Best exercise for relaxed shoulder girdle

[cfreetenor]

Rear delt work seems to help. But I have a definite athletic muscular tendency for my traps to pull my shoulders too high. Everyone tells me to relax my shoulders in Muay Thai, different gyms.

Anything substantial to help with this? I sense triceps push downs are insufficient from a postural standpoint, and I hate face pulls. Is it a weak chest? Decline bench maybe? Either way my physique looks a lot better when I keep my shoulders back and down, and I feel a lot better too. I’d appreciate anything I can do with high intensity to accelerate my posture correction.

 

[LeoTC]

Work your rhomboids. Best way I've found to hit them directly is as follows -

Lay face down on a bench. Use light dumbbells no more than 15lbs.

Starting from the floor, hold the DB's with a palm inward grip. Slowly raise them by retracting your shoulder blades. Move slowly and really squeeze at the top of the movement.

Three sets of 10-15 reps.

You can also shrug your shoulders and then roll them back and down, retracting your shoulder blades. This is NOT a weighted movement, just do it throughout the day.

Other than that, rehab like you would an anterior delt / pectoral imbalance. You'll generally want to do more rowing in a horizontal plane, stretch your traps throughout the day, and avoid keeping a forward head posture.