8 Good Back Workouts to Add to Your Fitness Routine
Stronger shoulders and
better posture coming right up.
If you can’t
remember the last time you added any new, really good back workouts to your
fitness program, now’s the time to fix that. In the gym, strong back
muscles are important for a number of exercises, and outside of the gym, a
strong back will help with everything from picking up heavy groceries to
maintaining proper posture all day long. Chances are you’re already getting in
some good back-strengthening work with your regular routines (hello, push-ups and planks), but it’s not
a bad idea to make sure you’re targeting those important muscles on the reg if
you want to get stronger overall.
Simply put, good
back workouts set you up for healthy, functional movement patterns. And,
luckily, we’ve got you covered with some excellent options.
What muscles make
up the back?
It might sound
obvious, but when we refer to back muscles, we mean the muscles that run from
the base of your neck all the way down to your pelvis, including the muscles
that surround your shoulder blades and spine. The major muscles of the back include:
- The latissimus dorsi, or lats, which are a
large flat muscle that runs from the mid to lower back. The lats take up
much of the back’s real estate and play a large role in arm movement.
- The trapezius, or traps, which are a a
diamond-shaped muscle that runs from the neck down the mid back and spans
from shoulder to shoulder. The trapezius muscle stabilizes, elevates,
depresses, retracts, and rotates the scapula (shoulder blade).
- The rhomboids, which are small muscles
located between the shoulder blades. The rhomboids play a role in
stabilizing and retracting the scapula.
- The erector spinae, a group of deep and
large muscles that run along both sides of the spine. The erector spinae
work to extend and laterally flex the spine.
The back muscles
also include a handful of smaller muscles that work to flex, extend, and
rotate both the neck and back. These include: the levator scapulae (helps
elevate the shoulder blades and aids in flexion and extension of the neck),
splenius muscles (rotates, laterally flexes, and extends the neck), serratus
posterior muscles (moves
the ribs as you breathe), transversospinal muscles (extend, rotate, and flex
the spine), and interspinales muscles (extends the spine).
What are the
benefits of having strong back muscles?
The back muscles
have a laundry list of jobs to do. They support your entire torso so that you
can sit and stand upright, and they make it possible to move your neck,
shoulders, and limbs. You use your back muscles countless times during the
day—whether you’re engaging them to stand with proper posture, pulling open a door,
moving furniture, turning your head to look behind you, or picking something up
off the ground.
Strong back
muscles are also essential for a healthy spine. The deep muscles, like the
erector spinae and the transversospinal muscles, are what provide support to
your spine when you bend, flex, or twist your torso. They’re usually considered
to be part of the core
muscles, since they play such a pivotal role in supporting your
midsection (especially that frequently achey low back area), working together
with the abdominal muscles.
How often should
you work your back muscles?
Most core stability exercises also work your deep back muscles—you actually engage those back
muscles every time you do a movement that requires stabilizing your spine
(think planks, push-ups, even squats and deadlifts). But you might also want to
do targeted back workouts to strengthen and build the more superficial muscles,
like the lats and traps.
Similarly to
targeted strength work for any other major muscle group, aim to do a
back-specific workout about
two times a week, with at least two days of
recovery between workouts. That’s the minimum you need to do to see changes in
strength and muscle. Realistically, it might make more sense to do upper- and
lower-body days, or even full-body days, versus specific days dedicated to just
back exercises. Just make sure you’re giving any muscles involved 48 hours of rest between two challenging strength workouts so that they can
recover and build back stronger.
With that in
mind, many of the back workouts we’ve highlighted below hit the major muscles
of the back while also working the shoulders, arms, and other parts of the
core, making them solid upper-body
workouts that emphasize pulling movements
to really strengthen the muscles on the back of the torso.
What makes a good
back workout?
A good back
workout engages and strengthens the muscles in the back. Since the back is so
big, some back workouts might specifically focus on the upper back or the lower
back. Good back workouts combine large, compound movements that work multiple
muscles at once—like rows—and isolation exercises that target specific muscles
that help assist larger movements—like biceps curls.
For the most
part, back exercises typically involve “pulling,” and chest workouts involve
“pushing.” It’s important to balance the two so that you don’t end up tight in
the front or back of your body. As SELF
has previously reported, many people tend to neglect the
back of the body and put a larger focus on movements that target front-of-the-body
muscles, which is why many trainers recommend actually working your back
muscles in a two-to-one ratio to your pushing muscles. The whole goal is to
achieved balanced strength—which will help you feel good, sit up straighter,
and avoid muscle imbalances that can ultimately lead to injury.
8 Best Back
Workouts
Next time you
want to work your back, try one of these 13 back workouts that utilize minimal
equipment and can be done on their own or tacked on to an upper-body or
full-body workout.
