Train Pull Ups and Fix Your Posture

3-steps to training hard while making your joints and posture BETTER, not worse: https://jakewilliamsfit.com/move/ Head to https://skool.com/ssc for my complete training programs and everything to do with injury-prevention, nutrition, muscle, and getting incredibly strong. Say hey to me there in the Community! Pull ups and good posture aren’t as clean of a relationship as they might look. The good news is that strength training can improve mobility, flexibility, and posture when you make sure you’re covering your ranges and muscle groups appropriately. Muscular use and overuse, posture, tightness, and weakness are complex in their interactions which makes research in this area difficult to conduct, not to mention incredibly under-funded when there simply isn’t much money to make from investigating these relationships. Despite this, there’s still some cool studies around demonstrating some of the patterns and associations that clinicians have been assessing and treating for decades (if not centuries) when it comes to dysfunctional muscle tone, associated postural change, pain, and range of motion: Sustained repetitive activities are associated with changes in muscle tone and activation patterns: 1. Treaster et al. (2006). Myofascial trigger point development from visual and postural stressors during computer work. 2. Fernández-de-las-Peñas et al. (2006). Trigger points in the suboccipital muscles and forward head posture in tension-type headache. 3. Kocur et al. (2019). Female Office Workers With Moderate Neck Pain Have Increased Anterior Positioning of the Cervical Spine and Stiffness of Upper Trapezius Myofascial Tissue in Sitting Posture. 4. Kett, Sichting & Milani (2021). The Effect of Sitting Posture and Postural Activity on Low Back Muscle Stiffness. 5. Suzuki et al. (2025). Relationship between the degree of forward head posture and the shear elastic modulus of the upper trapezius in young men, and the difference in these variables between those with and without neck/shoulder pain and/or stiffness. Bodybuilders and athletes experience selective tightening and reduced range of motion in certain muscles and directions (and relative upper back weakness in the lower trapezius in the Barlow study): 1. Barlow et al. (2002). Shoulder strength and range-of-motion characteristics in bodybuilders. 2. Kolber et al. (2009). Shoulder joint and muscle characteristics in the recreational weight training population. 3. Tate et al. (2020). Changes in clinical measures and tissue adaptations in collegiate swimmers across a competitive season. 4. Yamaura et al. (2021). Sequential Changes in Posterior Shoulder Muscle Elasticity After Throwing as Assessed via Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography. *Human studies: trigger points change activation and movement control:* 1. Ibarra et al. (2011). Latent myofascial trigger points are associated with an increased antagonistic muscle activity during agonist muscle contraction. 2. Lucas, Rich & Polus (2010). Muscle activation patterns in the scapular positioning muscles during loaded scapular plane elevation: the effects of Latent Myofascial Trigger Points. *Mechanisms for the development of increased tone/myofascial trigger points with repetitive use:* 1. Bron & Dommerholt (2012). Etiology of Myofascial Trigger Points. *Current Pain and Headache Reports*, 16(5), 439–444.