Exercise “Superman” to strengthen the spine and back muscles

Do you want to strengthen your back at home by simply lying on your stomach? Pay attention to a simple but very effective superman exercise! It does not require absolutely any equipment, except that if you wish, you can use a gymnastic mat, and is suitable for absolutely any person. Despite the simplicity of performing the element, regular return to it will strengthen the muscles and tendons of the lower back and develop sculpted muscles on the back.

How to perform the superman exercise while lying on the floor

Starting position: lie with your stomach down, your abs should be very tense, arms extended forward, palms down, head slightly raised, look straight.
Raise your legs and arms up, trying to keep them as high as possible. Ideally, they should be parallel to the floor plane. Trainees should have a semblance of the image of a flying Superman.
The body must be held in this position for 3-5 seconds, then it must be taken to the starting position.
Perform four to five sets of 25-30 repetitions, this amount can provide an intense load on the muscles.

Back training in the gym for girls: plank

Initially, decide what kind of bar you need. A classic exercise suitable for beginners. It is performed with emphasis on the arms, which need to be extended, on the shoulders.

If you are a beginner, you will have to perform the following movements to train your back in the gym:

Lie down as if you were planning to do push-ups.
Place your hands wider than your shoulders. This way you will avoid unnecessary stress on your neck and deep spinal muscles.
Make your legs straight, with your toes on the floor. Make sure your heels are above the floor and not touching it.
Raise your body and back so that they are at the same level. Align the body, make it straight. Freeze in this position and count down the required time.

Incredible benefits
If you notice that your body begins to get tired quickly, trembling muscles appear, stop for a while. Do the exercise a few more times to achieve better results.

Side variety

This variation works the spinalis dorsi, longissimus dorsi, lumbar and pectoral muscles.

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We lie on our side, leaning on our hand, with our other hand we take ourselves by the back of our head, and with our legs we stretch down.
Raise your legs above the floor and hold for a few seconds. We rely on the lateral surface of the pelvis and the lateral part of the thoracic region.
We lower our legs and roll over to the other side.
We repeat, to begin with, up to seven times, gradually increasing the number of repetitions.

Pause for a few seconds between rolling over to the other side.

For beginners, the rest time between repetitions of the exercise can be increased to thirty seconds. This is necessary so that the muscles can fully relax. As you adapt, you can gradually increase the total number of exercises and reduce periods of muscle relaxation. Control your balance position, do not roll onto your back or stomach .

Note! Don't hold your breath, breathe freely and measuredly.

Back training in the gym in the gravitron

Pull-ups are one of the powerful exercises. It is considered the main thing in the complex, thanks to which you can form and properly develop the back muscles. In addition, the exercise is quite complex, so not every woman can perform it.

Ordinary pull-ups are easy to do:

Grasp the support located above your head.
Start to pull your body up.

A gravitron is a simulator where a counterweight functions. Just set the required load on the simulator. To make the task seem easier to you, set the weight a little less.

Using the simulator, you will be able to pump up most of the muscle tissue, develop endurance, and increase grip strength. Your back will become beautiful and visually enlarged. Against the background of the back, the waist will look sophisticated.

Workout in the gym

To prevent girls and women from getting injured when training their backs in the gym, perform the following manipulations:

Set the desired load on the simulator.
Take the necessary position on the graviton. Climb onto the machine and place your knees on the lower platform. Use your hands to grasp the handles located at the top.
Make your back straight, look up.
Inhale, pull yourself up so that your chin reaches your handles.
As you exhale, gradually return back to your original position.
Repeat the exercise as much as the trainer tells you.

While doing this, try to keep your back perfectly straight.

How to learn to make a bridge

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There are two versions of taking the desired body position:

the so-called bridge from the floor, when the athlete pushes up in the opposite position, bends the chest and remains in this position as long as necessary;
bridge from the rack, that is, deflection in the lumbar and thoracic region, with hands placed on the floor. This option is the most difficult.

Before you do a bridge stretch, you need to rule out problems that may interfere with the exercise. As a rule, this is low mobility in the shoulder, knee or hip joint.

