The Importance of Upper Body Strength Upper body strength is important to you because your upper body controls your ability to perform everyday activities such as reaching, pulling, pushing and lifting. Having a strong upper body improves your flexibility, mobility and range of motion. If your upper body strength deteriorates as you age, you are more prone to injuries, disease and a diminished quality of life. Upper Body Muscles Your upper body is grouped into muscles with specific functions. You have muscles of your hands, your forearms, your upper arm and shoulder. You also have muscles that connect your limbs to your chest torso and to your spinal column. One benefit of strength in these muscles is a pleasing, healthy appearance and strong posture. More importantly, maintaining strength in these muscles will enable you to perform both everyday and sports-related activities at an optimal level and minimize the muscle loss that comes with aging. Upper body muscle strength can also help to prevent injuries with activities that stress those muscles. Upper Body Anatomy --- Why It Is Important to Stay Strong The muscles and joints of your hand primarily allow you to grasp and clench. These abilities allow you to perform fine motor skills required of human beings. An inability to grasp would limit your functionality significantly. The muscles of your lower arm allow you to rotate your hands, and to flex and extend your hand, wrist and forearm. Muscles in your upper arm are also involved in some of these motions. These activities are important in pulling and pushing. The muscles and joints of your shoulder allow you to move your arm in all directions. Moving your arm away from your body, towards your body, over your head, behind your back, towards your front and rotating your arm are all controlled by your shoulder. Most activities that you perform on a daily basis would be limited by an inability to perform these functions. The muscles that connect your upper limb to your chest are commonly known as the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor, the subcalvius and the serratus anterior. They allow you to flex, rotate and move your arm towards or away from your body. The muscles connecting your upper limbs to your spinal column are called the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids and levator scapulae. Some of their functions allow you to draw your shoulders up, down and back; to extend and rotate your arm; and to draw your scapula towards your back. Injury and Upper Body Strength As you age, you will naturally tend to lose muscle. This is called sarcopenia and begins as early as your twenties. It is estimated that you can lose up to 40 percent of your muscle mass by the time you reach your 60s. Loss of muscle mass in your upper body can have a great effect on other aspects of your life, also. For example, if you injure your lower extremities and require the use of crutches, upper body strength will allow you to tire less easily and improve your mobility. The same is true if you find yourself in a wheelchair temporarily or need the use of a walker. Upper Body Strengthening In order to maintain you mobility, flexibility, range of motion and strength you can see why it is important for you to maintain upper body strength. There are many options available to you to maintain this strength including simple exercises your learn from a book, a DVD or online, through participation in strength training classes or with a personal trainer or physical therapist. Always seek the advice of a professional for any specific questions related to your own personal health.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 14:57:29 +0000
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