The resistance band pull apart is an excellent posture correcting exercise.
The reason being due to the exercise’s effectiveness at building strength and muscular endurance for postural muscles including the rear deltoids, lower traps, and scapular (shoulder blade muscles).
Personally, I perform this exercise in some capacity daily to help me build rear deltoid and scapular strength. This has helped keep me more upright and has improved my posture tremendously.
The band pull apart can be included into your warmups, your upper body workouts, full body workouts, shoulder workouts, and/or pull workouts.
Also, it’s not a bad idea to keep a resistance band around your desk if you work at home (or in an office if you don’t mind interested bystanders). Once an hour or so, get up and perform a set to help you remember to keep your shoulders back throughout the day.
So, let’s wrap up this article by discussing how to perform the exercise.
How to perform the resistance band pull apart
- Begin by selecting a band with the appropriate resistance. It’s never a bad idea to start out with lighter resistance and perfect the form before progressively challenging yourself with greater resistance.
- Holding the band in both arms, stick the band out in front of you and grasp the band with a shoulder width grip. You can take an underhand or overhand grip. Both have their benefits. I recommend alternating between the two variations, either each workout, each day, or each set depending on how often you perform the exercise.
- Extend your arms in front of you, keeping your forearms parallel with the floor and a slight bend in your elbows.
- Ensure the middle of the band is aligned with the midpoint of your body and adjust your hand position as necessary.
- Leading with your rear deltoids, scapular, and lower traps, stretch the resistance band until your arms form a T with your body or the band touches the top of your chest.
- Slowly reverse the movement, fighting the resistance as you return your arms to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Conclusion
The banded pull apart is an awesome exercise to include in your workouts. Consider investing in a set of resistance bands so you can incorporate the exercise into your regular daily habits.
For sets and reps, a general recommendation would be to perform between 2-5 sets for 10-25 repetitions. As your postural muscles become stronger, you may consider making the exercise more challenging by increasing the resistance of the band you use or by increasing the number of sets and reps you perform.
When starting out, consider sticking to the low end of the sets/rep range mentioned above and aim to perform the exercise 2-3 days per week. Gradually increase this volume and frequency over time until you reach your desired results.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment down below.