“A beautiful back can also delight”. A well-trained and thus defined back not only corresponds to our ideal of beauty, but also has an immense significance for our state of health. The back muscles ensure an upright posture – but they also enable us to perform the various movements of our back and cushion loads.
Strengthen and build up back muscles
More and more people suffer from back pain or tension. The reasons for the complaints are manifold – but often the affected people have too weak back muscles due to lack of exercise. A long-term improvement of the complaints and prevention of these can only be achieved through targeted back muscle training.
For most exercises you only need a little space and a gym mat. A suitable and holistic exercise is the following: The practitioner goes into the four-footed position. This means that the knees below the pelvis rest on the gymnastics mat and the hands are supported below the shoulders.
Now first the right leg and then the left leg are lifted into the air alternately. It is important that arm, head, neck, spine and leg form a horizontal line. A hollow back must be avoided at all costs by tensing the stomach.
This position should first be held for 30 seconds before changing sides. If this exercise is successful, it can be made more difficult in the following ways: The arm and leg, which are stretched out, should be held in the air for only 10 seconds and then brought together under the body so that the elbows and knees touch. Do 10 repetitions before changing sidesAnother exercise to strengthen the back is “plank”.
To do this, use the forearm support: The hands are clenched into a fist and the upper body is supported by the two parallel forearms. Both legs are stretched out to the back, so that the feet are only positioned with the toes about hip-wide. In this position, it is important to note that the back and buttocks should be at the same height – neither sagging nor outstretching of the hips is allowed.
The stomach is actively tensed. The cervical spine always remains in extension of the spine, so that the gaze is directed downwards. The task now is to hold this position for 30 seconds.
Continue to breathe and avoid press breathing. If you manage to do this exercise three times without any problems, you can make the exercise more difficult by walking on the spot with your toes during this time. In addition to strengthening the back muscles, this exercise also trains the abdominal muscles.
To strengthen the straight back muscles, especially the posture muscles, the following exercise is suitable: Sit upright on a chair without leaning against the backrest. Your feet stand loosely on the floor. Now imagine that you are pulled upwards by a transparent band on the vertex.
Head, cervical spine and the whole back become very long. Breathing should always continue normally. When you have reached maximum extension, hold the position for 10-15 seconds.
After that the tension can be released and the back can be made round. The head follows the rounding and hangs down. After a 10 second pause the stretching should be started again. The exercise should be repeated five times. In addition to targeted back exercises, holistic endurance sports such as swimming, aqua gymnastics, cycling, running or dancing are also suitable for strengthening the back muscles.
