​Hanging is a very important movement pattern for us as humans. Our shoulders are designed to move in many different directions, they are a very mobile joint, yet, most of the time in our everyday life, they are down at our sides. And we are surprised when they become injured when we start to push heavy things over our heads, like shoulder presses and picking up our children and bringing them up to our hip or something; yet most of us haven't been doing these movements and now we think we can with 10-15 pound weights!
And unfortunately, what happens is for many of us, once we hurt ourselves, we think it's the workout that we've done, or we start to question that we've pushed ourselves too hard. But really, it's not the workout design, that's usually the problem, the problem is more about the lack of movement in your own body. So if you are not moving your arms over your head, often, then please don't go out and start lifting heavy weights over your head. It's just it's they're not ready for it.
Instead take some time to prepare yourself.
One way you can do this, is by putting yourself into a position where your arms are over your head and load that position. You can do this by practicing hanging from a bar. We have a pull up bar in our house, and we use it for our children and for ourselves. And I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't do one single pull up, my upper body strength is not there. So what I use it for instead is just for hanging from, it helps to open up my shoulders, it helps to kind of reset my positioning from being in that rounded forward posture most of the day.
It helps to reset everything, it opens up the shoulder complex, and stretches the muscles in our chest. This is truly one of the best things that you can do for your shoulders. If you deal with impingement, if you deal with mid back rounded shoulder or you've got this forward head posture, that's another thing that just getting into that hanging position can help.
So either grab the kids and head to a park or buy a pull up bar through Amazon and begin using it now. Also make sure your kids are practicing it, as most of them will be able to hold themselves up from a young age, and the adage is true, if you don't use it you lose it. So give them an opportunity to be one up in life by starting them out early with this.
And unfortunately, what happens is for many of us, once we hurt ourselves, we think it's the workout that we've done, or we start to question that we've pushed ourselves too hard. But really, it's not the workout design, that's usually the problem, the problem is more about the lack of movement in your own body. So if you are not moving your arms over your head, often, then please don't go out and start lifting heavy weights over your head. It's just it's they're not ready for it.
Instead take some time to prepare yourself.
One way you can do this, is by putting yourself into a position where your arms are over your head and load that position. You can do this by practicing hanging from a bar. We have a pull up bar in our house, and we use it for our children and for ourselves. And I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't do one single pull up, my upper body strength is not there. So what I use it for instead is just for hanging from, it helps to open up my shoulders, it helps to kind of reset my positioning from being in that rounded forward posture most of the day.
It helps to reset everything, it opens up the shoulder complex, and stretches the muscles in our chest. This is truly one of the best things that you can do for your shoulders. If you deal with impingement, if you deal with mid back rounded shoulder or you've got this forward head posture, that's another thing that just getting into that hanging position can help.
So either grab the kids and head to a park or buy a pull up bar through Amazon and begin using it now. Also make sure your kids are practicing it, as most of them will be able to hold themselves up from a young age, and the adage is true, if you don't use it you lose it. So give them an opportunity to be one up in life by starting them out early with this.
If you are dealing with aches and pains from life as a mom than I would encourage you to grab my FREE E-book on the 3 steps to fix your posture along with 5 quick exercises you can do daily to help you start to feel better.
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