A strong back is the key to a confident physique, stability, improved posture, and overall strength.
In this article, we’ll go over some of the best exercises you can learn and integrate into your workout routine for:
- Building a strong back
- Adding width to your back
- Improving your posture
- Preventing the risk of chronic aches, stiffness, and injury.
The Muscles of the Back
The back is made up of several distinct muscle groups. The four primary moving muscles, known as Superficial Muscles, are:
- Latissimus dorsi (lats) enable you to extend and rotate your shoulder and arm. The lats are the largest muscle in the upper body. They start below your shoulder blades and extend to your spine in the lower back. When you see someone with an inverted triangle torso shape, they have well-developed lats.
- Levator scapulae, which raises your shoulder blade. It’s a smaller muscle that runs along the side of your neck and extends to the shoulder blade (scapula).
- Rhomboids are two muscles (the rhomboid major and minor) that work together to pull the scapula inward toward the spine. They connect the shoulder blades to the spine.
- Trapezius muscles (traps) help you move your shoulders, raise your arms, and have good posture. The traps start in your neck, run along the tops of your shoulders, and then extend down to the spine in a triangle shape.
There are also intermediate muscles and intrinsic muscles, which are deep under the skin and work to support the spine and connect the spinal column to its dependent systems. These muscles provide your body with stability and rigidity, allowing you to safely turn, twist, and bend at the spine.
Regarding working out, we’re primarily going to focus on the four superficial muscles as the main movers of the exercises we’ll cover.
Compound Back Exercises for Strength and Size
Compound exercises refer to exercises that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously. With these lifts, there are primary muscles you engage, agonist muscles which aren’t the main lifting mechanism but still assist with the motion, and stabilizing muscles which help you maintain your posture and balance through the lift.
Compound exercises are great to include at the beginning of your workouts after you have warmed up.
Rows
Difficulty: Beginner
Muscles Worked: Lats, traps, rear delts, rhomboids
Rows represent a broad category of back exercises you should learn early in your lifting lifecycle. One of the best things about rows is that once you learn their basic mechanics, you can modify them and perform dozens of variations of an incredibly effective exercise. We’ll describe a Bent Over Barbell Row to establish a starting point. Once you learn the Bent Over Barbell Row, other common variations become pretty easy. Some variants are a little easier to complete, such as a Supported Dumbbell Row, but the Bent Over Barbell Row is a bit better starting point because it (a) engages more of your back and posterior chain and (b) helps your train more stabilizing muscles than easier variations.
To complete a barbell row,
- Place a barbell in a lifting rack so the bar is about the height of your knees or slightly lower. Fit the bar with the appropriate amount of weight.
- Slightly bend your knees and bend over, keeping your back rigid and your core engaged. You do not need to be parallel to the floor. About 45 degrees is plenty.
- Grip the barbell with an overhand grip barely wider than the shoulder’s width apart.
- Pull the bar up toward your chest and keep your shoulder blades drawn back and down. Your elbows should be coming back fairly close to your torso– don’t flare your elbows out to the sides or you risk injuring your shoulder.
- Lift until the bar touches your lower chest or stomach.
- Carefully return the bar to the starting position.
Row Adaptations and Variations
There are dozens of ways that you can vary your row. How you modify it will depend upon what you specifically want to target. Because there are so many options available, I won’t go into detail about them. But some of the more common variations include:
- Single-arm dumbbell rows, which are often completed while kneeling on a flat bench. These are an excellent choice for practicing slow, isolated lifts and can be a great way to help improve strength symmetry if you feel that your dominant side is stronger than your non-dominant side.
- T-bar rows, which can be completed with a supported chest (usually equipment for this will be available at your gym) or in a similar stance as a bent-over row, place the bar between your legs with the fulcrum of the lift behind you. While barbell rows are compound exercises that target a broad spectrum of back muscles while engaging your legs, t-bar rows are a more isolated exercise that targets the same back muscles without engaging the legs quite as much since the bar functions as a fulcrum rather than solely relying on your body to function as a lever.
Pull-Ups
Difficulty: Intermediate
Muscles Worked: Latissimus Dorsi, Biceps Brachii, Infraspinatus (part of the shoulder cuff), Lower Trapezius, Erector Spinae
Pull-ups don’t require barbells or dumbbells and present a fairly low risk of injury. Despite this, they shouldn’t be underestimated for how effective (and challenging) they are as an exercise.