Back workout in the gym: vertical row

Consider every nuance of execution. Do the exercises in stages:

To begin, stand in the desired position and take the simulator. Move as close to him as possible. Place your thighs under the bolsters.
Grab the handle. When doing this, use a medium to large grip.
Without leaning back, arch your back slightly.
Inhale as you do the exercise. As you exit, pull the handle toward your chest. Perform this exercise while being strictly upright. Move your elbows back a little, bring your shoulder blades together as much as possible.
As you lower the bar, hold the pose for a second. This way you will achieve maximum effectiveness of the exercise itself.
Return to the original position.

Vertical
There are no difficulties in this back workout in the gym The most important thing is to take the initially desired position, use the optimal grip that matches your level of training.

If you do everything correctly, taking into account all the features, you will get a wide, sculpted back. Perform the exercise in parallel with other exercises. You can do bent over rows.

Common mistakes when doing the exercise

The most common mistakes that beginners make:

Initial training with increased loads. Beginners are strongly advised not to start performing the exercise with a large number of repetitions and approaches. The abs should strengthen and tone up. Excessive stress will lead to sprains and injuries to the back and pelvis. Sudden movements. Many beginners believe that the sharper the rise of the body, the stronger the abs will be strengthened. It's not like that at all. On the contrary, the chance of injuring the spine and pelvis increases by 30-40%. Movements should be smooth

All attention should be concentrated on the press

If you decide to take up the Sitap exercise, be sure to first visit a sports club to see for yourself how professional trainers do it correctly. You should begin performing various variations of the exercise only after the basic technique has been fully mastered and ceases to produce tangible results.

Back workout in the gym: horizontal row

There are several types of this exercise for pumping the trapezius muscles of the back. They differ slightly in execution technique.

Consider the option of traction to the belt. Do the exercise like this:

Sit on the exercise machine . Try to rest your feet on the platform. Bend your knees, the legs themselves should be fixed during the approach. Select the bend so that your knees do not interact with your arms. Fix the arch of your back.
Lean forward. Grab the handle with your palms, take the required position: position your body vertically, lift the load above the stops. Straighten your chest, bend your elbows slightly.
Hold your breath, pull the handle of the exercise machine towards your stomach (towards your waist). The movement is carried out thanks to the spinal muscles when the shoulder blades are brought together. At the same time, you should move your elbows back, try to move them further away.
When you come out of the position, exhale.

To the belt
When you begin to perform this particular exercise, while training your back in the gym for girls, make sure that the body does not deviate too much to the sides. Do not help pull the weights, do not bend your back.

Bridge technique

Bridge from a prone position

This is the classic bridge technique from a prone position. Sit on the floor on a yoga mat. Do it step by step:

place your hands behind your head, place your palms firmly on the floor;
transfer your weight to your hands and feet, which are 10-15 cm from your buttocks;
straighten your knees and elbows, perform a bridge;
try to breathe evenly during the exercise and not shift your body weight to your legs or arms;
the head hangs calmly down;
When you run out of strength, smoothly lower yourself to the floor.

Bridge from a standing position

This is the most difficult variation of the exercise. They start by stretching their arms straight up and fixing their feet so that they do not slip. Feet hip-width apart.
They perform a deflection, starting from the knees, that is, you can first rest your hands on the lower back, and perform a deep bend with a deflection from the knees back;
Next, the arms are pulled back so that the palms can be placed on the floor;
Then they push off the floor with their arms and legs and take the position of a bridge.

How to stand on the bridge. Back stretching exercises. How to make a gymnastic bridge

Consequences of poor posture

Timely correction of posture is necessary not only to look attractive. Although, this aspect certainly plays an important role. The habit of slouching can lead to a number of more serious problems:

Severe pain in almost the entire body, from the neck to the lumbar region.
Significant reduction in lung volume.
Compression and even displacement of some internal organs, which inevitably entails various disturbances in their functioning.
Curvature of the spine, which, in turn, is divided into three types:
Scoliosis is a lateral curvature of the spinal column, in which the vertebrae also necessarily rotate around a vertical axis.
Kyphosis is a spinal disease in which the spinal column is curved in the lateral plane with a convexity backwards.
Lordosis is a physiological or pathological curvature of the spine, which is characterized by a forward displacement of the convexity.

