Shoulders

Using the word “eccentric” might sound like I’m about to write about muscles behaving in weird ways that are different from usual muscle behavior! But what I’m referring to, eccentric muscle contraction, is often pronounced ee-sen-trik, not ek-sen-trik. How muscles contract Eccentric muscle contraction is the reverse of the concentric contraction that we typically associate with muscle training. For example, the dumbbell curl that makespops up the bicep prominent as you lift the weight towards your shoulder is a concentric contraction. The muscle contracts and shortens. But lowering the dumbbell back down again, which requires the muscle to lengthen, also takes

If you are fortunate and have photographs going back three, four, or even more generations, you likely possess a compelling tool for posture improvement. How and why exactly are these images so useful?

Abraham Lincoln with his youngest son, Tad, 1864. Wikipedia

The invention of photography allows us to look back in time as far as the 1840s. It is rare to possess family photographs going this far back, both because heirlooms tend to get lost over time, and because fewer photographs were taken then due to the cost of the elaborate processes in those times. But many of us have portraits of our great grandparents’ generation—whose posture is usually much healthier than what we see today. 

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