Stop skipping on the smaller, important muscle groups.
Commonly referred to as ‘t-shirt muscles’. Many people will hit the gym day after day, focusing in on the muscle groups that apparently ‘matter’ and completely ignoring the smaller, unseen muscle groups that help tie everything together. By doing this you’ll risk developing an awful posture and injuries becoming more apparent over time. Let’s have a look at some of the smaller muscle groups you should be giving equal love to…
Rear Delts.
Of the three deltoid heads, the rear delts are without a doubt the most neglected, yet provide a great well-rounded look to your shoulders when they are worked. The rear delts provide the shoulders with stability for other exercises that you do, for example, bench press can suffer in terms of strength due to a lack of balance. Train them just as often as your shoulders, there’s more to life than lateral raises and shoulder press. Here’s a good cable exercise for them.
Lower-Traps.
The lower traps are another one of those little muscle groups that no one cares about until they’re injured. Training your lower traps will give you better mobility and stability of your scapulae, and it can also help with issues such as scapula winging. People will often just stick with shrugs, up and down for their traps but in order to hit your lower traps, add in exercises like cable Y-raises.
Calves.
Good old chicken legs can plague many people, especially guys. It’s simply a case of only working the muscle groups that we can see. The muscles of your calves can help keep your ankles strong, so with weak calves you are more prone to more ankle instability. The calves are also great for explosive sprinting or quick pivoting and change of direction, so weak calves will impact your performance. A good tip is to A) train them more often and B) train them at the START of your sessions to give them more attention. Add in exercises like this on the leg press, focusing on different tempos and rep ranges.
Rotator Cuffs.
One of the most injury prone areas that help to stabilize your shoulder joint. Mess these up and you’ll restrict your range of motion, making a lot of your overhead movements painful. Keep them strong by training them before your shoulder pressing movements. Exercises like this are great for warming them up.
Lower Back.
Most rowing and pulling exercises will have you working your upper back and traps for most of the time, but if there are no deadlifting or rack pulls programmed into your routine, you’re likely neglecting the important muscles that keep you upright. The erector spinae (lower back) are one of your core postural muscle groups, so weak spinal erectors can lead to poor posture and back pain. People will often train abs, but forget the lower back is part of your core too. Including some form of low back hyperextension into your routine will have a great carry over to the rest of your training.
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