One-armed rows: Stand with your right leg bent in front of you with your toes facing forward and stretch the other leg straight out behind you, toes also facing forward. Bend over and place your right forearm on your right thigh for support and drop your left arm down by your side so your palm faces your thigh. Exhale and, keeping your arm close to your side, draw your elbow up as high as you can behind you. Keep your shoulders level and parallel to the ground and engage your abs. Inhale as you lower. Do this 10 to 20 times on each side.

Lying with arms overhead: Lie face up on your back with your knees bent. Holding a pair of two to three pound weights, straighten your arms above your chest, inhale and engage your abs, then exhale as you lower your arms back over your head. Hold this position and inhale, then exhale by drawing your arms back to starting position. Do not arch your back. You will feel this exercise pull on the muscles that run down the side and back of your torso towards your waist as you bring arms back up. Repeat 10–12 times.

Assisted chin-ups: Stand underneath and slightly in front of a high parallel gym bar. Reach up and grasp the bar firmly with your palms facing you and slightly less than shoulder-width apart. Inhale and engage your abs then, as you exhale, pull yourself up to the bar so you can touch it with your chin. Count up for two seconds, then lower down for four. Repeat as many times with perfect form as you can. If these are assisted your helper can give you support either under bent knees or around your hips.

Remember, you can’t do much about the bones you were born with, but you can do a lot to develop your muscles, control your weight and improve your general fitness. Balancing your body by improving posture and working on all the big muscle groups will make you look better, feel stronger and be less prone to injury. Good luck.

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Above-the-waist workout