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Grow an Inch

Grow an Inch

A year ago, my client Maria was 29 years old, 120lbs and 5'2.
Now, Maria is 30 years old, 120lbs and 5'3.

What? You must be scratching your head.
Why is Maria's weight not changing but her height is?

Well, personal training is not always about weight loss. In Maria's case, she wasn't extremely concerned with weight loss, rather she wanted to look better overall.

We sat down over some pineapple juice and analyzed her body. Maria is an editor at a Canadian Magazine and worked at her computer all day long. As a result, her shoulders were very rounded which made her appear a lot shorter than she really was.

During the evaluation our conversation went like this:
Me: Mar, you can be taller, without heels!
Maria: Really? How much taller?
Me: Half a thumb at least, I am just going to have iron out your back. Are you okay with that?
Maria: Why not? Then I can be 5’5 with heels.

An hour later we were on the gym floor. We did full body exercises but mainly we focused on her back, rear shoulders and abs. We did the lat pulldown, cable row, rear delt raise, back extensions, etc. Her back began to straighten out within a few weeks.

Maria is one of many cases. Seventy percent of all clients I get often neglect to train their back properly or even train it at all.
Reasons that you should be training your back include:

    1. Posture! Posture! Posture! You will get more height.
    2. The back is a large muscle, the more you build it the more fuel it will need and as a result will burn a lot more calories.
    3. A strong chest needs a strong back to balance it.
    4. Training your back will allow you to also strengthen your biceps. Giving you a more toned look in your arms.
    5. Nothing looks better than a toned back in a tank top.

    Now let's talk about technique.

    The action of the back muscle is to pull weight towards you. This can be easily confused by placing too much focus and pulling with the arms. To teach you the correct technique, here is what I would like you to do:

    Have a seat on a Cable Row at the gym. Place your hands on the handles. Relax them while still holding on. Start to squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull the weight in towards you at the same time. Make sure that your arms/hands are relaxed while pulling in the weight and contract your back muscles. Squeeze nicely and then return the weight back down relaxing your back.