I am going to try and make this short so I can get an answer faster. If you want to read everything (pretty long), go here Posture Problem (pictures of me, where my tightness is, imbalance, etc) - JP Fitness Forums - Personal Training

I am going to post what I think is the most important.

- I'm 5'0, 21 years old, 105 pounds, I am athletic, and I play softball and sometimes Soccer. I can also run pretty fast.
- I play softball and I bat left handed, throw right handed; therefore, as you could see in the pictures, the sides of my body has an inbalance. One oblique is stronger than the other side and according to my pictures, you can see the slight lean to one side
- I used to be a stomach sleeper
- one hip is higher than the other (my right leg is longer than my left)
- I have tight shoulders (upper trapz, levator scap,Sternocleidomestoid muscles), hip flexors, hip abductors, glutes, hamstrings, right QL (probably from deadlifting and my right side getting more work than my left due to my right leg being longer than the left).
- when I squad or deadlift, my weight shifts a little more on my right leg.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4268/mybodybc8.jpg My body - front, back, sides, neck rotation, feet, legs (front/sides/back)
I really need help with my posture. Making my own weightraining routine in the past and used to be a stomach sleeper got me this way. As far as my big butt, it was from sitting at the computer a lot in the past I need help on how to fix this. My waste, butt, and also my obliques (sides). I am shifting over to one side a little when I am standing and also one hip is higher than the other too. Chiropractor can fix it, but it goes back to where it was a day later and chiropractors adjustments are only temporarly; therefore, I have to get the right weightraining routine and such to keep everything in alignment. and no I do not have scoliosis.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2503/sleepwq7.jpg my sleep position on my right side. (I need to put my right shoulder in a different position because it aches when I wake up in the morning. Also, the area above my hip abductors (I think glute medius or tfl) on my right side aches too. I had to sleep on my left side last night and my left side (left glute medius and left shoulder) both ached. So I know for sure my sleep position is wrong. What is the neutral non-compensatory position for sleeping? I started sleeping on my side last week when I found out about sleeping on stomach is bad.


I cannot afford going to any personal trainer, therapist, or CSCS. The gym won't be open at my school again until Spring semester and my parents don't want to pay for a gym membership, so I am limited in what I could do. My parents won't pay me to go to anything and it sucks. I don't have a job yet, but I am planning on getting one soon after I find out Jan 15th-16th at tryouts for softball if I make my JC team or not. My mom also says my posture is fine and everything and to stop worrying and reading all this stuff on the internet. My mom does not even exercise or workout and she smokes too. There is no way I am going to listen to her and mess myself up even more in my posture. I am lucky I am even seeing a chiropractor (she wants me to go once a month now instead of every week or every 2 weeks) According to my pictures, my posture and muscle balance is not good. I have to do things for free online and get the best information that I can. I have not lifted weights in a while because I want to figure out what my problem is first and find the right exercises to do for the muscles.

I have bad posture to and it sucks i stick my chest out and bend my back and roll my shoulders back as much as i can So you just want to get your posture better ? Look up some posture stretches and do them every day and if you can convince your parents get them to take you to the doctor and see if he thinks that your posture can be inproved and isent normal and if he says nothings wrong then you will never bother them again...That always works with my parents

Def ditch the chiro, go see a physio - tell them your fininacial position so they can write up a plan for you to correct any imbalances yourself at home. Chiros in my opinion are a waste of money and wouldnt suit you anyway because they insist you in coming back and back...close to being a quack

Are you doing unilateral work? For the shoulder, your external rotation should be equal to your internal rotation. Try to touch your palms behind your back by having one arm go over your shoulder and the other going under. This will help gauge your imbalances. Now you know which one needs more internal/external rotation work, so you know you need to be doing more face pulls, inverted rows, etc.



From Eric Cressey's Newsletter 84 (a free newsletter if you sign up online):

By Mike Robertson:
TESTOSTERONE NATION - The Mobility-Stability Continuum

Defiantly my right side needs more flexibility! for the Behind Back Reach. (my bottom right arm). I can reach higher with my left than I can with my right up my back. In less than 10 seconds I can get my left finger tips to touch the finger tips of my top right hand. I also throw right handed. I have read a lot of Mike Robertson's and Cressey's articles and they are helping me make a weightraining routine (not doing the same exercise for a movement each session and let your body keep guessing (ex. bench press on mon and then push up on wed, incline bench press on fri) and put different exercises as the first exercise each time and also to row right after benching, etc.). I need to do more external rotation work and I am planning on doing it. I have also split my workout into an upper body workout 2 days a week, lower body workout 2 days a week, and shoulder work 1 day a week and also adding core exercises from robertson's core article throughout the weak following what Mike said in his article, and also external rotation exercises from another one of his articles 2 days a week. I defiantly need more external rotation work

By the way - what should I do about my tight upper trapz? and what are the reasons why upper trapz get tight? Is it because lower trapz is weaker?

I'm not sure you need to be doing more external rotation, to be honest. I don't know if I'm mixing it up because I can't find the exact article, but if you have difficulty reacing behind your back like you described, you need to pull more. Inverted rows, face pulls, etc.

For your unbalanced legs, I would do more unilateral work. You should still squat and deadlift with both legs, but finish off with unilateral work as much as possible. Step ups, bulg squats, etc.

For your mobility issues you should stretch and foam roll. You might want to look into getting Magnificent Mobility by Cressey.

Your traps might be tight because your chest is tight (pull more). I don't know on that one.