Spot Toning and Muscle-Building Tips

10 Muscles That Are Hard to Sculpt

From stubborn muscles that just won’t pop to secret spots you didn’t know you should (or could) hit, we reveal how to train your body's trouble zones
By Greg Presto fitbie
 

Undo the Damage Done by Your Chair (and Improve Your Golf Swing)

Stand up straight? It's kind of tough when your pelvis is tilted forward or backward, as our chair-bound ways can make us. Learning to control the position of your pelvis to keep it neutral can help undo the damage done by your office chair, and it can set you up to generate more power in your golf swing, says Anthony Renna of Fire Iron Fitness.

First, Renna says, you need to feel the tilt in your pelvis. To do so, lay on your back with knees bent, at the bottom of a situp position. Collapse your lower back to the floor to feel what it's like when the bottom of your pelvis is tilted forward. Then raise your upper back to feel the opposite tilt. Maintaining the neutral position—between these two—is the key, Renna says.

To train to maintain, Renna recommends a core exercise called "dead bug." To do it, lie in the classic situp position, with your arms stretched overhead. Push your lower back down to get into neutral pelvic position. From this position, lift your right leg and left arm off the mat and bring them toward one another. Lower back to start and repeat, this time lifting the right arm and left leg.

Your office posture also affects your upper body, Renna says. "We get that computer-man posture," he says. "We're really tight throughout the thoracic [upper] spine."

Thoracic spine mobility is important to his golfing clients, so Renna prescribes a side-lying rotation stretch. To do it, lie on your left side, with a medicine ball in front of your belly button. Bend your right knee and put it on top of the ball, pressing down with your knee. Bend your elbow to 90 degrees. Maintaining this leg position and keeping your arm bent, rotate backward as if you were trying to touch your shoulder blade to the ground behind you. "Because your knee is above the pelvis, you won't rotate in the lumbar spine," Renna says. "You'll get really good thoracic rotation, and a nice little chest stretch."

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