Are you forgetting to train important muscle groups?

More importantly, what are you foregoing when you don’t train them? All your muscles need to be moved occasionally but some are more important than others. As an office of chiropractic, we see people who go to the weight room three times a week and never target certain muscle groups that make a big difference in stability of the back. Developing these muscles can not only help you prevent pain, but also certain spinal conditions, and they will make you look great as well!

The forgotten muscle groups 

• The neck: there are many muscles in our neck alone. This makes it a densely packed trunk that is susceptible to stiffness and soreness. Exercising the neck and stretching it regularly helps to counteract the stiffness and pain that comes with sitting at a desk all day. Verdict: strengthening your neck will prevent a lot of stiffness and make an upright posture easier.
• The lower back: strengthening these muscles is perhaps the most important for people who suffer back pain. With more strength in the lower back muscles, there is less burden on the vertebrae and they also act as a stabilizing force. Verdict: strengthening this region will help you experience less back pain and mitigate the everyday load we put on our lower vertebrae.
• Obliques: these are the most neglected muscles in the core region, which is unfortunate because they contribute to range of motion in the rotating, twisting and side bending department. Verdict: strengthening the obliques completes your core workout and prevents injury from everyday motions such as looking over your shoulder. 
  
• The traps: these rarely come in for attention unless they are stiff. This is unfortunate because the trapezius stabilizes your shoulders, helps to perform overhead rotation of the arms. Outcome: strengthening and stretching this region can help defeat shoulder and upper back stiffness that comes from sitting at your desk for too long. 

Now is the time to start working out these muscle groups

Dedicating even one session a week to these groups can help to round out your muscle building schedule and give the crucial regions of your body some extra support. If you need help identifying parts of your exercise routine which might be leaving you short, give our office in Houston a call. We can help you mitigate pain in your back and focus on ways to strengthen the muscles that matter for keeping pain out of your life completely! 

Dr. Randall Holmes, D.C.