:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Health-GettyImages-2010167798-d8aefd728cb043a7bd16d4e9c6b1d280.jpg "Person in athletic wear exercising indoors with focus on their back and shoulders")
Credit: Tatiana Maksimova / Getty Images
- A strong back supports better posture, reduces injury risk, and makes everyday movements easier.
- Exercises that involve pulling and hinging movements can effectively target multiple back muscles.
- Adding a mix of these movements to your routine can help build balanced back strength over time.
A strong back helps improve your posture, protect against spinal injuries, and make everyday lifting easier. If you're looking to strengthen your back muscles, try adding these five exercises to your strength-training routine.
1. Kettlebell Deadlifts
A staple posterior chain (backside of the body) exercise, deadlifts target your erectors, lats, rhomboids, and traps, as well as your glutes and hamstrings. While you can do them with a barbell, using a kettlebell is a bit more intuitive for getting the hinging pattern down.
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with the kettlebell between your feet.
- Brace your core and bend at the hips and knees simultaneously to grab the kettlebell with both hands.
- Keeping your core tight and back neutral, push through your midfoot as you lift the weight by extending your hips and knees.
- Lock your hips out at the top without overextending and stand tall with your shoulders in line with your pelvis.
- Slowly reverse the direction, completing subsequent reps.
2. Lat Pull Down
The lat pulldown is a vertical pulling movement that develops the latissimus dorsi muscles, which are important for posture and shoulder stability. Well-developed lats help prevent rounded shoulders and injuries by supporting the humerus (upper arm bone) during movement.
- Sit at the lat pulldown cable machine and adjust the knee pad to secure your legs.
- Now, grip the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width and pull your shoulders down, away from your ears.
- Lean back slightly, point your collarbone up toward the ceiling, engage your core, and pull the bar down toward your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the bottom.
- Return the weight back to the top with control, feeling your lat muscles engage through the eccentric portion of the exercise.
3. Horizontal Cable Row
This horizontal pulling exercise effectively targets your mid-back, rhomboids, and traps, all of which contribute to improved posture and a balanced back. Make sure to avoid rounding your shoulders forward when you row to keep the tension on your back muscles.
- Attach a handle to the rowing machine—any will do.
- Grab the handle, keeping your arms extended and back straight.
- Engage your core and pull the handles towards your torso, squeezing your shoulder blades together, then slowly return to the starting position with control.
4. Single Arm Dumbbell Row
Another horizontal pulling variation, the dumbbell row, challenges your single-arm strength and stability and helps correct any strength discrepancies between the two sides. By working each side individually, you can ensure you develop more balanced strength.
- Grab a bench and place your left hand and your left knee on it in a one-sided tabletop position.
- Now, move your right leg out to the side and hold a dumbbell with your right hand, letting it hang toward the floor.
- Brace your core and pull the dumbbell towards your torso, making sure to keep your elbow close to your body.
- Squeeze behind your shoulder blades at the top of the movement and lower the weight with control back to the starting position.
- Switch to the other side between each set.
5. Pull-Ups
Though more advanced than other vertical pulling exercises, the pull-up is a staple exercise that targets your whole back. This movement can be particularly challenging to learn at first and requires quite a bit of upper-body strength, so you might want to add some assistance while you build strength to do a full pull-up.
You can use an assisted pull-up machine if you're at the gym, or hang a strong resistance band around the pull-up bar with your knees or feet through it, which acts as a ‘sling shot’ to help boost you while you pull yourself up.
- Grab the pull-up bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width, palms facing away from you.
- Hang from the bar with your arms fully extended and engage your core.
- In one fluid motion, pull your chin over the bar by retracting your shoulder blades and using your arms while you point your collarbone toward the ceiling and look up slightly.
- Slowly lower your body back down to the starting position with control and complete more reps until fatigue, but make sure your form stays consistent.
