Exercise to combat round shoulders

BossArky

I have been going to the gym for approx the past 5 years, doing the usual mix of cardio and weights to keep in shape.

A few weeks ago, a personal trainer in my local gym told me that years of too much bench pressing was causing my shoulders to be pulled forward.

The personal trainer suggested working on my trap muscles to pull my shoulders back a bit.

What exercises would you recommend to work the traps and combat the above?

I have tried upright rows i.e. lifting 15kg bar up to chin and down again. Is this the best exercise for traps?

I also tried leaning forward at approx 45 degrees and bringing weights back behind my back (reverse fly?)... but this seems to cause my shoulders to make some serious cracking noises.

Any advice appreciated.

Degsy

Try shrugs either with barbells or dumbells using strict form.Cleans and presses are also good for traps as are seated rows.

Arsenal1986

Heavy Deadlifts hit the Traps quite well too. You might also want to try do some rear delt work as the Bench Press only works your front deltoids and can lead to muscle imbalances and injury in your shoulders.

Jak

Seated Cable Rows - Don't arch or lean forward or back - just keep your back straight and lift at a manageable weight.

Other than this and generally keeping a balanced focus on your training (i.e. don't neglect back) you should try to include some decent stretching holds in between sets to keep the shoulders, back and chest area 'mobile'.

I have always found that the latter point helps me - a decent deep tissue massage every now and again is also well worth it.

JAK.

Transform

If your shoulders are rounded you need to work on your posture and focus on rowing exercises as Jak has suggested. Also adding rotator cuff work to your program will help

HammerHeadGym

Hey op,
I had this myself when i started out.
try some bent over rows. Two fairly light sets to warm up then 3 work sets. Go heavy enough that you can feel it but not so heavy that you have to do one of those total body workouts that make you look like your having a seizure.

Aim for three seconds up, hold for two seconds, three seconds down. Don't neglet the static contraction at the top. And don't let your legs take the weight of the bar. Keep your ass sticking out, back arched and look up.
Well worth it man.

If that's not to your taste try anything that pulls the shoulders back rather than up. (obviously i don't know the prcise details of your condition but i'm assuming it's the same thing most guys get when they start off)

Also, what Jak said.

BossArky

Thanks for the info folks. I will put the advice into practice over the next weeks and months. Cheers.

Aedh Baclamh

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but what exactly are round shoulders?

HammerHeadGym

Hey Aedh,
It's not actually rounded shoulders as such. The shoulders become overdeloped by too much use. This is because the superior deltoid (front shoulder) usually get trained twice as much as the posterior deltoid (rear deltoid). The overtraining results from training compounds, such as chest and flies and so on and then they get another workout, in isolation on shoulder day. It's actually quite common and quite easily corrected.

Hope this helps

Frederick

Try seated rows, except concentrate on just moving the shoulders up, back and down, keeping your arms straight at all times. Great isolation excercise for the posterior (rear) deltoids.

also do loads of stretching with a broomstick, bring the stick over your head, lock out the arms at each end, like an overhead squat, and keeping the arms straight, move the stick to eye level, then back over your head and as far back as you can....keep repeating 50-100 times, this loosens up the pecs no end. it hurts aswell, but its worth it. Eventually after a couple of weeks you should be able to move the stick all the way behind you without losing your grip. Flexibility is all it is at the end of the day.

rear deltoid dumbbells. - Sit at the edge of a bench, both feet together far enoguh away from the bench to touch dumbbells beneath your quads. keep the back straight and lean forward until ur stomach is nearly on your quads. keep the dumbbells close to your body and shrug your shoulders back and down. Your arms shouldnt be working at all....

The main thing is to stretch, interlock your fingers, pull your arms out in front of you, and then behind you, everywhich way u can....

Did I mention stretching?

I had this problem, solved it with the above

Hope that all made a bit of sense!

coach

as a personal trainer i posed this question last year to a physio. He recommended doing pec major stretches. Wide grip pulldowns, low pulley row and delt work like upright rows. To test if you HAVE rounded shoulders, try touching your hands behind your back, one over the shoulder and the opposite from the hip upwards. if you can touch or are very close to touching both hands, then your problem is not that bad. No chest work for about four weeks to correct the imbalance. let us know how you get on. thnx

BossArky

coach wrote:

as a personal trainer i posed this question last year to a physio. He recommended doing pec major stretches. Wide grip pulldowns, low pulley row and delt work like upright rows. To test if you HAVE rounded shoulders, try touching your hands behind your back, one over the shoulder and the opposite from the hip upwards. if you can touch or are very close to touching both hands, then your problem is not that bad. No chest work for about four weeks to correct the imbalance. let us know how you get on. thnx

Coach, based upon that advice I am fine. I tried touching my hands as described above - I can get my right middle finger tips to about the base of my left middle finger (it is awkard to do that in the office right now )

Since I posted this thread originally a month ago I have laid off the flat bench, and concentrated on the wide grip pull downs and reverse flys, plus shrugs and low pulley.

Other exercises include military presses, lateral and front raises (every now and again) and the odd set of include dumb bell bench about once a week.

On top of that I have been doing a 5km run twice a week.

I think my round shoulder fears came from spending about 5 months on my last job hunched over a pc for about 12 hours a day. Now that I have increased my workout frequency (and actually have time to work out).. my shoulders are looking grand.

I was previously neglecting to work out my back and traps... now I have incorporated exercises for those and things are looking ok.

Cheers for the advice.

slicus ricus

This happened to me a while back as well. Essentially, the front of your body is over-developed in comparison to the back of your body, or depending on what way, you look at it, your back is underdeveloped.

Doing a quality back session every week is extremely important. As your lats, your rear deltoids, and your traps become more developed through doing so, you should notice that your shoulders will push back and your chest will look more spread out and generally bigger. Essentially, you will notice that your upper body will look broader.

I wouldnt stop doing chest exercises though - your gains on the more developed area (your chest and front deltoids) will be incremental in comparison to the gains on your less developed areas (lats, rear deltoids, and traps), which should be noticeable fairly quickly if you do the right exercises. I would recommend going to a personal trainer to learn the appropriate exercises and correct form for those underdeveloped areas.

BossArky

Just to update this thread 3.5 months on...

Great advice above. Have incorporated pull ups, various rows, deadlifts, broom stretches into my sessions for the past months, plus standard rowing warm up. Back and shoulders have never felt & looked better. Cheers for the advice.

King of Kings

slicus ricus wrote:

Doing a quality back session every week is extremely important. As your lats, your rear deltoids, and your traps become more developed through doing so, you should notice that your shoulders will push back and your chest will look more spread out and generally bigger. Essentially, you will notice that your upper body will look broader.

that's me....but I still can't do the hands exercise mentioned above. I always ensure my back is done as often as my chest.

mm