Pier 5 Condo

Increasing muscle mass and functional strength constitute the two main motivations for adopting a bodybuilding program. Building abdominal muscles, specifically the muscles of the upper, middle and lower back is the key to both of these.

The muscles in your back are primary stabilizing, but can easily be injured when lifting weights. From a biomechanical perspective, your back consists of the spine, the ribs, the scapula and the ligaments that string them all together, like parts of a mobile or kinetic motion structure.

Injuries to the back are almost always compression or rotation injuries, they’re damage to the soft tissue that lets your back move. Good weight lifting practices and muscle group isolation are the key to avoid back injuries, many of which won’t show up for years after you’ve done them to yourself.

Muscle groups that you need to work on in the back are your traps, lats and deltoids, and you need to take them slowly. Yes, you can get a ripped looking back by overdoing it, but it’s better to focus on practical strength increases over physical appearance and muscle building when dealing with your back.

The trapezius muscles (traps) are the ones that form the bulk of your back. The basic exercise for Traps is a shrug motion, where you take a pair of dumbbells, one in each hand, and shrug your shoulders as high as they will go and hold them for a breath, then let them down slowly.

Another movement that helps the traps a bit (but mostly works on your deltoids) is a straight-arm lift. Hold a dumbbell in your hand with your elbow at your side, and your forearm out level with the map. Extend your arm until it’s at shoulder height, in one fluid motion, and look down your arm at the dumbbell, like you’re sitting on a pistol range. Then bring it down slowly. This will work on your deltoids and the yoke of muscle linking your shoulders.

When you do any kind of exercise to build up a muscle you should always start out slow and build your way up to more and more resistance. If you start to fast and do to much at once, you can end up hurting yourself before you even get started. This is better than a straight pull up because it isolates the muscle thoroughly.

If you are targeting your back, specifically your lower back, one exercise that is important in helping you gain strength in your back is shoulder arches. By doing shoulder arches you will not only gain strength (this is the most important thing), but you will also work on definition of your back as well. Hold a light dumb-bell over the back of your neck and lay down on your front. Clasp your hands, then arch your back, lift, count to three, then lower slowly. It’s very easy to overdo them, so, do these sparingly.

It is very important to remember to stretch before exercising. By stretching you will help your body and your muscles maintain flexibility, along with stretching it is very beneficial to also do some cardio exercises as well.