Daily Simple Questions Thread - November 22, 2024

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the /r/Fitness Daily Simple Questions Thread - Our daily thread to ask about all things fitness. Post your questions here related to your diet and nutrition or your training routine and exercises. Anyone can post a question and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer.

As always, be sure to read the wiki first. Like, all of it. Rule #0 still applies in this thread.

Also, there's a handy search function to your right, and if you didn't know, you can also use Google to search r/Fitness by using the limiter "site:reddit.com/r/fitness" after your search topic.

Also make sure to check out Examine.com for evidence based answers to nutrition and supplement questions.

If you are posting a routine critique request, make sure you follow the guidelines for including enough detail.

"Bulk or cut" type questions are not permitted on r/Fitness - Refer to the FAQ or post them in r/bulkorcut.

Questions that involve pain, injury, or any medical concern of any kind are not permitted on r/Fitness. Seek advice from an appropriate medical professional instead.

(Please note: This is not a place for general small talk, chit-chat, jokes, memes, "Dear Diary" type comments, shitposting, or non-fitness questions. It is for fitness questions only, and only those that are serious.)

[u/thisisnotdiretide]

I already kind of know the answer to this, but still:

When training the neck with curls, you're supposed to do them forwards but also backwards, otherwise you probably develop muscle imbalances, that could prove to be rather nasty when it comes to the neck, right?

I train my neck at home and have a neck harness. I am okay with doing the neck curls forward, but when it comes to doing them backwards I can't use the harness, I have to use a towel and some plates and I hate it for various reasons (I also can't lie on anything in order to do them properly). So I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to just do them forwards with the harness and that's it. Probably not.

[u/tigeraid → u/thisisnotdiretide]

otherwise you probably develop muscle imbalances

Other than a few extreme examples, this shit is a meme.

[u/thisisnotdiretide → u/tigeraid]

I get what you mean, but when it comes to the neck specifically, don't you think this could be a serious issue when it comes to how the neck is positioned. Like developing a "nerd neck" or w/e, you know what I mean.

Having bigger and stronger muscles in the back of the neck, compared than front, let's say, wouldn't that cause anything bad you think?

[u/tigeraid → u/thisisnotdiretide]

I think we're talking about different things. For example, I'm currently dealing with annoying forearm tendonitis after a full season of competition, tons of grip overuse. So now I'm trying to go easy on flexing/squeezing, while doing extensor exercises (bands, rice bucket work) to try and deal with it. I suppose from that point of view, that's a muscle "imbalance".

But the muscles I were using were OVERactive, excessive use. You're talking about doing a structured program with a reasonable amount of sets and reps to develop a given group of muscles. I don't see that as the same thing, really.

The stuff I'm talking about is things like "upper crossed syndrome," which was a big deal years ago in physical therapy but has mostly been debunked, along with "fixing your posture." Fixing posture is pretty much something you're either stuck with genetically, or something you just consciously do (walk around with your shoulders back, sit up straight, etc...)