Push Up for Back Stability |
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Push Up with a Plus – Upper Back Stability
1. Start by facing a wall with feet parallel and hips shoulder width apart, about 18” from the wall, your arms slightly bent.
2. Keeping your arms in the same slightly bent position, push your chest away from the wall, rounding through your upper back, and keeping your neck tucked. You are creating a convex curve in your upper back, this is the “plus”. You can think of it as separating your shoulder blades.
3. Aim into the upper back, most people tend to round into the middle back - keep your chin tucked. use abdominal bracing to keep your whole trunk upright and with a slight concave curve in your low back. hold this position for 3-10 seconds, breathing, and then relax.
Repeat 3-10 times, 1-2 times per day.
Variation 1 – Holding the “plus”, the rounded convex upper back position, slowly lower your whole trunk toward the wall. now push yourself back to upright.
Variation 2 – As you get stronger at this, you can do this exercise on your hands and knees, working against gravity.
Variation 3 – a similar exercise with weights, is lying on your back doing a single arm bench press, starting with your arm above you and only slightly bent. Straighten the arm as you push the weight upward, pushing the weight as high as you can, lifting your shoulder blade off the weight bench.
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