186/365 Shoulders for Moving Stuff

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

As you may know, I have recently moved! I can feel it in my shoulders and trapezius muscles that I have.

The point of our muscles is to move our skeleton right? Well, when you lift things up, you should start off by using your legs to give you power. If you need to get the object above waist level, your legs aren't really going to cut it; you've got to use your shoulder and trapezius muscles! The trapezius is that giant kite shaped muscle you see in pictures at the gym. One of its major functions is to elevate the shoulder girdle, something you definitely do if you carry something up the stairs and you're on the bottom half.

An exercise to strengthen your trapezius is this:

1. Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Hold weights, palms facing you wherever your arms normally hang.
2. With your pelvis tucked in, pull the weights up along the front of your body until elbows are parallel to the ground.
3. Slowly return arms back down. Repeat.

Your shoulders will naturally come up when you do this but you don't need to go any farther than parallel to the ground.

Now, you can move from your house/apartment without fear that your shoulders will get sore!

In health,

Lauren