1
The muscles in
your lower back play an important role in overall core strength and
stabilization as well as supporting your spine so that you can maintain an
upright posture. And for many people who have lower-back pain or
discomfort—which is a ton of us—the real culprit may actually be a lack of
strength in your core, ACE-certified personal trainer Sivan Fagan, owner
of Strong With Sivan in Baltimore, previously told SELF.
This lower back
workout created by Fagan is full of compound exercises that will help build
lower-back strength, including Romanian deadlifts and bear crawls. While these
may not seem like overtly lower-back exercises, they work this important area
in addition to engaging other key muscle groups—like the abdominals and glutes.
Using compound movements is often the most functional way to weight train,
since you use all of these muscles in tandem when you move through your daily
life.
2
Chances are,
your back muscles are underutilized. When we sit all day hunched over a desk
with less-than-perfect posture, our shoulders tend to round forward, causing
the front of the shoulders and chest muscles to shorten, and the back muscles
to lengthen. When the back muscles are lengthened, they typically become weaker
and less mobile. This sort of imbalance between the front and back of the body
can lead to general tightness, stiffness, and even injury if not corrected.
This dumbbell
workout seeks to correct all that by targeting the back muscles with three
different row variations, plus rear-delt flys to hit the backs of the
shoulders, and bicep curls to target the muscles which play a supporting role
in all pulling motion.
3
If kettlebells
are more your speed, try this kettlebell workout that hits all the major muscle
groups in your upper body, including your back and shoulders.
Like all
kettlebell workouts, you’ll also get in some core work and even a little
cardio. Each move is a compound exercise, so your body has to use lots of
energy—and rely on core stabilizing muscles—to get the work done properly.
4
Along with the
chest, the back muscles are known as posture muscles, since they’re responsible
for keeping the shoulder blades in the right position. And like we’ve already
mentioned, they’re also usually the muscles that are impacted the most when we
sit at a desk for hours on end. On top of that, because most of our lives are
forward facing—think leaning in, engaged in conversation; or bending over a
stove to cook dinner—we tend to neglect the muscles in our backs way more,
often leading to those imbalances we’ve mentioned.
To help remedy
that, Fagan suggests working your “pulling” back muscles in a two-to-one ratio
to the front “pushing” muscles. This workout, which includes a number of
creative exercises like the pullover (shown above) and the side-lying rear-delt
raise, will help you engage some of those lesser used back muscles—all without
having to do a single push-up.
5
This back and
core workout is part of our Better
Together Challenge (which includes 20 workouts
done over 4 weeks. Check out more of our fitness challenges here). But you can also add it to your regular workout routine. On
its face, this workout looks like a pretty standard core workout, but there’s
actually a lot of sneaky back-strengthening moves in here too.
With exercises
like the plank to dolphin (shown above), you’ll engage your core, but also your
lower back and even your shoulders as you work to stabilize your spine and keep
your hips in a neutral position. The superman with pulldown also directly
engages your back muscles, and acts as a great way to finish any abs workout.
This workout also hits your trapezius, rotator cuff muscles (small muscles that
stabilize the shoulder joint), your lats, and even your erector spinae—all
without any equipment.
6
If you’re
sensing a theme here, you’re not wrong. It’s kind of hard to talk about the
back muscles without talking about posture—the two are so intertwined. This
workout, though, also targets the shoulders, or the deltoid muscles, with
overhead presses, plus lateral and front raises.
The delts are
responsible for stabilizing the shoulders, and the rear delts in particular
tend to lengthen and stretch when you sit in a hunched position. Targeting them
with strength training exercises will help keep them strong so they can do
their job and not only help you sit up straighter, but protect your shoulder joint
when you do more intense lifts or pressing movements.
7
This workout
gets all the major muscle groups of the upper body involved. While the majority
of the exercises are compound moves, there are a few isolation exercises thrown
in the mix that target areas we could probably all benefit from strengthening
in a gentle way. Those include the rotator cuffs and the rear deltoids, both
areas of the shoulder. People tend to neglect these when strength training,
Fagan says, which can leave you vulnerable to a shoulder injury.
Great for
beginners and experienced exercisers alike, this workout includes foundational
moves—like a chest press, bent-over row, and shoulder press—that should play a
role in any well-rounded strength training routine.
8
This is a great
back workout that also hits the shoulders. But the thing that makes it unique
from the others on this list: It’s got a ton of planks. This puts a big
emphasis on the rest of the core, particularly the abdominals.
While you might
know them traditionally as abs exercises, planks also engage the back muscles,
particularly the deep erector spinae muscles that stabilize the spine. If
you’ve ever been in a fitness class where the instructor reminds you, “don't
let your hips drop!”—that’s what they’re talking about. When planks are done
properly, you should be engaging your core, glutes, and back to help stabilize
and lengthen your spine (thus preventing your hips from sagging toward the
floor).
Also Read:
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Healthy and Fit? Three Pillers of Fitness that Everyone Should Know
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