A powerful back can make all the difference when achieving success in your workouts. You need your back for almost every movement you make, and it’s important to have a strong back to give you the foundation for intense workouts. Plus, a chiseled back is fun to show off. However, when it comes to building the perfect back, it’s important to know what workouts can give you the results you want. Below is a list of the type of exercises you’re going to want to give a try.
Machine Exercises
Machines exercises can help in leaps and bounds when it comes to building the perfect back. Exercises like the rear delt machine fly, low-pulley seated row, and the lat pull-down are great for targeting the back’s rhomboids, traps, lats, and rear delts. When using a wider bar and grip in row machines, you can add substantial width to your lats, while a narrow grip can add thickness to the whole of your muscle belly. When using single-arm variation, you not only focus your efforts into increasing muscle size, but you can focus on particular muscles with different exercises. One example is using a D-handle on a lat pull-down machine. Put the weight at 20 pounds, and pull with your dominant hand. Then, use the other hand to raise the stack to 40 pounds before bringing the weight back to the starting point. By alternating these weights, you’re stimulating and pushing your muscles in ways they aren’t used to, and this will give you faster results.
Back Exercises Through Bodyweight
One of the best ways to achieve a big, chiseled back is to use your own bodyweight. Exercises like inverted rows, suspension-trainer rows, back extensions, and pull-ups are great for building up the strength and size of your back in a way that uses your enter body to achieve. Pull-ups are a great example of using your own body to maximize your workout. After completing 3 sets of 10 pull-ups, you can increase the weight you’re lifting by adding a dip belt to your waist. Through the dip belt, you can add as much weight as you desire by using a kettlebell or weight plates. But, if pull-ups just aren’t your thing, you can get similar results by using the inverted row and suspension trainer rows. These exercises help you build your core and learn to use it to the best of your advantage. Other bodyweight exercises can help you prevent muscle injuries and even recover quicker from lower-back pain. These exercises are the bird dog, dead bug, plank, and superman. By doing 2-3 sets of 10 reps for all four of these exercises during your workout, you can even improve your performance.
Free-Weight Back Exercises
Another great group of exercises that help add mass to your back are single-arm dumbbell rows, rear deltoid dumbbell flyes, barbell or dumbbell shrugs, and barbell bent-over rows. If you’re wanting to target your middle trapezius, rhomboids, rear deltoids, teres major, and lats, all in one exercise, barbell bent-over rows are the way to go. But, it’s important that you do this exercise on a day that you’re not planning to deadlift. Single-arm dumbbell rows target the same muscle groups as the bent-over row, but allow you to do so with moderate way, which can increase your workout time. Looking for a thicker upper back? Dumbbell shrugs and rear deltoid dumbbell flyes specifically work the trapezius and rear deltoid muscles, allowing you to use lighter weights to achieve a chiseled look.
Questions? Comments? Tips? We want to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment below.