As a rule, people try to straighten their backs at home in adulthood. Although, the root of the problem is usually hidden in early childhood. According to doctors, it is uncomfortable school desks, heavy backpacks and the lack of preventive measures that primarily have a negative impact on the formation of posture.

Ideally, the weight of the briefcase should not exceed 10-15% of the child’s body weight. Only few parents know about this and think about the health of their baby.

In addition, diseases of the spine often cause degenerative-dystrophic diseases, which lead to limited mobility, constant pain and even disruption of the entire musculoskeletal system. We are talking about osteochondrosis, osteoarthrosis, as well as intervertebral hernias.

How much and how to do it

Take a breath and repeat at least 4 times . Every day, increase the number of repetitions and the time spent in statics. If you find it difficult to work with full amplitude, experiment with the height of your torso.

The breathing mode does not matter. However, before you begin the process, do a breathing cycle that will help disperse the blood. As you inhale, pull your stomach toward your spine, and as you exhale noisily, push it out. In the exercise, lifting can be done while inhaling and exhaling; at the climax, the breath is held involuntarily.

For girls with curvy figures , it is not very convenient to perform the “swallow”; for convenience, try rolling up a towel with a roller and placing it in the solar plexus area.

Back training in the gym for girls: hyperextension

Relatively recently, women performed this exercise on a regular sports “goat”. But with the advent of new technologies, exercise machines began to appear in gyms on which you can perform hyperextension .

In order to properly perform a back workout in the gym, perform the following manipulations:

Set up the machine based on your own weight and height. Make sure that your pelvis is strictly on the pillow. The area where you will have to bend the body is the edges of this pillow.
Place your feet on the roller of the machine.
Make your back perfectly straight.
Place your hands in front of your chest and cross them. You can put them behind your head.
Raise your head up.
The most basic movement of this exercise: bend your body down in the lower back area to form a 45-degree angle between your lower and upper body.
Slowly return to your original position.

For the back
You can also do this exercise using a sports “goat”, a Roman chair. Make sure that your feet are supported by the heel tendons, as bruises often remain in other areas.

Exercise options

"Superman" on the back

Roll over onto your back, place your arms next to your body.
Simultaneously raise your straight legs and shoulder girdle to a height of 30-40 cm.
Try holding this position for 5 seconds. If this fails due to loss of balance, simply squeeze your shoulder blades together.

Then, every day, lift your back one vertebra higher, thus developing flexibility and stretching your spine.

If you need to remove a couple of centimeters from problematic female areas, perform this modification.

Take a classic face-down position.
Now imagine that you need to stretch your body.
Lift your limbs, keeping your body weight on your pelvic bones, and begin to pull your palms and feet in opposite directions.

Lying on your stomach, bend your legs and point your feet towards you.
Grab them with your hands and completely lift your chest off the mat, moving the fulcrum to the center of your abdomen.
Now use oscillatory body movements to imitate rocking on the waves.
Rock back and forth with your back arched.

After a minute, allow yourself to relax for 10 seconds.

Side swallow

Roll over onto your side.
Place your legs on top of each other.
Using the same principle, raise your body and freeze statically.
Here the fulcrum falls on the pelvis and lower thoracic area. If you add a couple of turns, the efficiency of the exercise will increase significantly.
From the position on your side, roll onto your back, then turn around in the other direction. Then do the same in reverse order, remembering to linger at the peak points for 7-10 seconds.

Do the “swallow” every day , allowing up to 10 minutes to complete.

Back workout in the gym for girls: deadlift

This exercise is considered universal. Thanks to it, most of the back muscle tissue is worked out during execution. The muscles in the legs, buttocks, arms, and abs also work.

If you're a beginner, start with an unweighted bar. Perform the minimum number of approaches initially. Pay important attention to how you perform the exercise.

