So if you’ve read or watched any of my videos on pain and injury prevention, you’ve probably heard me talk about how we spend way too much time in flexion. We spend way to much time rounded and hunched over. We spend long hours seated at a desk, in a car, watching TV with our hips, elbows, spine, knees, wrists…even our fingers…bent in flexion.

Even if you don’t have a desk job, you’re probably spending way too much time hunched over driving in your car, watching TV or texting on your phone.

We can’t seem to avoid it even though we all know that the constant forward flexion is bad.

And on top of the fact that our daily lifestyle puts us in flexion, we often do more exercises that involve working the muscles that are already tight and overactive from our daily posture.

What does all of this mean?

It means we’re at higher risk for injury!

And it means we’ve got to make sure our workouts include exercises to open us up and reverse the effects of sitting.

That is why working your posterior chain, aka your backside, is so important. You’ve got to make sure to work your glutes and back especially to reverse the constant forward flexion.

When we sit in flexion, our chest, upper traps and lats can get tight. This can mean the smaller muscles of our upper bodies try to carry loads they can’t handle. It can also mean limited shoulder mobility, which can lead to neck, shoulder, elbow and even wrist injury because we tend to compensate.

The constant hip flexion can also cause problems, making our hips tight, glutes underactive and cause our low back to try to engage and work when it shouldn’t!

Our bodies take the path of least resistance.

That means we end up performing exercises and movements, but not in the way they should be performed EVEN if the movement looks correct on first observation. (Actually often the more athletic a person is, the more they can hide compensations while still not using the correct muscles, which is a recipe for injury!)

Again, what this constant forward flexion means is we’re more at risk for injury!

So you’ve got to work your backside. But unfortunately this isn’t always as lifting more for your back or butt. It isn’t as simple as doing more squats and lunges and single arm dumbbell rows.

Because often when we do these movements, we aren’t recruiting the correct muscles BECAUSE of the constant forward flexion and the imbalances and compensations that the flexion creates.

That is why your workout program HAS TO INCLUDE FOAM ROLLING, STRETCHING AND ACTIVATION. Not just the strength training moves we all know and love!

You’ve got to loosen tight muscles and restore proper mobility to your joints. You’ve got to make sure you build the mind-body connection and get the correct muscles working during movements.

This means you can’t just go through the motions. That you can’t just let yourself or your clients do a movement that “looks good.” You’ve got to make sure you FEEL the correct muscles working!

So ask yourself after you’ve done the foam rolling, stretching and activation, do you FEEL the correct muscles working!?!

You’ve got to work your posterior chain (aka your backside) to make sure you prevent compensations caused by tight and overactive muscles in your anterior chain.

Below are some of my favorite articles to open everything up and get your backside activated and working!

Get Your Posterior Chain Working!