Straighten your back with 6 easy exercises!
Do you need a helping hand to straighten your shoulders? Our trainer explains how to do it and what good reflexes to adopt on a daily basis!
Round back, tightening neck and lower back in pain? We'll tell you all about the right things to do!
To help you strengthen your back, Sicilian, a Pilates coach, suggests 6 exercises to include in your weekly schedule and some good feedback to adopt daily. The exercises presented will help you work on your general posture and strengthen your deep muscles for a stronger and straighter back.
Help, why am I curved?
You look at yourself in the mirror, and you find yourself slightly hunched, so you proudly straighten your shoulders, but they immediately fall back...Will, you're already imagining yourself disguised as a Quasimodo for the upcoming Halloween.
Rest assured, bad situations are ours. On a daily basis, we tend to adopt closed positions, with shoulders flexed forward, especially when we are on the phone, computer, or in the car. Several other factors can worsen the forward curvature of the back, such as stress or a sedentary lifestyle. You know, that nasty little spot in the middle of your back when you're under stress. The body tenses up and thrives! It's the breath and the back that takes a hit.
These poor postures can also be the result of muscle deficits caused by not engaging the muscles that maintain the spine and stomach and cause back pain.
Be careful, if you suffer from scoliosis, kyphosis or hyperlordosis, consult your doctor for a more appropriate exercise.
How do you have good posture? It's time to work on that humpback round.
On a daily basis, we all tend to adopt closed postures, which is why in the daily routine we will make reverse movements to open our posture and erase that arched back.
A recipe for good posture? Stretching combined with strengthening of deep muscles: stretching allows you to restore movement in the joint and strengthens sheaths of muscles in depth.
Cecilia gives us some tips for applying on a daily basis: “This goes for everyone, when you sit in a chair, you sit on your buttock bones (seat bones) and straighten, and you imagine a string pulling you to your side.. the top of the skull. You will feel all the work of tightening the spine.” . The trainer advises you to take the time to breathe consciously to keep the rib cage moving and the chest open. You will notice that the back naturally lengthens upwards.
How to correct your posture to get a straight back? Here are the muscles that should be strengthened with priority:
Abdominal muscles, those muscles that are forgotten when you have a bent back. The abdominal muscles wrap the waistband and naturally improve your posture. Sicilian reminds us that relaxing the abdomen will increase the arch of the back, which is why contracting the abdominal muscles keeps your back straight. Abs yes, but which ones? The abdominal girdle consists of the transverse muscle, the oblique muscle, and the rectus abdominis muscle. But it is the transverse muscle, to which the role of the sheath is assigned, which will be the most important thing to work on to keep your back straight.
Deep muscles also have an essential role in maintaining posture for a long time. To get to know them better, these are the muscles of the spine, the muscles of the deep abdominal girdle and the perineum.
The dorsal muscle is the muscle around the lower back, with which one can be afraid to work when suffering from back pain, while it contributes to strengthening the back and restoring the general posture.
The moving pelvis reduces bad posture and pain, so you need to stretch all the muscles related to the pelvis: the calf muscles, quadriceps., glutes, lumbar, adductor and hamstrings. By releasing tension in the legs, movement in the pelvis is released and movement in the lower back is restored. magic? No, it just makes sense!
6 good exercises to straighten your back:
Céciliane, a Pilates teacher for 10 years, sets up a simple routine to perform up to 3 times a week and requires a few materials: a mat, a yoga brick (optional) and an elastic band.
Exercise 1. Prayer and Dog Posture
On commence la routine par deux exercices que l'on peut retrouver également dans les séances de yoga pour étirer les muscles dans le sens inverse des postures du quotidien :
- La posture de la prière
Position de départ : placez-vous à genoux, assis sur heels. If you have buttock pain, place a pillow between your buttocks and heels.
Movement: Take a deep breath and extend your arms in front of you, your head folded at your shoulders. Breathe gently.
To take a step forward, place your hands on a brick in front of you to open your arm and waist muscles.
Duration: Hold the position for 5 breaths and repeat the exercise 3 times.
- The dog facing down
This exercise works the entire back chain to restore movement in the limbs (muscles in the back of the legs: calf muscles, hamstrings, etc.)
Starting position: Stand on all fours on a yoga mat, hands shoulder-width apart, knees and shoulder-width apart.
The movement: Support yourself on your toes and push with both hands and lift your buttocks toward the ceiling. The movement should draw a triangle between your back and your legs.
On the exhale, try to push your heels to the floor to straighten your legs and squeeze your hands by directing the chest and head toward the thighs.
Duration: With a calm breath, hold the position for 15 seconds and, if possible, repeat the movement 5 times.
Exercise 2. Cat Pose
This gentle exercise stimulates pelvic movement and lengthens the spine and stomach muscles.
Starting position: On a yoga mat, place your hands about shoulder width apart and align your pairs, shoulders, wrists, knees, and hips.
the movement:
In the hollow back position: dig into the spine, pull the tip of the nose towards the ceiling and pull the buttocks out towards the sky. The hollow is drawn into the three back regions: cervical, back and lumbar.
In the back round position: reverse the position, chin sticking to the chest, look at the navel, open the chest and exhale.
Breathing instructions: Take a deep breath and make exhaling movements.
Duration: Repeat the movement 4 times for each position.
Exercise 3. Chemistry pose (this is wrong):
Objective sheathing of the back muscles and the abdominal girdle with this exercise.
Starting position: Sit on all fours on the floor mat
. Movement: roll your stomach and extend the right arm and the opposite leg (the left, I mark for missing persons). Switch sides: the left arm is straight and the right leg is straight.
Duration: Repeat 4 sets of 15 seconds on each side.
Exercise 4. Shoulder Bridge
This Pilates movement works your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. This pose strengthens your muscles, but it can also be considered a stretch for the spine.
Starting position: Lie on your back on your mat, bend both legs about hip-width apart and feet on the floor. Pull the arms toward the ankles to clear the space between the ears and the shoulders.
Movement: Inhale and raise the pelvis to the sky by taking a support on both feet. Make sure to position your ankles in line with your knees.
Then pull both arms behind the ears.
On the exhale, gently open your back, vertebrae, from the cervix to the coccyx to come in and rest the spine on the floor.
Duration: Repeat the movement 8 times to stretch the vertebrae of the spine.
Exercise 5. Drawing with a rubber band
This muscle-enhancing move comes to get the abdominal girdle and upper back working with an elastic band.
Starting position: Sit (on the hips), legs slightly bent, shoulders above the hips, back straight.
Movement: Pass the elastic band behind the legs and hold it in each hand. Then, pull the bar with the elbows back, parallel to each other. Imagine you are pressing something really taut between your shoulder blades, which opens your chest and slowly releases it.
Breathing instructions: Exceptionally, inhale with an effort to open the rib cage as the back muscles contract and exhale to release it.
Duration: Do 3 sets of 10 slow reps
Exercise 6. Lateral Twisting
This exercise tightens the chest muscles and helps the back return to its open position.
Starting position: Lie on your back, put your arms outstretched, in line with your shoulders.
Bend your legs about hip-width apart. Move your knees to the right and look to the left to extend the shoulders.
Return to the center, inhale and tilt the knees to the left.
Breathing instructions: Inhale midway and exhale with each movement, relaxing your shoulders.
Duration: Hold 5 breaths on each side.
