PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT.

Happy New Year, this is the first King Strength & Performance blog of 2019. I actually meant to post this earlier but, I got kind of busy. Anyways, here it goes:
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Most training programs or gym workouts will have an abundance of pushing movements; honestly, what person doesn't love a good chest day? I admit, I fell under this category. From my experience in fitness, I have observed that most individuals typically begin their fitness journeys on a body part split aka the "Bro Split". A body part split almost always has a bias towards pushing movements. If you're on a body part split routine, you have chest day, shoulder day and arm day, and you're likely hitting your triceps two to three times per week. Your back only gets love once per week on back day.

Pushing = Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Pulling = Back, Biceps, Forearms

There is often a huge discrepancy between the volume of push and pull movements performed in an individual's training program. If you are on a body part split program like the previously mentioned you are probably hitting a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio of pulling vs pushing, which honestly is kind of trash.

When programming exercises for my personal training clients or even for group classes I typically try and utilize a 2:1 or even 3:1 ratios of pulling and pushing movements. With the increase in pulling movements, there is also another ratio we have to consider. This one is for Horizontal Pulling (Row Variations) vs Vertical Pulling (Pull-Up Variations). Our consideration with these should be to strive for similar ratios a 2:1 or even 3:1 ratio in favor of horizontal pulling.

So now you're probably wondering why I think pulling movements are important? Hah, I will explain 2 key reasons why and they are actually kind of interlinked. 

1. Most people have terrible posture. We are a sedentary society, most of us have office jobs, we sit way too long each day, we stare at our phones excessively and the majority of our day to day work is in a forward posture.

2. Due to our terrible postures, people often have poor shoulder health. Postural issues often lead to dysfunction with shoulder movement and will reduce movement efficiency at the joint, potentially leading to problems further down the line if not addressed.

Addressing more pulling movements in an individual's training program can help reduce the issues mentioned above, improve posture and shoulder health and will reduce the risk of injury in the long term.

If you have ADHD like me or want a condensed version of what I just wrote above here are the key points to take away:
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1. Strive for at least 2x, (3x would be better) as much pulling volume rather than pushing per week.

2. The back can handle higher training frequency so it can be trained multiple days.

3. Easy way to increase your back volume is to include more Row variations.