PORTLAND, Maine — The Form Lab, a Portland-based gym, focuses on movements people can incorporate into their daily lives to help make them healthier and stronger.
The gym officially opened its doors in March. Since then, trainers have been teaching clients how to improve the way they move their bodies. The goal is to incorporate those movements into everyday life to help get the most out of each workout and minimize long-term aches and pains.
This week, the focus is on strengthening our shoulder muscles. More specifically, the muscles that are located in the back of our shoulders.
"We are going to focus on the side that no one tends to use in their daily lives. We're going to be focusing more on the rear-delts and lateral heads," Andrew Blais said.
Blais is the co-founder of The Form Lab.
"The front-delts tend to get a lot of use in our daily movements," Blais continued. "[They're used when] picking up children, kind of doing things out in front of us at our desks. We're constantly putting tension into the front of the delts and we're forgetting about the backside. The back side's very underutilized."
Blais suggests warming up before performing your actual workout. He said it's important to stretch the muscles around your rotator cuff to avoid any injury. Stretches include an external rotation and involve using an exercise band with the resistance moving away from you. Tips include dropping your shoulders back and pinning your elbow to your side.
To see a full demonstration and to learn more tips, check out the full video with Andrew Blais.
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