| An Exercise for Your Mid and Upper Back | | | | How To Do the Rowing Exercise Properly |
| If you want to get rid of chronic tension headaches, | | | | Sit on the floor, with your legs out in front of you. Take |
| you must correctpoor posture. You do this through | | | | yourtubing, theraband, or old bicycle tube, hook it over |
| retraining your muscles to adaptto proper posture. | | | | your feet andduplicate a rowing motion. Pull back, |
| How? | | | | making sure to keep yourshoulders, back and head up, |
| Through stretching and exercise. It's particularly | | | | and squeeze your shoulder bladestogether as you pull |
| important tostrengthen your back. Strong back | | | | the tubing toward you. This is simply a verybasic |
| muscles will help holdup your shoulder girdle so you | | | | rowing exercise. |
| can pull your shoulders back andmaintain them in that | | | | To keep things simple, do this exercise until the |
| position all day. | | | | muscles in yourback begin to burn slightly. That burning |
| It's very important to remember that in order to keep | | | | sensation indicates thatyou've reached the fatigue |
| tensionheadaches away, your back, shoulder and | | | | point of those muscles. It's almost thesame burning |
| chest muscles need tofunction in the proper position as | | | | sensation you feel about midday or late afternoon |
| long as you're up. For most of us,that's 16-18 hours a | | | | atwork - the burning sensation that happens right |
| day. | | | | before your tensionheadaches kick in. |
| Not only do you have to strengthen these muscles, | | | | When your muscles begin to burn, quit and note how |
| you have to workon their endurance as well. | | | | long you didthe exercise. |
| Obviously, they're going to need a lot ofendurance to | | | | If, for example, you did the exercise for two |
| hold you upright all day. | | | | minutesbefore your muscles began to burn, then your |
| Probably the best exercise for strengthening the | | | | goal should be toincrease that time by about 15-20 |
| muscles of yourmid and upper back is a seated | | | | seconds. Each time you do theexercise, try to improve |
| rowing exercise. You can do thisexercise in a number | | | | your performance by that amount of time. |
| of ways. | | | | When you do this exercise, pull back until you come to |
| If you have a rowing machine, use it. Emphasize the | | | | an uprightposition, then pull your arms back as far as |
| pullback andreally stretch out the shoulders and chest | | | | you can. Make sureyou're squeezing your shoulder |
| as you pull and squeeze yourshoulder blades together. | | | | blades in. Don't do the exerciserapidly, but keep up a |
| If you don't have access to a rowing machine, a | | | | good pace. |
| simple, inexpensivealternative is to get an old inner tube | | | | Your goal is the same as it would be for any other |
| or one of those therapeutic bandsthat are available in | | | | weight lifting oraerobic activity - you want to gradually |
| sporting goods stores (they're like giant rubberbands). | | | | increase your performanceuntil you reach your target. |
| Or, you can simply get some old tubing, like the inner | | | | That target is to be able to do this for 10minutes three |
| tube ofan old bicycle tire. | | | | times a week. |