Back Gains: the best Back Exercises out there

by avangrin

We’re on our journey through the Five Exercise Patterns You Ought to Know, and this week we’re talking about your back. Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered the Hinge, like deadlifts, the Squat, and the Press, like bench press or overhead press.

Today we’re talking about the PULL category, or all the exercises that use your back muscles. Most people avoid exercising their upper back for two reasons:

  1. Because they can’t see their back, so they don’t train their back
  2. Because back exercises can be very hard

Which is a shame: a strong back not only supports your frame and posture, but it also protects you from hurting yourself in activities of daily living, like moving stuff around your house, keeping up with kids or grandkids, or working outdoors.

So today we’re talking about back exercises: ones I coach and those that are the best bang-for-your-buck when it comes to building a stronger upper back. Each back exercise will target the lats, the biceps, the forearms, and the rear delts. Some will bias one muscle more than another at times, but all of them are beneficial and earn a spot in your weekly rotation of back exercises.

First, we’ll start with the classic Pull-up:

The pull-up takes an overhand grip. It works your forearms, biceps, rear delts, and lats, among a few others.
The chin-up takes an underhand grip, or palms up. It hits the biceps a bit harder than a typicall pull-up, but also hits the forearms, rear delts, and lats.
Another classic, the one-arm row. It uses the forearms, biceps, and lats, with some core stabilization too.
One of my personal favorites, the chest supported row. This one will spare the low back while allowing a lot of loading to the upper back. Much like the one-arm row, but both arms simultaneously.
Last but not least, the cable row. This is another classic that I love because of its simple setup and ease of use. I program these quite often with my clients and in my own workouts.

Work what you can’t see

The lats, rhomboids, rear delts, and upper/middle/lower trap muscles that these exercises target are hard to see but worth your effort to train. Basically, everything between the base of your neck and your butt on your back side and these exercises hit them the hardest.

If you load them up and progress them over time by adding weight or reps, you’ll build a strong and sculpted back. Which back exercise you choose and how often you train it will depend on your goals and needs. Each back exercise above could be in rotation in your weekly routine at any given time.

Training the muscles in your back might feel tedious at times, especially because they’re hard to see, but having a strong back will not only be more aesthetically pleasing but will help drive greater strength in some of your other lifts, like deadlifts!

That’s all for today! Get some rest and let’s grip and rip this week!

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