5 Posture Correcting and Back Strengthening Progressions

Maintaining good posture is essential, especially in a demanding job. Whether you spend hours hunched over a desk, experience discomfort from poor posture, or want to enhance your overall well-being, we have just the solution for you. So continue to read for you to learn the upper back posture exercises. 

Furthermore, we will dig into these five progressive exercises, meaning that you can start with the first one and gradually work your way up to the more challenging ones. These exercises to strengthen upper back and improve posture are designed to help you correct your posture and strengthen your upper back, which will transform your posture and help alleviate your discomfort.

Perform the following progressive exercises 1-2 times a day for 10 minutes. Here are the 5 posture-correcting which are also great upper back exercises for all beginners, intermediate or advanced exercisers.

1. Baby Cobra 

Baby cobra exercises are popular yoga poses commonly practiced to strengthen and stretch the muscles in the back, especially the lower back. This upper back posture exercises is inspired by how a baby cobra raises its head and chest off the ground, imitating the movement.

The baby cobras are also popular exercises to improve posture and promote spine flexibility.

Benefits of Baby Cobra for Posture and Back

The baby cobra pose is a great way to alleviate discomfort from pain, poor posture, and back strength. Here are some of the benefits of this pose:

• Improves spinal posture – This helps to lengthen and strengthen the spine, which can improve your posture.
• Strengthens posture muscles – The baby cobra pose strengthens the muscles in your lower and upper back, including your trapezius, rhomboids, and latissimus dorsi. These muscles help to support your spine and keep it in alignment.
• Stretches chest muscles – This exercise stretches the muscles in your chest, including your pectoralis major and minor. Enhancing your range of motion leads to a reduction in chest tightness.
• Opens up the shoulders – This movement opens up the shoulders and chest, which can help prevent creating tension in these areas. This is especially beneficial for people who have rounded shoulders or hunched backs.
• Improves breathing – The baby cobra opens up your chest and lungs, which helps improve your breathing. This can be helpful for people with respiratory problems or who want to improve their lung capacity.
• Reduces stress – This can help reduce stress and relieve tension in the body and mind. This is due to the pose’s calming effect on the nervous system.

Description

Lie on your stomach with your feet shoulder-width apart, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, hips, and legs. Place your hands at your sides at chest level. Contract your abdominal muscles.

Moreover, breathe in, then press up and arch your back using your hands as support, squeezing your shoulder blades together. Hold this position for 5-10 seconds. Slowly lower your chest to the floor as you rest the side of your head on the floor, relaxing your arms at your sides. Repeat the movement. 

Benefits of Baby Cobra

• Great pose for beginners – It is a gentle pose that can help you to build strength and flexibility in your back and chest muscles.
• Safe pose for most people – It is a low-impact pose that does not strain your joints.
• Help to relieve back pain– If you suffer from back pain, especially in the upper back, baby cobra helps stretch and strengthen the back, relieving pain and improving your range of motion.
• Help to improve your breathing – When you do baby cobra, you open up your chest and lungs, which can help improve your breathing.

2. Full Cobra

The full cobras are upper back posture exercises to improve and strengthen both the upper back muscles and the chest. Keeping your chest forward is an important aspect of performing a full cobra pose in yoga. Although it is a more advanced pose than a baby cobra, still, it is still accessible to everyone.

Description

Lie on your stomach with your feet shoulder-width apart, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, hips, and legs. Place your hands at your sides with your palms facing upward.

In addition, contract your abdominal muscles and lift your mid-back as you hover your legs slightly above the floor. Hold the position for a couple of breaths. Relax and return to the starting position. Repeat the movement.

Benefits of Full Cobra

The full cobra exercise is a yoga pose that is known for its many benefits, including:

• Improved spinal posture, flexibility, and alignment – The exercise helps to stretch the muscles in the back and chest, which can help to improve posture and alignment. It can also help relieve back pain by taking pressure off the spine.
• Increased circulation – This exercise helps to improve circulation by opening up the chest and lungs. This can help to bring more oxygenated blood to the brain and other vital organs.
• Opens the lungs – The full cobra exercise helps open the lungs by expanding the chest cavity. This can improve breathing and reduce symptoms of asthma and other respiratory conditions.
• Strengthens the back muscles – The full cobra exercise helps strengthen the muscles in your back, including the erector spinae, trapezius, and especially the rhomboids. By incorporating this technique, individuals can enhance their body alignment and minimize the likelihood of experiencing discomfort in the back region.
• Massages the abdominal organs – The full cobra exercise helps to massage the abdominal organs, including the stomach, liver, and kidneys. Enhancing digestion and decreasing bloating are potential benefits that can be achieved by doing Full Cobra.

