Having a sore, painful or stiff back is a common complaint, and it affects many of us at some stage in our lives. Sitting at a desk (especially a makeshift work from home one) or behind the wheel for long periods of time, exercise injuries, lifting children and experiencing a weakening of the muscles during the menopause can all play havoc with our backs. 

If you have back pain that’s causing you a lot of discomfort or it’s affecting your quality of life, then it’s important to speak to your GP who can suggest or refer you for treatment.

However, exercising for a strong back is important for all of us and doing so can also improve our posture. And in a beautiful act of serendipity, improved posture can mean less back pain, so it’s a virtuous cycle!

Here’s the best exercises for improving posture and back strength:

1. Yoga is excellent for lengthening the muscles, adding tone and improving stability and posture. Our Yoga Programme is suitable for beginners to experienced, and includes moves such as child’s pose, downward facing dog, and forward folds that help to elongate the muscles in the spine, helping to improve both posture and back strength. 
2. A strong back and good posture don’t just come from working the back muscles. Having a strong core will also help to add stability and strength to the back. Strong abdominal (core) muscles can be achieved by regular standing core workouts or mat base workouts such as our 25 minute Ultimate Core workout or our short, sharp Hard Core Abs session! 
3. Pilates is also great for core stability, so try adding this short Classics of Core Pilates session into your weekly workout plan. 
4. Workouts with weights are not as daunting as they sound. In fact, we fully advocate adding weights to your workout routine. They add extra resistance and therefore make your workouts even more beneficial for building muscle mass and strength. Our Back Focus workout uses dumbbells and is a short but high intensity workout focussing on building back strength. If you don’t have dumbbells, you can use tins of food or filled water bottles instead. 
5. For the ultimate in full body strength building, including your back and core, work your way through our six week Strength Plan with Trainer Lily. Lily will talk you through the basics before gradually turning up the intensity as the weeks go by. You’ll need dumbbells but again, food cans or water bottles will be absolutely fine. You’ll probably love it so much though, that you’ll want to go out and buy some dumbbells! 

As with any exercise, if your back is sore (beyond simply tired or aching from exercise) then take things easy to begin with. If something hurts to the point where it’s unbearable or you can’t breathe properly, then stop immediately and seek medical attention. 

Otherwise, enjoy your new found perfect posture and back strength!