudden, the can very easily crumbles.
Don't be that can.
What it results in is two really negative things.
Number one, it results in energy leakage
because our posture is not tight enough
to keep all the momentum going forward
as we are pedaling, as we are swimming, as we are running.
We've got energy leakage going out the side,
out the front, out the back
instead of just in the direction that we want to go,
so we are putting more energy
into basically just keeping ourselves
from moving side to side and all over the place
than we are going forward, so we are going slower.
Secondly and more importantly,
the more times we do this,
we go around, we move forward, we're unstable,
the more times we're gonna get injured flat out.
Here is how to figure out
if you have this problem with posture
that just about all triathletes with desk jobs have.
Number one, stand facing a mirror.
If you can see the backs of your hands
like you can see mine right now,
you are getting pulled forward because of a tight chest.
Number two, stand up against the wall.
Put your head against the back of the wall.
Put your shoulder blades on the wall.
And here is the tough part,
press the small of your back up against the wall
and get your forearms and the backs of your hands
flat against the wall.
Now if you feel tightness, you have a tight chest.
I feel so much tightness right now.
(groans)
So if you work in a desk job,
if you stand in front of a mirror,
you can see the backs of your hands,
if you go up against the wall
and you feel a lot of tightness as you start opening up,
you have a tight chest, and here is how to fix it.
Number one, grab yourself a medicine ball or a basketball.
Put it in-between your shoulder blades.
Take your hands, cup 'em on the back of your head,
squeeze your elbows as tightly together as you can,
and then roll back and forth for two to three minutes.
Hey, Google.
Set an alarm for me in 120 seconds.
- Got it.
Your alarm is set for 6:10 p.m.
(light alarm music)
(groans)
- All right, Google.
Turn off the alarm.
All right.
Now that we have opened up our upper back,
we got to open up the chest.
You open up the chest is lie face down, stick out one arm,
put your knees to the opposite side
of that arm that's sticking out.
And then with the other hand,
press your palm into the ground
and hold this for two minutes.
Hey, Google.
Set an alarm for me in 120 seconds.
- There.
Your alarm is set for 6:13 p.m.
- Now don't cheat this and only stretch for 30 seconds.
In order to actually elongate muscles,
you need to stretch for two minutes or more.
Those 30-second stretches that we used to do
when we were kids in elementary school,
essentially it does not.
Either dynamic stretches, moving and creating mobility,
or static stretches for two minutes or more.
Repeat that same thing on the other side.
(pants)
Hey, Google.
Set an alarm for me in 120 seconds.
- Done.
Your alarm is set for 6:15 p.m.
(light alarm music)
- Hey, Google.
Turn off the alarm.
Okay.
Now that our chest and our upper back are loosened up,
it's time to really quickly create a little bit of mobility.
To create mobility in the chest,
we go back to the wall.
Remember, head, shoulder blades, lower back
pressed up against the wall.
Get the back of the forearms and the back of the palms
up against the wall.
Hold that.
And then 10 times slide up and down.
That's created a lot of mobility in the chest.
Now for the back, go up to everyone's favorite wall.
Put one foot up against it.
Hug that wall.
Put the other foot out.
And then (pants)
rotate. (pants)
This is gonna create lots of nice mobility
in the upper back.
Reach for it.
Make that stretch happen.
(sighs in relief)
That is it.
With that short 10-minute routine done,
anywhere from three to five times a week,
I would recommend doing it before a swim
because swim puts a lot of pressure
on your chest and upper back,
you can fix a lot of the issues
that are caused by being desk workers,
by being triathletes,
by being very forward-focused in what we do,
texting, typing, running, sitting in the aerobars.
That is a little teaser of what Erin Carson and I
are going to be doing in the strength training
for triathletes masterclass.
Pretty good stuff.
Hey, she is very efficient
with small little bits of strength work,
not hours and hours of strength work.
If you want to make sure that you know about those
when those strength training masterclasses come out,
hit the subscribe button below.
And if you already are subscribed,
you, to me, are like that feeling
after a really good stretching session.
Just like a wet noodle.
Awesome.
Later, trainiacs.