Correct Your Hunchback and Thin Your Back: 5 Exercises to Improve Posture
The back cannot be seen intuitively, but it affects the overall uprightness of the posture, especially in the context of the widespread use of electronic products. Due to long-term sitting and hunching over mobile phones, our arms and shoulders extend forward, which over time not only leads to a bad posture of hunching shoulders and backs, but also causes waist pain and neck stiffness, posing health problems. Furthermore, poor posture and slack back muscles can make us appear older.
Therefore, many friends pay attention to their backs during fat loss or after fat loss, and they hope to train their backs to be firm and tight to make their overall posture upright and well-proportioned. However, it needs to be said that the goal of back training is the back muscles, which can effectively outline the back muscle lines and make the back thinner.
However, for friends with a higher body fat percentage, the reason for a thick back is mainly due to a large amount of fat in the back. Therefore, the key thing to do at this time is to lose weight. In addition to reasonable dietary control, exercise can be supplemented with back training and fat-burning exercises, so that we can lose weight while also training our backs.
Of course, if you feel that it takes too much time to do this, you can also do regular back training after losing weight.
Regarding back training exercises, you don't need too much, as long as you can meet your training goals. Here are 5 common back exercises, which can help us tighten our backs and shape a well-proportioned figure.
- Exercise 1: High-pulldown
- Adjust the rope to a high position, kneel facing the rope and sit on the equipment, adjust your body position to complete the movement in a comfortable posture, arms extend upwards, both hands grasp both sides of the arms, elbows slightly bent, back straight, core tightened
- Maintain a stable body, back extension to drive the legs to bend the elbow to pull the rope downwards
Pause slightly at the top, contract the back muscles, then slowly and controllably return to the original position
- Exercise 2: Seated row
- Sit facing the equipment, bend your knees and feet are placed on the footpad, back straight, core tightened, arms extend forward, elbows slightly bent, both hands grip the rope handle
- Maintain a straight back, keep the lower limb stable, back extension to drive the arms to bend the elbow towards the abdominal direction
Pause slightly at the top, contract the back muscles, then slowly and controllably return to the original position, to fully stretch the back muscles
- Exercise 3: Narrow-grip pull-down
- Sit facing the equipment, bend your knees and feet are hooked on the rear roller, back straight, core tightened, abdomen pressed against the front pad, arms extend forward and upwards, elbows slightly bent, both hands grip the V-handle
- Maintain a straight back, back extension to drive the arms to bend the elbows towards the chest direction
Pause slightly at the top, contract the back muscles, then slowly and controllably return to the original position, to fully stretch the back
- Exercise 4: Single-arm machine row
- Sit with the lower limbs fixed, back straight, core tightened, one arm extends forward and grips the handle of the equipment, elbows slightly bent
- Maintain the stability of the lower limb, keep the back straight, back extension to drive the arms to bend the elbows to slide along the body towards the rear
Pause slightly at the top, contract the back muscles, then slowly and controllably return to the original position
- Exercise 5: Reverse back extension
- Lie supine on the reverse bench, bend your knees and feet on the ground, hips and upper back and head support the body, both hands hold the dumbbell to lift to the vertical direction
- Maintain a stable body, keep the arms extended, slowly pull the dumbbell to the head direction
Pause slightly at the top, then slowly and controllably return to the original position
After a thorough warm-up, start training, during the movement, pay attention to feel the contraction and extension of the target muscles. If male friends aim to build muscle, use a weight within their capabilities, 8-12 reps each, 3-5 sets; if female friends aim to shape, use a small weight, 12-20 reps each, 3-5 sets. After training, stretch the back muscles to help the target muscles recover.
