As humans, our backs take a lot of punishment simply from how we are biomechanically designed. I mean, when was the last time you heard of someone having back problems? I bet it wasn't too long ago and is something you hear quite frequently. Since our backs do in fact take such a huge amount of stress on a daily basis (from vertebrae compression for example), it's important to strengthen them to prevent injury and preserve their health. Overdevelopment of the muscles from the front may also cause pain and stress from their dominance of muscles located on the back of the body that may be underdeveloped (like when someone's shoulders start hurting because their front deltoids are more overdeveloped than their back deltoids, thus causing the front deltoids to yank at and dominate the rear deltoids).
Source: blog.sportsnutrition.com
The back is actually my second favorite muscle group to work out. For muscle groups that I enjoy working out, I like to dedicate a full day to them so that I really kill it in the gym and have a mindset that my workout is about to be fun. As a quick aside, I definitely recommend dedicating full days to muscle groups you like to workout and working them out towards the end of the week to combat and easily get over the feeling of exhaustion and laziness you feel after going hard in the gym for most of the week.
The back is an intricate system of many different muscle groups working in unison to help the body move and remain stable. For bodybuilding and muscle development, the main muscle groups that one tries to target and concentrate on are the lattissimus muscles (lats) and the trapezius msucles (traps). However, there are other important muscle groups in the back including the intertransversarii muscles that aid in movement of individual vertebrae and the multifidus spianae muscle which is composed of bundles of skeletal muscle and aids in movement of the spine as a whole (source: wikipedia).
Source: fitstep.com
The way that the back is designed offers strength and sturdiness to the trunk of the body while still allowing for flexibility to the rest of the body. It really is an intricate and beautiful network of biological design, and when you work it out you need to also treat it as something special.
What I mean by that is this. The back isn't like the biceps in that you can't just do the motion and be relatively certain that you are fatiguing and stimulating the muscle group(s) adequately. With back, form and positioning is extremely important. I don't mean that in the same way that I do when I say it about other muscle groups though. Attention to form is on a different level with back. You need to make sure that you angle your body and do ranges of motion along an invisible track that gives you the greatest pump at the end range of flexion and a great stretch at the end range of extension.
With the exercises I'm about to highlight in this post, some things are fairly universal to achieve a nice back pump and back muscle stimulation. They are:
- Putting a slight curve in your back when sitting to put a "loaded" feeling into your back.
- Flexing your lat / other back muscles before you start doing the motion of the exercise.
- Pulling from underneath the line your body makes in separation from the lat muscle to the lower back or, if you're having trouble visualizing that, pulling towards the bottom of your rib cage.
So let's get into it!
PLATE-LOADED LOW ROWS
My favorite back exercise. It's my favorite because it's fun to do, and it also gives me an AMAZING flex and pump in my back after doing them. Not all gyms have an adequate plate-loaded row machine, so unfortunately this exercise might not be readily accessible to you. I'll post an image below, but the machine used to perform this exercise is the one where you sit with your chest up against a cushion, with handles in front for you to perform a pulling motion, and a place above your head and to the side where you can load weighted plates.
To perform this exercise effectively, heighten the seat of the machine to where you will be pulling from underneath your lat. Sit up straight and curve your back. In my opinion, you actually do NOT want to have your chest up against the cushion, and if your back is curved correctly this should be the case. You should actually be able to fit a fist in between your chest and the cushion.
Keeping your body still, use only your arm to pull the weight towards you, flexing your lat before you pull, and following a line of drive that goes inward and under your lat. The word "lat" here isn't plural because I recommend doing these one side at a time to really focus on fatiguing each lat and doing the form correctly. The end range of motion doesn't go as far back as you would expect, so it might not look like you're doing these right. However, as long as you feel your lats explode as you bring the weight in, you're doing them right. Go until failure, and be sure to let the weight back slowly to get the negatives.
This is what the machine looks like. Yours might not look as fancy.
Source: sweatband.com
Source: sweatband.com
DUAL-HANDLE LAT-PULLDOWNS
I first got the idea to do these by watching Youtube videos of Mr. Olympia Phil Heath training his back. After trying them out for myself, it is my prefered way of doing lat-pulldowns.
You've seen regular lat-pulldowns done before, and have even probably tried them. They are the exercise that uses a straight bar above your head that you pull down in towards your chest, almost like you're doing a seated pull-up. I've found that with using a bar however, you don't adequately activiate the lats as your arms get isolated by the bar at the moment they should be flexing inwards to engage the lats. So I suggest getting two metal or rubber handles (whatever is available to you) and attaching both to the latt pull-down apparatus clip.
