Performing
Regular Back Exercises will keep you Strong, Healthy, and Young!
Back exercises are among the most important
exercises you can do. When your back and spine are strong and healthy,
you’re strong and healthy. When it’s not,
you’re asking for trouble. Although animals exercise their
backs all the time, most people do not. Is it any surprise that more
than 50% of the North American population will have back troubles at
some point?
Back injuries are the Worst
Have you ever hurt your back? I have, on a couple
of occasions. When your back is painful, the simplest tasks become
difficult. It’s incredibly awkward to stand up from a chair.
A task as simple as walking becomes difficult. You can’t do
ANYTHING! A back injury is unlike anything else. If you pull a muscle
in your arm or leg, you can still get around. With a back injury, you
immediately turn into a 90-year-old man or woman.
An
Evolutionary Design
Flaw?
To some extent, it’s not our fault. Like
all four legged animals, our backs evolved to carry an even load across
the entire spine. However, when we started to walk upright, our backs
paid the price. Instead of balancing the weight of the body evenly,
walking upright turns our spines into flagpoles. What’s
worse, these flagpoles must support an enormous weight (our heads)
right on top. Modern Man (and woman!) then compounds this design flaw
by adding poor posture, obesity, and inactivity into the mix. If you
want to avoid back pain (and who doesn’t?), you should be
performing back exercises on a regular basis.
Backs are
meant to Bend Backwards
Two of the exercises presented here, the Cobra and the Bridge, involve
bending your back backwards. Most people find this awkward at first, as
it is not a movement they regularly do. However, proper back bending is
one of the best things you can do for you back (so long as you back is
not injured to begin with). Our backs, like our entire bodies, are
meant to move animal like in all angles and directions. Most people,
however, slouch in their chairs at work and have poor posture the rest
of the time. Bending your back backwards will stretch your spine and
release a lot of the tension that you unknowingly built up during the
day.
Here are some nature-inspired back
exercises for you to try:
Lower
Back Exercises (Basic) – The Cobra
The Cobra is a basic yoga posture that anyone can
do. It provides a blood rush to the spine, the sympathetic nerves and
cells, and all the muscles of the back. It also helps the spine gain
the elasticity so essential to a vigorous, healthy body.
Back
Strengthening Exercises (Intermediate) – The Table Maker
This exercise will increase the strength in the
upper and lower spine, while at the same time promoting flexibility.
Back
Stretching Exercises (Advanced) – The Bridge
The Back Bridge is perhaps the single best
exercise you can do not only for you back, but your entire body.
I’ve labeled it as an advanced exercise, but anyone can start
working towards a proper back bridge at anytime. Do not be intimated by
how difficult the posture looks. The health rewards that you can reap
from performing this exercise are immense
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