Exercise

Do your back workout in the gym in this order:

Place your feet wider than your shoulders.
Stand straight, point your toes out a little.
Tilt your body 45 degrees, move your pelvis, bend your back a little.
Bend your knees and grab the bar with your hands, using a forward grip.
Slowly straighten your legs, then slowly straighten your back. Stand up and at the same time squeeze your shoulder blades together.
Freeze in this position for about a second.
Return to the original position.

Try to move the projectile only vertically. Do not bring your knees behind your toes while bending. Place the main emphasis only on your heels.

Step by step
If you use a bar without weights, do only 3 approaches. Each set has a maximum of 15 rows.

On the muscles of the upper spinal region

Starting from the neck and shoulders, ending at the shoulder blades, one of the large and important muscles of the back is located - the trapezius muscle.

The following exercises are suitable for pumping this muscle:

Shrugs with a barbell . This exercise is performed in one breath. The barbell is grasped with a grip slightly wider than the shoulders and while inhaling, an upward pull occurs, while the shoulders go up and the head is hidden in the shoulders. Gradually the shoulders lower and exhale. The entire top of the trapezius muscle is well pumped: the occipital-clavicular bundles and the scapular part.
Shrugs with dumbbells. The exercise is performed while inhaling. Dumbbells in your hands, lifting your shoulders, pull them back, you can close your shoulder blades. Exhale while lowering your shoulders smoothly. The clavicular trapezius, scapular muscle, the middle of the main trapezius and the rhombic muscle are pumped (precisely when the shoulder blades close).
Shrugs on the machine . Standing in front of the machine, grab the handle with a grip slightly wider than your shoulders and, while inhaling, raise your shoulders, keeping your head between your shoulders. Slowly lower your shoulders. The upper trapezius and scapular muscles develop.

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Back training in the gym for girls: arm raises

this exercise for back training in the gym for girls to improve the relief of the back and upper spinal muscles. Also, during execution, you can strengthen the rotator cuff muscles, and this is very important, since the strength of these muscles directly affects the resistance of the upper joints to heavy loads.

We spread our hands

Do the exercise like this:

Set up the simulator: handles and their position, and also set the height of the seat. Straighten your arms and grab the handles, located shoulder-width apart.
Press your chest against the seat of the exercise machine, keeping your body only vertical. Bend your back slightly in the lumbar region, straighten your arms, hold the handle using a neutral grip. Spread the handles to the sides. In this case, the load should come off the stops.
Tighten your deltoids and upper back muscles. Extend your arms as far as possible. Elbows should be in line with your back. When you begin the exercise, inhale and hold the air.
Hold the position for a second, moving your arms back. Tighten your deltoids even more. Exhale, return to the original position.
Rest a little and do the exercise again. Don't bend your arms when you open them. Lock your elbows and keep them motionless.

When you perform this exercise, keep the following in mind - each movement should be slow and controlled.

Benefit

It is difficult to overestimate the benefits of this exercise, since almost all the muscles of the body are involved when performing it. As you know, not only the mobility of the body, but also the course of all physiological processes of the body depends on the proper functioning of the muscles.

“Climber” is an exercise that works well on the core muscles, which is a whole group of deep muscles that lie next to the spine and provide its fixation. The muscles of the body that perform vital functions are involved:

hip flexor muscles;
hip extensor muscles in the form of gluteal muscles;
abdominal muscles: straight and oblique;
back extensor muscles.

That is, these are the muscles responsible for the position of the body and its orientation. Strengthening your core muscles will help you maintain a healthy spine and beautiful posture. The “Climber” exercise is effective not only for strengthening the back and abs. Its benefit is that it provides firmness and tone to the muscles used in everyday life:

abductor/adductor scapula – pectoralis minor and serratus anterior muscles;
leg extensors/flexors – quadriceps femoris;
foot flexors - gastrocnemius muscle;
shoulder flexors - deltoid and pectoralis major;
forearm extensors - triceps.