Once you've attached both of these handles, grab the handles and sit down. lean back so that your chest almost points upwards at the ceiling, flex your lats, and bring both clips in towards you chest while also trying to pull both clips away from one another towards your sides. You should feel your lats get engaged. Come back up slowly, and use the height of the apparatus to fully stretch out and even pull your arms upward to get a full range of stretch. Repeat unti failure.
It was hard to find an accurate picture of this exercise, but the image below came close. Just remember that it's not a v-bar that is used here. It's two separate grips (metal, plastic, or rubber).
Source: samsfitness.com
SEATED ROWS
This is a popular exercise that uses the machine where you place your feet onto two flat metal plates and pull a "v-bar" in towards your chest. This exercise is pretty straight forward, but there are still some things to keep in mind.
Sit up straight and arch your back again. pull in towards your chest, but under your lat. Use only your arms to pull forward and do incorporate any kind of leaning to "cheat" your way into a rep. Only move your elbows back and forth and make sure to flex your lats before pulling.
The most classic way to perform this exercise is with the "v-bar" that I just mentioned. However, I like to use two metal or plastic / rubber grips like I mentioned for dual-handle lat-pulldowns so that I get more of a range of motion to flex my lats.
Source: workoutlabs.com
DEADLIFTS
One of what I like to call the "Big 3" gym exercises (Squats, Deadlifts, and Bench Press). This is a staple to many people's bodybuilding / lifting routines. To be completely honest with you however, I've only recently incorporated them into my workouts....squats too for that matter.....and I don't even do barbell bench press. However, I do acknowledge the value of deadlifting and think it deserves a spot on this list. I also acknowledge that there are many different variations for this exercise, but I will go over the most basic. The previous exercises I mentioned target your mid to upper back, while deadlifts are fantastic for targeting your lower back.
Bend down to where the top of your shins touch the barbell. Keep your back sturdy and focus on something in front of you so that you are facing forward. Driving with your heels, stand straight up, ending in a thrust with your hips and flex in your back. Lower the weight SLOWLY along your body and, once the weight gets to just past your knee caps, perform a sit down motion.
These are HARD to master. It takes tons of training and practice to get right. And you want to get it right to prevent injury and messing up your back. So when you start doing these, PLEASE use a weight that you can control and isn't too stressful until you get the form down. Also, get many different opinions on it from multiple sources. The guy / girl in the gym who's super jacked and does deadlifts all the time may look like he knows what he's talking about, but may also have really bad form and are harming himself / herself without knowing it. I'm STILL learning how to do these correctly. I suggest again asking around, and watching videos from experts. Here's a video by Elliott Hulse (Youtube account: strengthcamp) which gives a really nice explanation on proper form while deadlifting:
PULL-UPS
You know what these are, so I don't need to go into too much depth. But let me go over a few things here.
There is NOTHING better to building huge lats in my opinion than pull-ups. I may be challenged on that, but you cannot hope to grow your back or have a great back workout without putting some pull-up work in there. It's like substituting the jelly in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with gravy or something. They are SO fundamental...so KEY to a great back workout. If you do NO other back exercises, do pull ups. In fact, if you threw me in a cell and told me I could only choose to do TWO exercises, I would choose pull-ups and pushups.
There is NOTHING better to building huge lats in my opinion than pull-ups. I may be challenged on that, but you cannot hope to grow your back or have a great back workout without putting some pull-up work in there. It's like substituting the jelly in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with gravy or something. They are SO fundamental...so KEY to a great back workout. If you do NO other back exercises, do pull ups. In fact, if you threw me in a cell and told me I could only choose to do TWO exercises, I would choose pull-ups and pushups.
Many people are deterred from doing pull-ups because at first most people can't do that many, and you look like a wimp around people in the gym when you can hardly do one pull-up. To me, that only shows how much more you should be focusing on your back and back development. Pull-ups are also great in that they don't take too long to get good at. Your first week you'll struggle with one, but all of a sudden a few weeks later you'll be blasting out 5-10 like it was nothing. SO DO PULL-UPS. Your body craves it.
Also, there are many variations to pull-ups. For back, I suggest using a wide grip where your arms are shoulder-width to just outside shoulder-width part and your fingers point outward. When you pull upwards, flex your back and drive your elbows to your sides. You should be feeling a pump in your back. Do them until failure. They're also a good choice for super-setting your other back exercises. If you're focusing back, stay away from an inside grip, or a grip where your fingers are pointing towards you. In my opinion, those are used more for bicep work.
Source: motivationalwellbeing.com
And those are my top 5 back exercises! There are many other great back exercises as well. If you have any other suggestions, leave a comment below!
-Jtrain
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