Back pain is no joke, it can affect how you sit and stand and in the end, your posture is the one at risk. Bad posture is the gateway to a lot of health problems but the primary one is the constant soreness you’ll experience along with a few ailments when you grow older. You don’t want these to show up in your body when you’re young and spry so it’s better to deal with it before it gets out of hand. The following is a list of the best shoulder and back workouts that will surely improve your posture.
Shoulder Workouts
Your shoulder is one of your most flexible body parts. It keeps you mobile so it is necessary that you take proper care to maintain it.
- Lateral Flexion Stretch: This targets the trapezius and scalene muscles which help to maintain posture and body integrity. These muscles also help you to breathe more easily through your shoulder muscles and neck. Stand upright with back straight and shoulders upright. You can also do this on a chair. Rotate your head each time in both directions until you feel a stretch. You should do this for 2 sets of 30 seconds each day.
- Chest Doorway Stretch: If you’re looking for a good exercise for rounded shoulders then these stretching exercises may benefit you. Stretching is one of the best things you could do to fix your posture. Stand In Front of a doorway raising your arms across each side of the door. Step forward with your feet planted. Now lean forward with your arms supporting you and you should feel the stretch in your shoulder. 3 sets of 15-20 seconds should suffice.
- Overhead Press: The overhead press might be the best shoulder workout you can do to build strength. It is a compound exercise meaning it puts strain on more than one muscle so you’ll be more efficient. Your posture will also become stable throughout the workout. Hold the bar wider than your shoulder length and grip it firmly. Place your feet shoulder length and brace your core and glutes. Now lift the bar all the way up and then lower it until it reaches your chin. Do this for 3 sets of 12 each time
- Arnold Press: You can guess the effectiveness of the exercise from the person it’s named after. It’s a good rotational exercise for building strength and stability in your body and it can be done sitting or standing. Take two dumbbells with an appropriate amount of weight you can control. Adopt the standard pressing form and push the dumbbells upwards. Bring them down 90° and then rotate them to the front in this position. Rotate them out and then lift and repeat for 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps.
Back Workouts
Your back is the most important part of your body when it comes to stability. Keeping it straight offers more strength during strenuous activity. Here are some exercises to improve strength and posture for your back.
- Cat And Cow: Yoga is a good idea if you’re looking for the best way to fix your posture. It comes with a lot of stretching exercises that are good for keeping your back straight and relieving a lot of tension. Kneel on all fours with knees below hips and hands below shoulders. Arch your spine while breathing out and hold the position to really feel it. Inhale while engaging your core muscles and hold that position again . Do this for 5 to ten minutes.
- Bird Dog: Stretching your back should be a priority for improving posture and that’s why the bird dog is something to try out. It improves core strength along with stretching the lumbar muscles in your back. Begin at a similar position to the cat-cow, kneeling on all fours. Engage your core before starting. At the same time lift your right arm and left leg until aligned with your torso. Keep your back straight all the time and repeat with your other side for 5 minutes.
- Pullups: Pull Ups are without a doubt the best back workouts you can do to build strength, and endurance and improve posture. This is a bodyweight exercise that you can do anywhere that has a space tall enough for hanging. Approach a bar and place your hands more than shoulder-width apart. Engage your core and glutes while keeping your back straight and pull yourself up until your chest almost touches the bar. It’s alright if you have trouble at first but there are ways around this. The first thing to do is to improve grip strength which helps you to hang on for longer. You can also try using resistance bands for assisted pull-ups. Keep doing them until you can hit ten pullups in a row.
- Deadlift: There are few exercises better than a compound lifting maneuver to really help you build up that back strength. The deadlift is an exercise that is perfect for this reason. It hits your whole back along with glutes and legs and some even prefer deadlifting during leg days. Stand in front of a barbell with a shoulder-length gap with toes pointed out. Kneel down with your back straight and glutes and core engaged. Grab the bar firmly and holding this position lift the bar up until it reaches your hips and make sure to slightly thrust your hips out when doing this. Lower the bar and repeat for 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps.
Conclusion
We have provided the best shoulder and back workouts for you and now it’s up to you to master these movements efficiently. Grab a weight that you can feel but also control. You don’t want to go lift and hurt yourself because you’ll be pushing your progress back. As long as you maintain form and safety, working out will be a breeze.
You can also read: Reasons You Need To Add Groin Stretches To Your Routine ASAP
