Bad posture due to incorrect weight lifting?

[PRPLE]

I just started heavy weight lifting in my arms and also dead lifting a few weeks ago. I just noticed that my back is looking different. It appears that my back is hunched over and my shoulder blade area sticks out a lot more than it used to. Is this due to bad posture while working out, or muscle gain in concentrated areas, or what? Is there anything I can do to fix this? Thanks!

[kbfunTH]

Hard to say, but I doubt it's from bad workout posture. More likely unbalanced muscle conditioning.

Be sure your back always stays flat and not rounded when you deadlift. You can bend at the waist as much as you like, just don't let the back round out. Guys that tend to do too much shoulder and chest pressing and don't balance it out with equal upper back training get a forward posture in the shoulders and upper back area.

Have a qualified person check you out from all angles to see how your posture is compared to muscle growth in the back area from the deads. Use duck and sumo stances on deads to target the legs more.

[Meg_S]

Is it your actual shoulder blades sticking out, or the muscles surrounding them? The blades sticking out is a weak serratus anterior which can be fixed with certain exercises.

Without a little more description I can't tell, but a lot of weightlifters neglect their back (esp rhomboids) in relation to their pecs and anterior delts.. when the front is stronger than the back the shoulders will hunch. If that's the case you need stretching of the front and strengthening of the back.
Do a search for "neanderthal no more" in google, there is a 2 part article series which is pretty good.

If your back is really hunching it's very bad - and not just for aesthetic reasons, you'll begin to get neck pain, headaches etc etc it opens a whole can of worms.

[kbfunTH]

Use duck and sumo stances on deads to target the legs more.

I forgot to add something to this.

Duck and sumo stances target the quads and hams more respectively as opposed to traditional deadlifts. Using a wide grip (snatch grip), you'll target the upper back muscles a little more. Pulling from a box will increase intensity due to added stretch because of a longer range of motion. Doing rack-pulls will reduce range of motion and work in the lower body and lower back muscles, therefore, allowing you to pull more tonage (weight) with the mid back, upper back and lats

[PRPLE]

Thanks for the responses...

"Use duck and sumo stances on deads to target the legs more."

I tried doing some sumo stance deadlifting and liked how much it worked my legs!! :thup:

After thinking about it, I think that the appearance of bad posture is due to unbalanced muscle conditioning. (But I have not been doing any pec or other fronal muscle targeted weight lifting). I had been doing a lot of arm lifts that work the muscles between my shoulder blades. I have noticed this type of thing happening with the way some swimmers are built.

I think that the combination of weight loss and muscle building has allowed me to see the structure of my back a lot more. My muscles are not that big, and my shoulder blades do not stick out that far, but I would like to improve my overall posture. Do you have any general tips about how to improve posture?

Thanks! :)

[PRPLE]

I just did a google search for "neanderthal no more" and found some good info about exercises etc. that can be done to improve posture.
Thanks for the tips! :wave: