Think Rows are fixing your posture? Think again.

Maybe you have noticed on the “quest” blog that I never do a chest exercise without doing a rhomboid exercise after. I do this because I have learned over time that protracting the shoulders increases risk for injury.

In fact many people I have spoken to incorporate reciprocal muscle groups when training. Somepeople, however, still think that the latisimus dorsi muscles are a good reciprocal muscle to train on chest days. They aren’t. Also, Rows can actually be harmful to your posture.

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Here’s why:

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The latisimus dorsi muscle(lats), originate at the illium; sacrum; spine and ribs(or the back of your hips to your rib cage in back) and inserts into the humerus(upper arm bone) on the front side. The lats pull the arm in at the shoulder; extend the arm at the shoulder; depress the shoulder blades; rotate the shoulder blades downward; adduct the shoulder blades AND; engaging the lats can actually internally rotate and posturally protract the shoulders.

 

 

Further, many people use too narrow a grip while training the lats, this enforces the internal arm rotation and makes the problem worse.

 

note: the forced internal arm rotation

 

 

THE SOLUTION?

 

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The muscle that is responsible for pulling the shoulders(scapula) back is the rhomboid.

“Right. What the feck is a rhomboid, again??”

Raoul Bhaneja

Rhomboid is a muscle between your spine and your shoulder blade. it helps to keep the shoulder blade pulled into the thorax and also retracts the shoulder blades.

 

train rhomboids instead of lats to correct posture.

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You  train the rhomboids in a similar way to training the lats. By using a modified row.

This specialized row features higher elbows in order to really be able to squeeze your shoulder blades together behind your back.

 

Don’t arch your back too much 

 

So, that’s it. I’d be happy to discuss any of the above with you. I just want to add that adding this exercise has really helped my bench strength.

Reciprocal Innervations: fun stuff!