Sonia Isaza is a fitness influencer with 3.5 million followers on Instagram. And she’s earned them. Her workouts showcase terrific form and the results are clear, as her muscles bulge. “Good good! đđœ â,” she captioned a recent post. “Here some of my workouts today! đ„With the teacher @belen_workouts đ” (She was tagging her Personal Trainer.) How does she stay so fit? Here’s how.
“The bent-over row is an exercise you can do with dumbbells to work the muscles in the back of the shoulder. The bent-over row targets the posterior part of the deltoid in the shoulder. That’s important, because many people focus on the muscles at the front of the shoulder. What you really want is balance in the shoulder muscles,” said Edward R. Laskowski, M.D. to the Mayo Clinic.
Isaza is seen using a Deltoid Flys machine. “Your deltoid muscles are in your shoulder, which is the ball-and-socket joint that connects your arm to the trunk of your body. Deltoid muscles help you move your arms in different directions. They also protect and stabilize your shoulder joint,” says the Cleveland Clinic. “Like most other muscles in your body, the deltoids are skeletal muscles. Tendons attach them to bones. Skeletal muscles are voluntary muscles, meaning you choose to move them. Skeletal muscles are different than smooth, or involuntary, muscles (such as your heart) that work without you having to think about it.”
“The lat pulldown is a fantastic exercise to strengthen the latissimus dorsi muscle, the broadest muscle in your back, which promotes good postures and spinal stability. Form is crucial when performing a lat pulldown to prevent injury and reap the best results,” says Piedmont Health. “As exercise physiologists at the gym, we see all kinds of wrong form and wrong techniques that can possibly hurt you,” says Clinton Maclin, an exercise physiologist at Piedmont, on their site. “You want to come in and do it the correct way so you can benefit and not harm yourself.”
“You’re best bet is performing them at the beginning of your workout, when you’re still mentally energized and your body is fatigue-free, according to Henry. Why? Walking lunges are a compound exerciseâmeaning they utilize multiple muscle groups and jointsâso they can be a bit taxing on the body,” says ACE Fitness.
To start, “Grasp two dumbbells and lie supine (on your back) on an incline bench angled between 45 and 60 degrees with your feet placed firmly on the floor or on a raised platform to allow you to maintain a neutral spine (flat to normal curvature),” says ACE Fitness. “Depress and retract your scapulae (pull shoulders down and back) to make firm contact with the bench.”