Upper Back and Shoulders
Week 3
Upper Back and Shoulder Muscles
The exercises you practiced last week focused on strengthening your stomach muscles with carryover to your low back muscles. This week you’ll concentrate on strengthening your upper back muscles and shoulder muscles.
Technically speaking, your upper back muscles are not part of your trunk or core. But the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone, and the foot bone’s connected to the shin bone, and the shin bone’s connected to … Directly or indirectly, all the muscles in your body affect and are affected by your core.
Week 3 Schedule
The two new exercises this week are the Can Opener and the Penguin. Begin each daily session with your stretching warm-up. Follow stretching with one core stabilization exercise of your choice. Then do one set of Bicycle Crunches and one set either of Pelvic Tilts or Leg Raises. Finish the session with Penguins one day and Can Openers the next.
Penguins
1.Stand straight with good posture, your ear inline with your shoulder, your arms at your sides.
2.Exhaling, bend your elbow, touch your shoulder, and lift your elbows in front of you as high as you comfortably can.
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3.Inhale your elbows back to your sides, hands still on shoulders.
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4.Repeat steps 2-3 a maximum of 12-15 repetitions.
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5.Repeat steps 2-4, this time raising and lowering your elbows to the side.
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6.Repeat steps 2-5 one to three times.