To perform a pull-up,
- Grip a pull-up bar with a pronated grip, meaning your palms face away from your body, at or slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Raise yourself by drawing your shoulder blades back and down, pulling through your lat muscles and arms until your chin is even with the bar
- Lower yourself back down in a controlled motion until your arms are approximately 85% extended
- Repeat
Pull-ups, when done correctly, will engage each of the major back muscles, making them great for training. Avoid swinging your body or “kipping.” Kipping is meant to help you build up inertia, allowing you to raise yourself above the bar by guiding your body’s motion with your shoulders rather than by engaging your back muscles. Kipping will prevent you from seeing the benefits of a proper pull-up and significantly increases your risk of a shoulder injury. Kipping and swinging may be more common in activities like Crossfit, where the focus is on sustained activity, but dimish returns for strength training.
Pull-Up Adaptations and Variations
With pull-ups, there are a few main ways that you can adapt the exercise to your needs.
For more challenging pull-ups, you can:
- Increase the weight of each rep by wearing a weight vest, using a chain to hang a weight plate from your waist, or gripping a dumbbell between your feet.
- You can also experiment with increasing the width of your grip, but if so, be mindful that you should still draw your shoulder blades back and down while completing the rep to prevent the risk of injuries.
Pull-ups can be very challenging or too challenging when you’re just starting. They were for me– one of my first big workout goals was to be able to do five pull-ups. If you’re starting in a similar position:
- Use a weight-assisted pull-up machine. With these machines, your knees will rest on a carriage, and you can specify how much of an assist you would like by adjusting the weight settings of the machine. The higher the weight amount you select, the easier your pull-ups will be. Try to find the sweet spot where you can complete 6-8 pull-ups, but it’s still difficult.
- Use a resistance band to assist. This is not my preferred way to assist with a pull-up, but it is an option. You can loop a resistance band over your pull-up bar and then rest your knee or foot in the loop that hangs down. As the band stretches, it will apply pressure to help you return to the top of the motion. The risk with this adaptation is that it can make it easier for you to trip or get stuck on the dismount. Additionally, if you have your foot in the band and your legs extended, the band will build up a lot of tension. If it then slides off your foot and between your legs, it can cause significant pain or injury to your inner thigh or groin.
Deadlifts
Difficulty: Advanced
Muscles Worked: Glutes, Hamstring, Quads, Lats, Traps, Lower Back, plenty of synergist muscles
Deadlifts are often considered the king of workouts. They work your lower body and nearly your entire posterior chain. While deadlifts are a great exercise to start practicing, if you’re brand new to lifting, it’s probably best to ease into full deadlifts by doing one of the variations below. Doing deadlifts incorrectly can result in injury.
To perform a deadlift:
- Set up your barbell with the appropriate weight in an area or on a platform designed for deadlifts.
- Step up to the bar so your toes are under it, but your shin doesn’t touch it. Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart and slightly angled away from the body (about 15 degrees).
- Bend at the knees, dropping down so you can grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Lift your chest and engage your core. You want your torso to be fairly straight and rigid. If your lower back is rounded or drooping, you increase your risk of injury.
- Keeping your core engaged and your back straight, drive through your heels, lifting with your legs as you raise your back to an upright standing position.
- Pause briefly at the top of your lift with your back and legs fully extended, then safely lower the weight back to the ground or release it back to the floor.
Deadlift Adaptations and Variations
Deadlifts are difficult to master, but once you get them down, they’re one of the best exercises to keep in your arsenal. The standard deadlift, however, doesn’t have to be the only version you do.
- Perform deadlifts with dumbbells instead of a barbell to better learn how to engage your muscles and ensure that you’re getting the full depth needed for the lift. With dumbbells, you’ll be lifting less weight but doing more reps generally, and you will also be able to squat lower when getting set up. This is an excellent variation for learning to lift safely or just in a crowded gym with limited lifting platforms.
- If you have tight hips or a history of lower back injuries, you may be safer to perform rack pulls instead of deadlifts. Rack pulls follow a similar motion to deadlifts, but the barbell starts on a rack at a height just below your knees. While rack pulls do not engage the posterior chain as completely as deadlifts, they’re still a fantastic way to engage and strengthen many of the same muscles.
- Start with your barbell elevated on platforms or small plate stacks if you are particularly tall. For folks over six feet tall, the deep crouch to start a deadlift can put excessive strain on their knees and requires more energy at the start, making it a challenge to complete multiple reps. Elevating the barbell slightly decreases the extent to which you have to bend your knees and activate your hip flexors, which can make the lift more comfortable.
Isolated Back Exercises for Stability and Posture
As the name suggests, isolated exercises refer to exercises that target relatively few muscles per movement. Generally, an isolated lift will not activate stabilizing muscles in the same way that a compound lift will. Despite this, these are still fantastic exercises in your routine since they can be incorporated in a way that lets you train for specific outcomes. By incorporating isolated exercises targeting specific muscles, you can compensate for any known weaknesses or mobility limitations you want to overcome.