3. Alternating Supermans

This is a challenging upper back posture exercises but highly recommended for your back.  It targets the core, back, and glutes muscles, helping improve overall stability and strength.

• Strengthens your core muscles – The alternating superman works the core muscles in your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. These muscles are important for maintaining good posture, preventing back pain, and improving athletic performance.
• Improves posture – The alternating superman helps to strengthen the muscles that support your spine. This helps improve your posture and reduce back pain.
• Increases your flexibility – The alternating superman stretches the muscles in your lower back and hips. Engaging in this activity can enhance your flexibility and expand your range of motion.
• Reduces your risk of possible injury – A strong and stable core can help to protect your spine from injury. The alternating superman can help to strengthen your core and reduce your risk of injury.
• Improves your balance – This exercise requires balancing your hands and feet. This helps improve your balance and coordination.

Description

Lie on your stomach with your feet shoulder-width apart, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, hips, and legs. Contract your core, and lift one arm as you lift the opposite leg.

Lower your arm and leg back down and repeat the movement on the opposite side. Be sure to keep your head down and not over-extend through the back to avoid lower back and neck pain.

Encouragement to challenge oneself while maintaining proper technique:

• Embrace the challenge – Approach this exercise with a positive mindset and a readiness to push beyond your comfort zone.
• Understand the technique – Maintain a controlled and fluid motion to optimize the exercise’s impact.
• Find your balance – Focus on maintaining proper alignment, breathing rhythmically, and engaging the targeted muscles. 
• Progress gradually – Perform a few repetitions correctly rather than rushing through many with compromised technique. Executing deliberate and measured movements will enable you to engage the specific muscles and sustain complete equilibrium.

These posture exercises can be modified if you struggle to maintain proper technique by lifting your arm and leg a little less high or holding the position for a shorter time.
Breathe steadily throughout the exercise. This conscious breathing will give you the necessary oxygen and energy to sustain the exercise while promoting relaxation and focus.

4. Full Superman

Highlighting the increased intensity and benefits of full superman:

Increased Intensity

The Full Superman is one of the upper back posture exercises that stands out due to its heightened intensity compared to traditional exercises. The movement requires significant muscular effort, engaging the core, glutes, lower back, and shoulders simultaneously.

By lifting the arms and legs simultaneously, the Full Superman exercise places a greater demand on the muscles than isolated movements. This increased intensity challenges the body’s strength and stability, promoting muscle growth, endurance, and coordination.

Benefits of Full Superman

• Core strengthening – Strengthening exercises like the Full Superman target enhance the stability of the core muscles, encompassing the abdominal muscles, obliques, and lower back.
• Posture improvement – Regular full superman exercise helps alleviate pain and correct poor posture by targeting the muscles responsible for spinal alignment. The Full Superman exercise specifically targets the muscles in the lower back, which are crucial for maintaining a healthy spine.
• Enhanced glute activation – This exercise also activates the gluteal muscles, helping to shape and strengthen the buttocks.

• Improved functional fitness – This exercise is particularly beneficial for athletes and individuals who want to improve their fitness and daily performance. This alleviates neck pain, and you will experience less muscle pain as you are accustomed to these movements.

Description

Lie on your stomach on the floor with your legs shoulder-width apart and your arms extended overhead, maintaining good alignment in your shoulders, hips, and legs. Contract your core and lift your upper body and legs by arching your lower back. Be careful not to extend your neck. Hold this position for 2-3 seconds. Return to the starting position and repeat the movement.

Please note to keep your chin tucked when performing the Alternating Supermans and Full Supermans. Tucking your chin helps to keep your neck in a neutral position and prevents you from overextending your neck.

