Sloped Shoulders

[PressesPeople]

So, my shoulders are sloped. For those of you that might question what that means: if you look at me from the front, they look pretty normal. But if you look at me from the side, they appear to come down and forward. I can force them to be relatively normal by constantly pulling them back, but doing this for a while now hasn't actually improved the tendency for them to want to come forward. I've tried to correct it with good posture and it hasn't changed the base problem. Also, both my parents have sloped shoulders so genetically I'm fighting uphill with this.

What I'm thinking is that I need to strengthen the antagonistic muscle groups so that they want to pull them back more so, without me actively having to do it.

I recently did a little research and I read about someone who said that doing deadlifts while pulling the shoulder blades together helped to fix the problem. This makes a lot of sense to me and it's something I had theorized myself before, but never tried. When I deadlift, I tend to let the kyphotic (upper) portion of my back only semi-straight in order to mimic having longer arms. Actually, more accurately, I keep it straight but I'm not actively pulling back with my shoulder blades.

Does anyone here think this is a good idea, or have experience with such an issue? This is mainly an aesthetic concern, although I do think it indicates an underlying imbalance in the muscle strength/tension of my anterior and posterior upper body.

The only issue I see with pulling my shoulder blades together while deadlifting is that it will increase my ROM with the movement. I'm thinking that maybe I could lift the bar up an equivalent height to compensate (using rubber squares, most likely). This way the ROM would stay the same. I hate altering lifts, though, so maybe I'll just accept a slight loss of strength in the deadlift in order to fix the issue.

My last thought is that maybe I could do an isolation movement, of sorts, by lying face-down on a bench with weight below me and pulling up with my shoulder blades only. This would allow my deadlift to remain unchanged but still strengthen the muscle group that's lacking.

Any thought or experiences would be helpful. Thanks!


Lifts are shitty right now because I'm getting back into lifting after a bit of a hiatus: I'll estimate 1RMs... Squat ~310, DL ~320, OHP ~150, Bench ~195

[Sven Draconian]

This is common, and potentially dangerous in terms of long term shoulder health. You are correct in that you need to strengthen your upper back/shoulders.

Deadlift, Cleans and Chins will all do that. There is no need to modify the movements, just do them.

[PressesPeople]

I feel like your analysis is an over-generalization. Not trying to be a dick, but I've been doing the movements for quite some time now and even at my best numbers, my shoulder sloping did not change.

We'll see, though. I've never actually gotten my 1RM deadlift above 330, maybe that's my problem.

[Sven Draconian]

I feel like your analysis is an over-generalization. Not trying to be a dick, but I've been doing the movements for quite some time now and even at my best numbers, my shoulder sloping did not change.

We'll see, though. I've never actually gotten my 1RM deadlift above 330, maybe that's my problem.

It is. You also did not mention what you clean.

[PressesPeople]

I'm not going power cleans right now. I tend to want to get the 4 main lifts up first before I delve into things like the power clean that plateau so quickly. Back when I did them, my best was I think about 170 at 155 bw.

Getting my cleans up also did not help the problem. Part of that, and also maybe the reason I sucked at them, was because I could not get the "shrug" aspect down.

[Mr. Galaxy]

Face pulls, build up your rear delts.

[John Bono]

Try mixing in some front squats. I was absolutely shocked how sore my upper back was when I did them, especially when the weight was very light compared to my LB and HB squat numbers.

[PaulBeech]

My shoulders are like this too. I blame years and years of being a mosher and dirt bag skater. I've done every row/pull possible and it hasn't changed. I need to just not be a lazy fuck and stand up straight.

[PressesPeople]

I think I'm just going to start shrugging my deadlifts at the top of every rep. Couldn't hurt, and that way it won't affect how much I lift.

[DCM]

I have this problem, but only with my right shoulder. One of the biggest worries for me is the asymmetrical loading this causes, especially when squatting. I've been given all sorts of stretching exercises to do in the past, and had massages for it, but it hasn't really made a difference. I'm currently building up my chinning strength, and hope this will at least help somewhat.