30 days to become a scholar-warrior day 2, Train your Posterior Chain Muscles
First off, this doesn’t just mean training your butt, you crazy pervert!
And what’s wrong with training your butt?
Do you care about athleticism?
Do you care about explosiveness?
Stability?
Power?
Strength?
Do you even lift?
Many of us get caught up with training the push muscles, even if we’re not training for pure aesthetics. The muscles on the anterior chain (front side of our bodies) get a lot of credit for doing the work. Yet they’d be nothing without their trusty antagonists, the posterior chain.
Its from the posterior chain that we (using the stretch reflex) utilize a lot of power (from the squat to the vertical jump; hello hamstrings!). In fact, its through strengthening our posterior chain that we allow our ‘show’ muscles to shine that much brighter!
There’s a timeless saying in the world of strength sports: Show me good back development and I’ll tell you if you’re strong! But when we talk about strengthening the posterior chain its not just the glutes/hams/ or back. Its including the calves as well as the neck muscles.
How many people do you see with poor posture? Now many of these things are more nuanced then just simply getting a strong backside. However, getting your posterior chain stronger will help in longevity and power and strength in the long run of training.
Muscle imbalances suck, especially when they are responsible for poor performance (whatever you measure that by).
Paul carter as a great article on training the posterior chain. Learn from it and grow!
Take hold of your training and build a foundation with a strong posterior.
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