Hey Friends!

Today we are going to be going over a quick lesson on some directional terminology that can be super helpful to know. (It also plays a role in the size of your glutes! More on that later...) In the science world, the body is said to be in “Anatomical Position” when it is standing face forward, arms down by the side and palms facing forward. This is very important because this gives anyone in the medical field a universal way to discuss the body and body parts with everyone knowing what they are referring to

Well, how does that apply to your posture and the size of your behind? Well, today we’re just going to take into account the front and back of this anatomical position. The front of your body is “anterior” and the back is “posterior”. In modern society, most things we do are in front of us. We typically work during the week for long periods of time on something in front of us such as a computer, writing, a client’s hair, a tattoo, machinery, a surgery, etc. Basically life makes us anterior chain dominant because we are always using our anterior chain muscles and always neglecting our posterior chain.

Now if you use muscles such as your pectoralis muscles and your hip flexors and quads and biceps all day long they are going to develop more and become tighter by nature. Consequently your glutes and rhomboids and lats are going to weaken and become overstretched. So when training it's really important that we focus on posterior chain strengthening and anterior chain opening. Things like rolling your pecs with a lacrosse ball can be a great way to open your pec muscles throughout the day. Doing exercises to target your glutes such as hip thrusts, RDLs, and lateral band walks are great to build strength but also to help open up your quads and hip flexors.

So now that you know the different chains, there is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind when creating your workouts Try implementing a 2:1 ratio of posterior to anterior chain muscle training So if you are going to do a chest workout such as a push up or bench press, offset that with any two back workouts. The can be in any order, the idea is just to balance out the already large anterior chain dominance we get from our lifestyles in the gym.