10 Exercises to Ease Back Pain

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Welcome to The BarBend Newsletter! Here’s what we have for you today:

• Bodyweight workouts for every size and shape

• Detailing the rise of bigorexia

• How to improve posture and lessen back pain

Workouts

When Your Body Is the Weight

Manipulating heavy weights is the basis for most resistance training programs, but what happens when you ditch the external loads and focus on what you carry around with you all day?

You have entered the ancient world of bodyweight training. In this land, you can train both your muscles and your cardiovascular system with rapid-fire resistance supplied by the very meat suit you were born in.

The use of only one weight seems limiting, but the options are borderline endless. You can tweak your disbursement of push-ups, air squats, and animal crawls to suit whatever needs you have, be they strength-based, mobility-centric, or fat-loss-oriented. Tap into your body’s natural ability to possess mass to fuel your next series of workouts.

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Mental Health

What Is Bigorexia?

If, by chance, you once received the gift of a custom-made T-shirt printed with the words “The Face of Bigorexia” on the front, and if you are now too large to (reasonably) fit into said T-shirt, you might already know all about the syndrome.

If the above does not at all pertain to you, you might be unaware of the growing effects of bigorexia. Fueled by fitness trends on social media, this (largely male-dominated) body dysmorphia phenomenon is increasingly pervasive.

Simply put, bigorexia is a body dysmorphic disorder where people become borderline obsessive about building more muscle and perceiving themselves as constantly undersized. Though this could be something anyone is afflicted with, you may see it happen more often with bodybuilders. 

While building muscle is one of the healthiest habits you can embark upon, obsessing about it to an unhealthy degree, to the point where it becomes a deterrent, is a problem.  

Understanding where you sit on the spectrum between healthy exuberance and crippling toxicity can help you improve your body and mind both in and out of the gym.

Posture

Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board

Sitting may be the new smoking, but statements like this aren’t making Joe Camel, replete with leather jacket and shades, sitting in a chair look any less cool.

You can fight back against the Big Office Chair lobby by engaging in these simple strengthening exercises and changing a few simple habits during your day to help improve your posture and lessen that nagging pain in your back.

Even if you’re not all that interested in looking better in clothes or making a better impression with your posture, these exercises can also improve your form on things like the barbell squat (one of the truly important things in life).

Strengthening your posterior muscles with simple things like face pulls, neck extensions, and a variety of good mornings can yield huge benefits. Take some time out of your day to get up and work on your posture.

Big Lift

Check out this monster 137 kilos/302-pound clean and jerk from two-time European champion Eygló Fanndal Sturludóttir.

Do you want us to share your next big lift? Just use the hashtag #BarBendLifts on Instagram to be featured on our page!

Quick Hits

💪 Trap This: Upright rows are again gaining popularity as a massive trap-building exercise. Learn how to do them correctly.

🥛 Mix This: Nutricost, as the name implies, attempts to offer a nutritious protein powder at a below-reasonable price point. BarBend’s experts weigh in on the concoction in this panel review.

📺 Watch This: Fitness influencer Sam Sulek is officially an IFBB Pro. Watch his first back workout since his first bodybuilding victory.

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