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John G. Murray Jr. Chiropractic

10 Anderson Rd.
Clinton, NJ 08809
(908) 638-4144

Wheelbarrow Exercise for Bad Posture

How do you escape the invisible gorilla hand of gravity from pulling our head over as you grow older? The first of which is to get adjusted keeping the spine free of nerve interference. The other is doing exercise for bad posture which helps by strengthening the muscles on the backside of your body.

When I prescribe an exercise for my patients, it is often as much as a 3:1 ratio of back to front. When people focus only on their front side with exercises such as crunches or bench presses, they miss out on the benefit of strengthening the back side of the body. The back side is so critical because the is the root system that supports the entire body.

So here is the wheelbarrow exercise, and there’s a good chance it will change your life…

  1. Take an exercise band (which we can provide for you) and stand as if you were picking up a wheel barrow handle.
  2. Squat down as deep as you hands are even with your knees, but the most important of all is to keep you head up and your back straight.
  3. Once you have your alignment, stand in an erect position, then begin to descend by tipping your pelvis while keeping your head up and your back flat.
  4. Go down till your hands are just past the knees, then come back up avoiding locking the knees at the top.

Repeat this motion taking 3-4 seconds to move up, then pause, then another 3-4 seconds to come back down. Don’t fire out of the bottom, nor should you lock your knees at the top. Perform 15-20 reps of this exercises and you will notice that your entire spine in engaged from calves to your ears is working.

Remember that keeping proper form is the most important thing – not only does it help you get the most out of the exercise, but it will also help prevent injury. So always train with control and strengthen your back so you can always stand tall.

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Dr. John Murray

Dr. John Murray

"Empowering our patients to understand that their lifestyle choices make a difference is the greatest thing we can do."