Exercise to Help You Learn to “keep Your Shoulders Down” During Exercise
“Keep your shoulders down” is often used in the strength training world because it keeps your body and shoulders in a structurally stable position that allows you to lift large weights during movements such as deadlifts, bench presses, or even push-ups. This simple exercise will help you understand your shoulder better.
The signal usually refers to holding your shoulder blades back and down, as if you were driving them into the floor. It also lifts the chest and helps improve posture, but is not intuitive for everyone. In his blog post (and companion video), Harold Gibbons, a personal trainer based in New York City, shares a simple yet awesome exercise he calls “shoulder stretching and rolling.” This is a great way to help you get a feel for how your shoulders should move forward or even backward. He says:
Reach and rotation illuminates these shoulder blades, illuminating areas of the body that are often left in the dark. The scapula is an interesting bone whose movement is controlled by 17 muscles. Rather than focusing on the role of each of them, this exercise encourages us to understand how they work together. The benefit of this is that we learn to drive the shoulder blades up and to the sides. When this continues in a series of push-ups or deadlifts, we are better prepared to do this down and back motion.
Now that you’ve learned to curl your shoulders, he mentions that you don’t need to lock your shoulders in place like some kind of stiff dummy — only in the first place when you’re about to break your personal best in the gym. Watch the video above to see the shoulder-to-shoulder exercise.
It Will Make You Better: Shoulder Extension and Roll | Harold Gibbons