Wall Slide – WTAF

So as I mentioned in an earlier post I’m doing workout 2 in the Nerd Fitness Academy. This is mostly pretty easy, or would have been a few years ago, but there is one exercise that I’d rather not be doing. Wall Slides – how the heck can raising your arms above your head a few times hurt so much, and why am I being made to life my arms above my head in the first place.

What are wall slides? I hear you asking.

So this is an exercise where you have to sit with your back to a wall, with as much of your bum, back and head (angled down to make a double chin) in contact with the wall then raise your arms above your head, keeping them in contact with the wall throughout the movement. The key is to not let you back arch away from the wall.

Here’s a video that will do it more justice.

When you google this exercise you will see examples of them being done standing, but that’s pretty hard in a cottage with low ceilings.

There you go, sit against a wall and raise your hands above your head, and let the agony begin.

So Why Should I do Them?

My Shoulder say “bloody good question”, but following a little research it appears they appear to be a wonder exercise.

To be clear these are a beginners exercise and many people people do move these to their warm-ups, and even though they are a pain they are move there because of their benefits.

Most people these days spend many hour of the day sat down, they move from a seated position in the office to a seated position in front of the telly scrolling through Facebook and this, as I’m sure you’ve been told a million times before, is not what the human body was built to do. Some of the negative affects of sitting from the NHS website:

“Sitting for long periods is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat.”

One of the other impacts of of sitting all day in front of a computer is a rounding of the shoulders and a hunched posture, neither of which is a look many would want. Shoulder neck and back pain can also be a result of prolonged sitting.

Wall Slides are a proven exercise that can help to correct these issues. Wall Slides improve shoulder mechanics and helps strengthen lower/mid traps which tend to be fairly weak in most of the population. They are recommended by numerous sites and professionals to improve posture and rid your of shoulder pain. In fact there are a number of sites that recommend doing them 2 to 3 times a day. I better stop complaining about having to do it once every 4 days in the Nerd Fitness Academy.

So there you go, if you’re not already doing them you should start as soon as possible, correct your poor posture and help prevent injury. There are lots of resource on the web with instructions on how to do them.

Good luck