What are some of the most important muscles you’re likely neglecting? Hint: they’re usually muscles you can’t see right away when you look in the mirror!
In the gym world, it’s very common to prioritize the most visible muscles – usually those in the chest and the arms.
In fact, some people train certain muscles so much that they actually alter their posture or develop imbalances that cause pain. An extremely example is someone who does bench press every single day but can’t raise their arms overhead without shoulder pain.
If you’re interested in general fitness, overall health, weight loss, body fat reductions, and improve function, it’s best to train your entire body. Here are a few muscle groups people often neglect and why you should train them.
Your Back
When you look in the mirror, your arms and chest are prominent. But the muscles on the back of your upper body shouldn’t be neglected. They include the lats, rhomboids, and traps along with many other smaller muscles (like the 4 important ones which make up your rotator cuff).
These muscles do all the important work: for example, they’re involved in pulling movements. If you needed to hold back a dog from traffic, you’d use your back muscles. They’d do a lot of work if you took a box out of the trunk of your car, too.
The muscles of your back also balance out the muscles on the front of your body. Come with me down this thought experiment: imagine you chest muscles were huge and you never trained all the important muscles of your back. Then, imagine you sat hunched over your computer all day at work plus your phone with that darn social media. Can you imagine what might happen to your posture?!
By training your back with pull ups, lat pull downs, rowing, deadlifts, shoulder stabilizer specific movements, and other back exercises, you’ll develop strong muscles to balance out those that you see when you look in the mirror.
Your Core
When people think of “core muscles,” they often think of rippling abs. And those are indeed part of your core. But there are more core muscles including your back, your obliques, and your hips [and then some]!
Your core muscles are essentially in transferring force. Imagine trying to pick up a heavy bag of groceries. To do so, the force from your legs has to reach the handles in your hand and then go through your core. The stronger your core is, the more force will be transferred.
Core muscles also protect your spine: they hold their position to ensure the spine doesn’t move under load, which could cause injury. These muscles are also essential for bending, flexing, and extending movements. Think of those “posture” muscles agian.
By training your entire core – not just your “beach muscles” – you’ll be more powerful, you’ll have better posture, and you’ll be less likely to injure yourself.
Your Glutes
While some people focus on strong, shapely glutes. Many of us just sit on these very important muscles.
Strong glutes help you walk and run better and they keep your pelvis in more favorable alignment. They’re also essential for lifting, and they’ll serve you very well in any sport. For example: hockey players often have strong glutes that help them make fast, powerful strides on the ice.
Just like the other muscles I mentioned above, strong glutes can improve your posture and reduce the likelihood of injury or pain, too.
Plus, you can properly fill out the back of a pair of jeans and who doesn’t want that?
We Can Help!
How do you properly train these muscles to get all the benefits listed above? Work with a coach who can put together a full-body training program which is designed to help you accomplish your exact goals.
We’d like to talk to you about a training plan. Book your free No Sweat Intro today!
