Welcome to the Get Fit Guys' quick and dirty tips to get moving and shape up.

My name is Brock Armstrong and I'm the Get Fit Guy.

When it comes to building strong and defined muscles, the view from behind is not all about the glutes.

Having a strong back and strong shoulders is not only attractive,

but it's also an essential part of feeling and performing your best. And that's what we're

going to talk about today. A strong, well-toned back does more than allow you to look good in a tight

t-shirt. It also is key to having good posture,

being and remaining able-bodied, and of course also preventing dreaded back pain, especially as

we age. Back pain is a problem that is currently estimated to affect more than 80% of Americans.

It has been suggested that the veritable pandemic of back pain is at least partially due to the amount of time that we spend sitting

at a computer or cranking our necks down to look at a device of some sort. But whenever someone

brings that idea up, well, I can't help but think back to my grandparents,

craning their necks and backs at paperback books, or knitting, or even simply the daily newspaper.

Now, sure, perhaps I'm twisting my memories to defend technology because it's, well, it's how I make my living

and also how I spend my leisure time. But I believe humans have a longer history of bad posture

than our current smartphone obsession. But okay, I digress. Let's start with this. Gravity is a drag.

Beyond the fact that it constantly pulls on our meat sack bodies, making us look more and more droopy as we age, it also tugs directly on our backs and our spines, our shoulders, and our neck. To simply stay upright during the workday, you are basically locked in an epic battle with gravity, and that can be seriously exhausting, especially if your muscles aren't up for the

challenge. When you think about it, it's obvious that the stronger and more supple and more able

your postural muscles are, the easier it is to maintain the optimal

alignment of your body. I picture this. Your eyes are on the horizon. Your neck is nice and tall. Your

shoulders are pulled back and your ribcage is relaxed and your pelvis is aligned directly under your center of mass.

Doesn't that sound awesome?

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