Back Extension/ Hyperextension
Difficulty: Beginner
Muscles Targeted: Glutes, Erector Spinae
Hyperextensions are a fairly straightforward exercise with little risk of injury if done correctly. This is not an exercise that will contribute to significant size gains. Still, it does help strengthen your Erector Spinae– a thick muscle that runs from the top of your hips along the spine– which gives you more strength and stability in compound lifts like squats and deadlifts, and it can also help improve your posture.
I incorporate hyperextensions into my routine frequently because they help me with lower back pain from sitting in a desk chair for long periods.
Completing a hyperextension will require your gym to have the appropriate bench support available.
- Brace your feet and thighs in place within the extension bench. The top of the supporting pad should be below the top of your hip so that you can bend fully at the waist.
- Lower your torso toward the ground without rounding your spine. Maintain rigidity as much as possible.
- Once you’ve lowered as much as possible, lift yourself slowly, continuing to keep your back erect.
- Only raise until your back is straight, and pause for two to three seconds at the top of the raise. You do not want to arch your back extensively at the top of your lift, particularly if you are hypermobile, as this can strain your vertebrae unnecessarily.
- Repeat
Back Extension Adaptations and Variations
You can make your back extension more challenging by holding a dumbbell or weight plate on your chest while completing the motion.
Lat Pulldowns
Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate
Muscles Worked: Lats, traps, delts, stabilizing muscles through the shoulder
Lat pulldowns are a classic, and for good reason. The lats are one of the most impressive muscle groups in the body. You will be impressed when someone has well-shaped lats, and the pulldown is a great way to target those muscles.
This is a fantastic exercise to master if you are practicing to be able to do pull-ups or if you want a stronger, broader back.
To complete a Lat Pulldown:
- Grip the bar on the lat pulldown machine wider than shoulder-width apart and your palms facing away from your body. Most bars will have grips indicating the correct location to hold them.
- Seat yourself on the machine, usually with your knees braced to help you stay in place.
- Engage your core to keep your torso straight, and draw your shoulder blades back and down.
- Pull down on the bar, lowering it until it is even with your chin.
- Let the bar return in a slow, controlled motion until your arms are nearly fully extended.
Keep your legs planted firmly when completing Lat Pulldowns, and press your hips back into the seat. Avoid rocking or jerking, as doing so will put unnecessary strain on your shoulders and lower back.
Single-Arm T-bar Rows
Difficulty: Intermediate
Muscles Worked: Lats, Rhomboids, Core
We’ve already covered standard rows, so the mechanics of this exercise should be fairly familiar. A few key differences to the single-arm t-bar row, though, will differentiate the experience from standard rows.
- Secure your barbell appropriately, so one end is anchored at floor height while the other is freely movable.
- Add weight to your barbell– 33% to 50% of what you usually lift during standard rows.
- Stand to one side of the weighted end of the barbell facing away from the fulcrum.
- With your legs at or slightly beyond shoulder width, allow a slight bend in your knees and grip the barbell with the hand closest to it.
- In a slow, controlled motion, pull the barbell up. As you are doing so, engage your core. Keep your hips level and avoid twisting or jerking as you raise the weight. Like with most pull-focused exercises for your back, you’ll want to think about drawing your shoulder blades back and down as you lift, isolating the engagement to your lats and rhomboids.
Once you’ve completed your desired number of reps, step over the bar and repeat with the other arm.
These Aren’t the Only Back Exercises Worth Knowing, But…
There are so many ways to engage and strengthen your back muscles. Depending upon what equipment or training is available to you at your gym, you may have access to dozens of variations, machines, or functional training programs beyond the scope of what we’ve covered in this article.
But, our intention isn’t to cover every possible back workout– it’s to give you the information needed to understand the mechanics behind the most foundational back workouts. If you learn and master these exercises, you can modify them and sequence them in numerous ways to achieve your desired results.
Additional Resources and Explainer Videos
For visual references and advice on how to complete these exercises, there are a few essential resources I recommend checking out.
Before I list them, though, I should mention that the best resource will be an in-person trainer. An experienced trainer will be able to help you ensure that you’re performing exercises correctly and minimizing your risk of injury. They’ll be able to guide sequencing and training progression to make sure you’re staying on track and meeting your goals.
Instead of working with a trainer, these are some of the lifting resources I’ve found to be helpful and not gimmicky or prone to pseudoscience, fad diets, or dangerous training methodologies:
- Jeff Nippard on YouTube (he has great instructional videos and some deep dives into exercise science that I really appreciate)
- Scott Herman Fitness on YouTube (I particularly love his older videos where he seems like an excited exercise nerd who wants to show you his favorite workouts)
- Barbend.com on YouTube (BarBend is a pretty cool website, and their YouTube channel contains great exercise tutorials that are pretty easy to follow)