It has a number of the following features:

During its execution, postural muscle fibers are included in the work. Conventional exercises only engage superficial fibers. Here the inclusion of the internal layers (postural) located at the spinal column occurs. During a power load, it is quite difficult to work the deep layers of muscles. This can be achieved with this exercise.
Smooth spine. If you want to have perfect posture, then this activity is what you need for this purpose. Regular exercise helps to correct the spinal column due to the work of internal muscles.
Free back and joints. The stress on your joints and back from your weight are problems that you may encounter with most exercises. The activity does not limit people suffering from diseases in this area. Indeed, in the “lying down” position, the load on the joints and spinal column is eliminated. Therefore, the activity is accessible to everyone.

Which back muscles should you train regularly?

The back consists of three groups of muscle mass:

latissimus superficialis muscle superioris;
latissimus superficialis muscle of the middle and lower sections;
deep muscle corset.

Back exercises in the gym should begin with a mandatory warm-up for all muscle groups of the body, which helps restore the working regime of the whole body. When working out the muscles of the superficial groups, the muscles of the deep section involuntarily begin to take part in the training.

Nuances

To achieve the most positive effect, the boat is included in a set of basic exercises for the body. The optimal execution time is the first half of the day, when the muscles have not yet received load and are susceptible to stretching.

Training will help you cheer up, give you strength and energy for the day. When performing after work in the afternoon or before bed, you should not expect that a flow of energy will surge and you will not be able to relax and go to sleep.

On the contrary, the muscles will no longer experience tension, and subsequent light stretching will create favorable conditions and will not give a chance to soreness.

Please note that:

Do not eat heavily for 2 hours before performing;
you can and even need to drink during training;
jerking is unacceptable;
the head must not be rotated or moved sharply;
do not suddenly fall to the floor;
Correct breathing practice is the key to success in losing extra pounds.

You need to relax with regular stretching, including variations of the vertical fold.

Back workout in the gym: bent over row

When performing the exercise, place the barbell on the rack so that it is in line with your knees. You don't want to overload your psoas muscles by lifting heavy weights, do you? This way you will only waste a lot of energy.

Complete the exercise in several stages:

Stand near the barbell. Grasp the bar with your hands using a wide grip (wider than your shoulders). Remove the sports equipment from the rack. Spread your elbows to the sides. Keep your back straight. Bend your legs slightly at the knees.
Tilt your body forward, reach a position so that your body is almost parallel to the floor surface. Keep your balance. You can do this if you bend your knees and move your pelvis back. Fix your torso in this position.
Pull the barbell toward your waist. Try to bring your shoulder blades together as much as possible. You will perform the deadlift using your back muscles, but not your arms.
Try to hold on at the highest point for a second. Slowly lower the barbell back, spreading your shoulder blades to the sides. Do not change the position of your body. Just lower your arms as low as possible, spreading them out to the sides of your shoulder blades.

Bent over
Perform this exercise to train your back in the gym no more than 15 times. This will be a warm-up. In total, do a maximum of 4 more approaches, each with 10 repetitions.

Bend forward from a sitting position

The last way to straighten your posture is to bend forward

For comprehensive health of the back and lumbar region, it is important to regularly do stretching and exercises for the spine. This helps improve the elasticity of muscles and ligaments, as well as maintain the health of the musculoskeletal system.

Technique:

Sit on the floor or fitness mat with your legs straight.
Slowly lower yourself forward, arching your spine and keeping your arms in front of you. Lower your chin to your chest.
As you lower and raise your torso, imagine a rope tied around your waist with someone pulling from behind, bringing your belly closer to your spine.
Repeat the exercise at least 5 times.

Lat Pulldown with Narrow Arm Position

Sit on the machine seat facing the counter. Place your hands on the handle for a narrow grip. Lean your body back slightly. Point your chest up. Using your core, back, and arms, bend your elbows and pull the handle down. The hands should be at chin level. Do not put pressure on your lower back or neck. Then, just as smoothly, extend your arms up.

Practice according to this scheme, focusing on your own feelings. Perhaps at first it will be difficult for you to perform 2-3 sets of each exercise, then it is permissible to reduce their number. The main thing is to train regularly.