Strengthen your back with these effective exercises

Modern life is hectic and often the first casualty is your back. Here are a few effective exercises that will help you deal with this.

How often do you think of your back muscles? When it comes to fitness, most of you surely plan for washboard abs and toned butts. Upper arms and chest also take up your time. But what about your poor back muscles? These are the most ignored muscles in your body. It is only when there is a pain in your back that you sit up and take notice.

Modern life is hectic and often the first casualty is your back. Thanks to an unhealthy and fast lifestyle, you are often left with a backache. Sitting for long hours in front of a computer does not help either. But if you make your back strong, you will have nothing to worry about. Strengthening your back muscles will help you prevent many common injuries and ensure that your body works perfectly at all times.

You need strong back muscles if you want to get perfect abs and toned core muscles. It will also improve posture and can help keep chronic problems, like lower back pain, at bay. But choosing the rich exercises for a strong back may be difficult. Here, we reveal a few exercises that will give you a strong back.

Pullovers

This will work the muscles of your upper back, sides of torso, backs of shoulders and backs of upper arms.

Directions

Lie on your back and hold a dumbbell firmly in each hand.

Extend your arms toward the ceiling and keep the dumbbell aligned over your chest.

Bend your legs and place your soles on the floor.

Tighten your abs and slowly extend your arms over your head and behind you.

Your elbows must be slightly bent and upper arms close to your ears.

When your arms are parallel to the floor, return to starting position.

Do 10 repetitions.

Shoulder blade squeezes

This back exercise will work the mid-back and backs of shoulders. It will also strengthen the muscles in your mid-back and improve posture.

Directions

Stand straight and hold a dumbbell in each hand.

Take your right foot forward and keep both knees bent.

Keep your right foot on the floor and lift your left heel, balancing on the ball of your left foot.

Lean forward from your waist.

Tighten your abs and keep your spine straight.

Hang your arms toward the floor.

Gently squeeze your shoulder blades together and down.

Bend your arms, lift your elbows up and behind you and keep shoulders away from your ears.

Return to starting position.

Do 10 repetitions with both right and left foot forward.

Bent over row

This back exercise works the lats, rhomboids, middle back and biceps.

Directions

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent.

Bend forward to a 45-degree angle.

Hold a dumbbell in each hand and draw your belly button in toward the spine.

Keep elbows close to the body and lift the weights until the elbows pass your back.

Squeeze your shoulder blades at the top of the motion.

Hold the position for 2 seconds and return to start position.

Do 10 repetitions.