RKC News - April 2015

Unfortunately, we spend most of our lives sitting, a civilization disease that plagues us. This is often accompanied by a non-upright posture of the upper body. The daily "work" done forward, whether at the computer or in the car, has made us "athletes" in this area since our school days. Our body adapts to its tasks! The question now is whether we want to give in to this "evolution" or resist it? Do we want to maintain a proud, upright posture even in advanced age, or do we want to look old much earlier? The trained "vulture posture" quickly changes our visual age for the worse.

Fortunately, we do not need years of therapy to fix this problem. The muscles between our shoulder blades are simply too weak. Through targeted training, we can regain our natural posture. The means to this end are the so-called "Batwings."

You take a pair of equally heavy kettlebells, placing them on either side of a bench. Then, you lie face down on the bench. You grab the kettlebells and pull them towards your chest. At the highest point, you squeeze the shoulder blades together for one second.

For the subsequent repetitions, you lower the kettlebells only about 15 cm. Here, we do not train in the full range of motion, as the Batwings resemble isometric exercises.

Four sets of five repetitions should be performed. If you are unsure whether the upper position is correct, simply position your thumbs at the armpits and squeeze the shoulder blades together.

The weight recommendation for men is 12 kg per kettlebell and for women 8 kg. While this may sound very light, it can become quite challenging.

As performance increases, both the weight and the duration of the contraction at the upper position can be increased.

It is important to focus on quality during execution and not to rush the training. With too much dynamism, the small muscles between our shoulder blades are simply bypassed and therefore cannot develop.

... that a chiropractor can potentially help you with mobility issues. Through chiropractic treatment, structural imbalances can be corrected. However, more than one session is usually necessary.