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Top Weight Lifting Exercises to Strengthen your Back and Avoid Pain
A person’s back is made up of many muscles. Their primary purposes are to pull your arms back, down, and towards your body, and to help rotate it inwardly. Many people suffer from back problems, due to a weakness in both their back muscles. The lower back is an area often ignored but frequently causes problems. Strengthening exercises, as well as stretching, help prevent injury and pain. It is essential to focus on the lower back muscles as well as those in areas that sustain the lower back. These consist of the stomach, hip flexors, and hamstrings (back of the thigh).
Remember that a muscle will only become stronger when forced to work beyond its normal intensity (overload). The intensity can be built up by increasing the:
Resistance – adding more weight
Number of repetitions with a particular weight
Number of sets of the exercise
Intensity – reducing the recovery periods
Some specific exercises that will help strengthen the lower back that do not weights include a front lying chest lift, double knee to chest stretch, a figure-4 stretch, abdominal muscle-strengthening stretch, hip flexor stretch, and hamstring stretch. These exercises are great if you are new at weight training and/or strengthening. Each of these stretches can be done at home or in a gym. You can also add weights to these stretches as you become more accustomed to doing them, thus increasing to strengthen your back muscles.
The three primary back muscles are the latisimus dorsi, rhomboids (upper/middle back), and erector spinae (lower back). These three muscles, along with smaller supporting muscles run deep beneath the skin surface and play a role in everything you do. The latisimus dorsi muscle runs along the sides of your back. You may commonly hear it referred to as “lats.” This muscle is used to extend, rotate, and pull things. The rhomboids are compact muscles located a few inches down from the neck between the spine and shoulder blades. The erector spine muscle runs along the lower part of the spine. To strengthen these muscle groups you can do the following exercise: close grip pull-downs and one-arm dumbbell rows. It is important to remember not to over-exert your weight training and to take it slow. You can build up your repetitions as you build up the strength of the muscles in your back.
When you are doing pull-downs, you should have a solid grip on the bar. Take a wide hold so your hands are a few inches wider than shoulder length apart. Using a reasonable amount of weight, gradually pull the bar down toward your head, slightly arching your head forward. Pull the bar behind your head and stop at ear level, squeezing your lat muscles as they constrict. Slowly allow the weight to pull your arms back to an outstretched pose, but make sure that you remain seated on the bench.
When you are doing close-grip, front pull-downs clutch the handle bar firmly. Slowly bring the weight down toward your upper body, pushing your chest a little forward while slightly arching your back. Focus on pulling the weight down with your elbows and not your biceps. Bring the handle down to your chin, and firmly constrict for a second or two before slowly releasing. When you are doing the dumbbell rows grip the dumbbell with one arm, let your free arm take a solid hold on the bench with the corresponding knee resting on the bench for balance. With your arm fully extended toward the floor, gradually bring the weight up toward your side, using your elbow and your lats to do the work. Keeping your elbow pushed firmly against your side, pull the weight up into your hip, squeezing during the tightening. Hold this stance for a second, then gradually release, allowing your arm to drop under control toward the floor.
Back pain can also be caused by osteoporosis, as such doing load-bearing, or weight-bearing exercises or activities at least three times a week has been shown to decrease the pain in the back and lower the risk of osteoporosis. You may wonder how exercise can help to prevent back pain and/or alleviate the pain when it occurs. Muscle pulling on bone builds bone; so weight-bearing exercise builds denser, stronger bones, which lead to stronger back muscles. Thirty minutes of weight-bearing exercise daily benefits not only your bones, but improves heart health, muscle strength, coordination, and balance.
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