How to tone your back

Whether you’re trying to look stunning in your wedding dress, hitting the beach this summer, or just wearing a backless dress, getting your back tone will make you look more stunning than ever. Now most women focus on their abs for the summer, but the back muscles do aid in developing your abs. The back muscles also help improve posture, which will get worse as we age. It’s going to take time building your back muscles, but it brings rewards other than ridding yourself of back or the bra bulge.

Working the back is a key ingredient when sculpting your body because it help strengthens your chest and develops your core.

Tight muscles don’t function as well when they are tight so it’s important to keep them limber. Your back muscles tend to tighten especially if your job consist of sitting behind a desk all day which causes you to slouch. It’s very beneficial if your job requires you to lift heavy objects throughout the day. Stretching allows for better blood flow throughout your body; it also helps prevent injury. Here’s one way to stretch your back: Position your arm in a 90-degree angle and place it against the doorframe. Then turn your body towards the other arm and stretch for 30 to 60 seconds then change sides.

Squat stretch

Stand with your legs wider than shoulder width apart, and turn toes slightly outward. With your abs and buttocks tight, lower your body, bending at the knees, so that your thighs are parallel to the floor. Place your hands on top of your knees. Lift your pelvis (engage the muscles you would use to stop urine flow). Inhale and keep good posture as you press your right hand down on your right knee; exhale and turn your shoulders to your left. Breathe in and out three times (about 20 to 30 seconds total). Stand up, then repeat the stretch on the other side.

Spine stretch

Sitting on the floor with your feet wider than your hips, nod your head forward and begin to bend forward by hinging at the hips. Breathe normally. As you go down, draw your chin into your neck.

Lower back

The lower back is the foundation for an overall stronger body. A balanced mid-section consists of a properly functioning rectus abdomens, transvers abdominals, erector spine and the lower lats are also a part of the deal. To make it simple, if you want nice abs you need to develop your lower back; you can’t have one without the other.

Upper back

The rule for the upper back is the same as the rule for the lower back: you can’t work the back without working the front. How many women you know talk about how much the bench or talk about doing chest work at all? This might be because of all the muscle magazines where women have a flat chest, but the truth is that is because of their extreme low fat diet. In fact, as you work the chest you develop the muscles underneath your breast making perkier and appear bigger. Neglecting to work the chest can result in overall unbalance, so work the chest it won’t hurt you.

Resistant bands

Resistant band are great for toning your body; try doing some reverse flies to really give your body a workout.

Workout

Here are some exercises followed by a routine to work your back muscles:

Push ups

Push-ups help build the upper body not just the chest as well as comes in variations to help challenges parts of the body:

Wide push up

This form requires you to position your hands wider than your shoulders (hence the term wide pushups). Your chest benefits greatly from this form of pushups as well as the shoulders.

Narrow pushup or diamond pushups

These are more challenging than the wide pushup they also the back, chest, abs, and especially the triceps. Note that the hands seem to be placed directly under the chest.

Challenge

To really step up your pushups you can simply elevate your hands (incline pushups) or your feet (decline pushups).

Pull ups

Pullups are great for developing your back muscle and just like the pushups, comes in many variations.

Wide pullups require you to grip the pullup a pass your shoulders; these pullups take a lot of strain off your shoulders.

Close grip pull-ups require you to grip your hands closer together with your palms facing away from you. While both these variations focus mainly on your lats, close-grip pullups mainly target your lower lats.

Toning your back is going to take time especially if you barely took the time to even appreciate your back and all the hard work it has done over the years, but in due time you'll be glad you did.