You DON’T have to become weaker as you get older

We have probably all been told at some stage ‘wait until you get to my age’ as if it is inevitable that you will develop weaker joints and you won’t be able to function the same way once you reach some magical number. It’s simply not true. However, it is true that most adults suffer from some form of upper or lower-cross syndrome.

Upper-cross Syndrome (head leaning forward, rounding of the shoulders, stiff neck) is caused by an over-active trapezius and levator scapula, in conjunction with internally rounded shoulders which shortens and tightens the chest.

Lower-cross Syndrome (butt sticks out, knocked knees) is a by-product of a weak core and inactive glutes which results in an anterior pelvic tilt (standard Kim Kardashian pose).

These imbalances are usually caused by the conditions that we live in. Think about the amount of time you spend texting, sitting or reaching out for something on a shelf. We are in an internally rotated position for most of the day and if you spend a lot of time seated, your glutes have no reason to be active which causes your low back and hamstrings to be overly called upon to compensate for your inactive glutes. As the saying goes ‘if you don’t use it you lose it’.

Your body adapts to those conditions in much the same way your muscles get bigger and stronger when you lift weights. Extra connective tissue is produced (fascia) in order to help protect your body and allow you to operate in that poor posture, which will cause you further imbalances and increase the risk of injury.

There are ways for you to work on these imbalances and get back to neutral:

Myofascial release – use a yoga/tennis/lacrosse ball or foam roller to dig into the inactive soft muscle tissue and get them to fire up;

Stretch – re-align your posture (wall stretches for lats, pecs, biceps, thread the needle, 90-90s etc) giving yourself a lengthened range of motion;

Resistance – remember, stretching never fully fixes the problem. It gives you that window of trainability with a temporary lengthened range of motion. Take advantage of that and add some resistance (light bands/weights) to get stronger in this temporary range of motion.