If you're at all like me, you like your chest workouts. You probably like to hit the shoulders too. They're obviously important points if you're interested in building a good physique.
But if you focus on them too much and neglect the antagonistic muscle groups, you're going to have imbalances. Imbalances lead to disproportion in your physique or worse, pain and posture problems.
Even though my focus on back workouts has been greater this year I still have imbalances. In my case it's not so much about proportions, but it's more about posture and the pain that comes from poor posture.
My shoulders have been rounded forward for as long as I can remember (internal rotation).
Then I discovered face pulls.
I've been doing them at least every other workout for 2 weeks now and I already see a difference. I feel less neck pain from there being added stress on my neck from the rounded shoulders. My posture is gradually improving.
As a bonus, these hit the rear delts and rhomboids better than anything I've ever tried. And I've always done rear flies.
I could add more later. Make sure you do them for at least 4 sets, and use light, light weight. It's not about going heavy here. Remember, this also works the small rotator cuff muscles (the SITS) which are tiny in comparison to the large ones. This is a mobility exercise more than anything.
This video goes into more detail and shows how it's done:
But if you focus on them too much and neglect the antagonistic muscle groups, you're going to have imbalances. Imbalances lead to disproportion in your physique or worse, pain and posture problems.
Even though my focus on back workouts has been greater this year I still have imbalances. In my case it's not so much about proportions, but it's more about posture and the pain that comes from poor posture.
My shoulders have been rounded forward for as long as I can remember (internal rotation).
Then I discovered face pulls.
I've been doing them at least every other workout for 2 weeks now and I already see a difference. I feel less neck pain from there being added stress on my neck from the rounded shoulders. My posture is gradually improving.
As a bonus, these hit the rear delts and rhomboids better than anything I've ever tried. And I've always done rear flies.
I could add more later. Make sure you do them for at least 4 sets, and use light, light weight. It's not about going heavy here. Remember, this also works the small rotator cuff muscles (the SITS) which are tiny in comparison to the large ones. This is a mobility exercise more than anything.
This video goes into more detail and shows how it's done: