The back is a complex area that covers a huge variety of muscles and movement patterns.

You'll find exercises that target the Latissimus Dorsi (the lats), the Teres Major, the Rhomboids, the Trapezius and the Erector Spinae.

 

Close Grip Pulldowns This exercise primarily targets the lats with a vertical pulling movement. You'll take an underhand, close grip on the bar, which also involves the biceps in the exercise.

 

Wide Grip Front Pulldowns Another version of the pulldown, this variation involves more of the muscles of the upper back (rhomboids and teres major) than the close grip version.

 

One-Arm Dumbbell Rows Learn proper form for one of the best back overall back exercises you can do. You'll discover a simple foot-position tweak that will allow you to use more weight and keep better balance.

 

Seated Cable Rows This is a classic machine/cable exercise for the back. It's one of the first exercises beginners learn how to do....yet proper form is not always obvious. Learn the tricks of the trade for how to perform it better.

 

Chin-Ups Chin-ups are a key exercise for strength and muscle development in the upper back. Learn how to perform them properly here.

 

Pull-Ups Pull-ups are an excellent bodyweight exercise for targeting the upper back. Learn proper technique for getting the most out of them here.

 

Inverted Rows This bodyweight back exercise takes up much of the load of your body by allowing you to train at an angle, with your feet on the ground. You can make it as hard or as easy as you want with a simple change in bar height.

 

Barbell Deadlifts One of the best overall exercises you can do...PERIOD. The deadlift is a key exercise for building total-body mass and strength.

 

Bent-Over Barbell Rows Rowing is one of the basic exercises you need to learn to maximize your back development and improve back thickness and strength.

 

C-Clamp Pull-Ups This is a home-gym variation of the pull-up that allows you to use a neutral grip for the exercise (palms facing in). You'll need an open ceiling and rafters to make this work.

 

Corner Rack Pull-Ups This pull-up variation puts MASSIVE tension on the outer aspect of your lats just by changing WHERE you do the pull-ups and how you hold your hands.

 

Decline Lying Pulldowns/Pullovers You'll put a great stretch on the lats with this isolation-ish compound exercise for the back. It's a pulldown-style movement that works more like a pullover in terms of tension.

 

Full-Range Pulldowns Hit both the vertical and horizontal movement patterns of your back with this one single exercise. It requires only a small adjustment in body position along the way.

 

Hand-Over-Hand Chin-Ups This dynamic chin-up exercise variation will challenge your entire upper body, placing almost your entire bodyweight on one arm at a time during the movement for massive strength and muscle stimulation.

 

Hybrid Cable-Dumbbell Shrugs The traps don't work just straight up and down...you need to attack them from a variety of angles as well. This combination exercise uses cables to add a diagonal component to the shrug for maximum stimulation.

 

Lateral One-Arm Pull-Ups This is a challenging exercise for advanced trainers that puts most of the load of your bodyweight onto just ONE arm/lat at a time. The angle of the bar allows you to put this focused tension on the lower lat area, which is usually tough to hit.

 

One-Arm Chin-Dips This combination exercise works your back and your chest at the same time by working a chin-up with one arm and a dip with the other arm simultaneously. It's looks insane but it works incredibly well, and develops excellent neuromuscular coordination at the same time.

 

One-Arm Side-Cable Back Extensions To target the small stabilizing muscles of the spine, you need to introduce lateral resistance...but without spinal rotation. This exercise accomplishes that with a simple cable or band.

 

One-Side Loaded Barbell Deadlifts This deadlift variation puts massive torque on the core and lower back by loading just one side of the bar. You'll work all the stabilizing muscles in your lower back as you lift this unbalanced weight.

 

Seated Lean-Forward Barbell Shrugs This exercise uses a slight lean to target more of the middle traps, an area not hit by normal vertical shrugs. Middle traps are critical for back thickness and shoulder stabilization.

 

Stiff-Arm Pushdowns There are no true isolation exercises for the lats...however, this is one exercise that comes the closest. You'll use a high pulley a movement similar to a standing pullover to put tension almost exclusively on the lats.

 

Suitcase Style One-Arm Deadlifts This deadlift variation puts major single-sided tension on the core, in addition to strongly working the lower back and grip.

 

Typewriter Inverted Rows This variation of the Inverted Row utilizes lateral body movement to cover a wider array of muscles and muscle fibers during the exercise.

 

 

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Back Exercise Tips, Tricks and Training Techniques

 

2-Up 1-Down Seated Cable Row Negatives Negatives are excellent for building strength and this version of the Seated Cable Row allows you to perform negative training very effectively on your own.

 

How to Brace Your Core for Deadlifts If you want to lift heavy weights in the deadlift, you need to learn how to properly brace your core. Because if your core folds with a heavy load, your lower back rounds over and you either fail the lift or you hurt your back.

 

Bar-In-Stomach Bracing Barbell Holds For Deadlift Strength This exercise will teach you how to properly brace your core for deadlifts using what basically amounts to a bar in the guts while you use another bar to load.

 

Body Position Trick for Better Pulldowns This simple trick will help you learn how to properly engage your lats so you get more out of every set of pulldowns you do.

 

Breathe Backwards For More Effective Pulldowns When you're training your back, and with pulldowns in particular, if you breathe "normally," you'll actually put your body in a WORSE position to engage your lats.

 

How to Lock Down Your Lats During Pulldowns This simple act of properly setting your shoulders will allow to you force the lats to achieve maximum contraction during the pulldown exercise.

 

In-Set Supersets of Bent-Over Rows and Deadlifts By utilizing two different exercises for alternating reps, you'll challenge your lats and upper back with massive tension from multiple angles in one set...very effective for muscle growth.

 

Bent-Over Row and Deadlift Supersets This is a "normal" version of the superset, using the same two exercises as the previous method. With this, you'll be pre-fatiguing your back with the barbell rows, then moving straight into deadlifts for massive lat overload.

 

Trick to Use More Weight For One-Arm Dumbbell Rows This small change in foot and body position will allow you to dramatically increase the stability and available power in the exercise. This is the BEST way to do one-arm rows.

 

How to do One-Arm Rows on the Flye Machine or Pec Deck Using a machine in this fashion is ideal for working the back with a very controlled movement that focuses on muscle tension and strong contraction.

 

Partial-Range Stiff-Legged Deadlifts for Upper Back Mass This unique approach to upper back training will allow you to use FAR more weight than you normally could for a rowing exercise, resulting in greater strength and mass gains.

 

Range-of-Motion Triple Add Sets for Chin-Ups You'll focus on three different ranges of motion and three different rep ranges in the chin-up to target all three major muscle fiber types in one extended set.

 

Shrugs on the Standing Calf Raise Machine If grip strength is an issue for you, this shrug exercise will eliminate that as a problem. This is a hands-free shrug exercise.