5. Skydivers

Benefits of Skydivers

Skydiver workouts are great back strengthening and upper back posture exercises. Here are some key advantages:

• Core activation– During a skydiver workout, the core muscles are highly engaged to maintain stability and control throughout the movement. This constant activation helps strengthen the deep muscles of the abdomen, including the transverse abdominis and obliques.
• Spinal alignment– The skydiver exercise necessitates specific body positioning, such as arching the back and maintaining an elongated spine, which aids in promoting the correct spine alignment.
• Postural awareness– By consistently practicing correct posture during skydiver exercises, individuals can retrain their muscles and reinforce good posture habits.
• Back strength– The movements of arching the back and extending the spine can help strengthen the erector spinae muscles, which play an important role in maintaining a strong and healthy back.

Emphasizing the Engagement of Multiple Muscle Groups 

Skydivers are great upper back posture exercises that involve various muscle groups, delivering a comprehensive workout for the entire body. This exercise mimics the movements of a skydiver, hence the name.

1. As you lift, you engage your core muscles to stabilize your body. Your muscles, particularly the erector spinae, work to extend the spine and maintain proper posture. The glutes and hamstrings engage to lift and control the movement of the legs.
2. The skydiver exercise also targets the shoulders. As you lift your arms, the deltoids, trapezius, and rotator cuff muscles are activated to stabilize and control the movement. This not only helps to strengthen the shoulders but also improves posture and upper body strength.
3. The calves come into play as you lift your legs off the ground. This helps to strengthen the calf muscles and improve ankle stability.

Description

Lie on your stomach on the floor with your legs shoulder-width apart and your arms outstretched overhead. Tighten your abdominal muscles. Lift your upper body and feet off the floor by extending your lower back and maintaining good alignment in your head, shoulders, hips, and legs.

Be careful not to extend your neck. Bring your hands down by your ears, keeping your elbows aligned at shoulder height as you bend your knees out to the sides and lift your heels up towards the sky. Relax and return to the starting position. Repeat the sequence of movements.

For this exercise, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the end position is important.

If Skydiver is quite challenging, you can perform the following:

• Plank pose– The plank position is a great upper back exercise that can strengthen your core, glutes, and hip flexors, similar to the engagement experienced during skydivers.
• Bird dog– This exercise engages your core, glutes, and back muscles, similar to the movement and muscle activation required in skydivers.
• Mountain climbers– This exercise works your core, shoulders, and hips, providing a similar dynamic movement to skydivers.

Other exercises for postural muscles with a dumbbell, barbell, and weight plates

• Dumbbell rows– Stand with one knee and hand resting on a bench, holding a dumbbell in the other hand. Keeping your back straight, lift the dumbbell up towards your armpit, squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• Regular barbell rows– Knees slightly bent, and maintain a neutral spine position. Your upper body should be hinged forward to the floor, keeping your back straight throughout the movement.
• Barbell high row– Your knees are slightly bent. Your body is tilted forward, hinging at the hips and pushing the glutes back. Reach down and grab the barbell to prepare to row. The back should be strong and flat. 
• Weight plate twists– Begin in an upright sitting position on the floor with your legs extended in front of you. Lean back slightly so that your body is at a 45-degree angle to the floor.Twist your torso from side to side, keeping the weight plate balanced on your lap.
• Seated cable rows– This is a seated position exercise on a cable row machine. Grip the – cable handles to start using an overhand grip, and position your hands slightly wider than the width of your shoulders, pulling the cables towards your chest.
• Good mornings with a barbell– For this exercise, it is important to stand tall. Standing tall distributes your weight evenly.

You can start with a little less weight, then add weights as you progress.

It is important to note that these exercises should not be performed if you have any underlying health conditions, such as a herniated disc or spinal stenosis. If you are unsure whether or not this exercise is right for you, consult with a doctor or yoga instructor.

Conclusion

The journey towards improving your posture and strengthening your back through various progressions is remarkable. It takes dedication, perseverance, and a genuine desire to care for your body.

Committing to each exercise for upper back posture and back-strengthening has demonstrated your commitment to a healthier, more aligned life.

The warm and empowering feeling you experience as you notice your improved posture and increased strength is a testament to your hard work paying off. Embrace this newfound energy and continue to build upon it, knowing that you possess the strength to overcome any obstacle that may come your way. Every step you take is worth it.