Proper Posture

The average American is fixated in a knuckle's forward position. This means there chest is caved in, back rounded, and the hands are pronated so you can see there knuckles. This causes so many problems in a person's ability to sprint, bench, and life a healthy lifestyle. That’s why there are so many people with lower back problems and chiropractors are making a boat load of money.

If you have ever seen a player sprint and their hands are flailing side to side instead of back and forth. This is do to many years of benching without retracting their shoulders, hanging out on the computer, texting on the phone and slouching in class. This side to side motion is a horrible way to sprint and will kill any chance of running a fast 40 yard dash. If you can't run fast then you can't be in the NFL. By just improving a player’s posture it can take tenths of a second off their time.


How to improve the player’s posture relies heavily on the player and not so much with the coach. You can do what you can with the limited time you have with the player, but the real improvements come when he is on his own. At the gym you can have him work on a lot of scapular retraction movements and stretching out the pec with static movements. A great exercise is to have your athlete’s deadlift with their hands in a supinated grip, which means their palms are facing away from their body. Deadlift with light weight and really retract at the top position and hold for about three seconds.

This and many others are great exercises for you athlete to improve posture, but like I said an athlete has to work hard on his own to alleviate the problem. Everywhere he goes he should be sticking his chest out and trying to retract his shoulder blades. He also needs to be sitting up in class and retracting his shoulder blades. Try these out with your guys and see their forty times improve.