Have you ever been told that you’re overworking certain muscles? Have you ever been told that certain muscles are too tight? I’d like to talk about the mirror muscles.
The mirror muscles are the muscles that we can see in the mirror: the chest, the six pack, the claws. Those are the muscles that I find with my clients who come to my studio with back pain and shoulder pain and hip pain and neck pain.
The common theme is that everyone is overdeveloped and tight in the front of their body. In particular, the pectoralis minor which sits underneath the pectoralis major, the hip flexors, this six pack, the rectus abdominis and the quadriceps muscles.
They pull the muscle, the body forward with sitting. With our new technology, we’re always texting, driving, and then what do we do? We go to the gym and we work those same muscles that are already overworked, that are already tight.
We’re doing bench presses. We’re doing crunches and planks. We’re strengthening all the wrong muscles.
I have a very simple philosophy at CORE. We release what’s tight. We release the mirror muscles. We strengthen the muscles in the back that are typically weak.
If we create that better balance, we can then strengthen some of the muscles in the front of the body. But we need a better balance, a better coordination of what’s to tighten the front relaxing and what’s to weaken the bag getting stronger.
So lock short and tight in the front lines long and weak in the bag. With that said, if you have any questions about any of this, reach out to 512-215-4227. We offer many ways to get into our world.
We offer free phone consults. We offer free in-house consults with a physical therapist, called a discovery session:
https://therapyandpilates.com/free-discovery-session/
We offer free in-house taster sessions with our Pilates, or Gyrotonic instructor:
https://therapyandpilates.com/pilates-free-taster/
Reach out with more questions. Tell us your story. We’d love to be able to help you more so that you can learn to not overwork the mirror muscles and work the proper muscles.
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