Evolutionary, due to the natural, lordotic curvature of our spine and nutation of our sacrum, we as humans are predisposed to shift our centre of mass forwards towards our toes.
As we push our centre of mass more forward, the more we lock-up at the joints, diminishing movement options and mobility.
The vast majority of people go into the gym without any form of assessment from a biomechanics/movement specialist and just accelerate these reductions in ranges of motion. For context, exercises like forward lunges, overhead presses, barbell back squats are all exercises that are going to shove our centre of mass forwards, QUICKLY.
99.9% of people are solely loading themselves with weights and performing movements that they do not have the prerequisites for.
Unfortunately, the industry still struggles to see beyond this 100%, muscle-focused, approach where exercises are simply selected based on what muscle is being ‘worked’ or ‘strengthened’. It really needs to be better!
It is absolutely paramount that we are improving strength, movement and mobility altogether. If completed optimally, resistance or strength training should be the ultimate mobility workout.
We can select a ‘back exercise’ like a ‘row variation’ to specifically expand areas of the ribcage to help clear-up shoulder pain whilst getting a great strength workout in.
When it comes to pain (of course multidimensional), people tend to have a centre of mass that is very far forward (‘toe-off’), and are struggling to produce internal rotation at the joints.
Relative motion around the body has been lost and certain muscles are more squeezed or concentric.
Intelligently, we initially need to utilise exercises to get areas of the body to yield, relax and absorb as we bring the centre of mass back – restoring relative motion up and down the body.