Back Workout For Muscle Growth

This article is about my back workout for muscle growth. Back day sometimes seems like the leg day of upper body, meaning it’s that day that you think is optional. Well it’s easy to see why, when you think of creating an aesthetic physique you think chest, biceps, shoulders and abs. I mean, you can’t see it so why work too hard training it?

Your back however, is not only an important part of how you look, but also your overall physical health and athletic performance. So why should you stop neglecting back day?

Aesthetic Benefits 

Let’s start with the one that everybody really cares about. Your back may not be one of the “mirror” muscles that you can flex and snap a picture of for Instagram, but working your back provides some important look factors for your overall physique. 

The latissimus dorsi (lats), rhomboids (upper back) and traps all provide important, and often over looked aesthetic elements. 

Lats are often referred to as the wings of your body. They are a huge muscle that stretches from your shoulder blades all the way down the sides of your back. These muscles, in conjunction with your shoulders, are what gives you that coveted “V” shape. This creates a strong and powerful looking body while also giving the appearance of a smaller waist.

Working your upper back and traps provides symmetry and balance to your body. If you spend everyday on the bench press, like most average gym goers, and neglect the back half of your body you can end up looking kind of ridiculous. 

Injury Prevention 

This isn’t as sexy as the looks aspect but is arguably the most important benefit of back training. Properly training your back is an essential part of preventing injuries and improving your overall quality of life. 

I’m sure everybody knows that person who’s back always hurts and it really limits what they can do in life, not to mention is annoying to constantly hear about. However, strength training your back can drastically reduce or eliminate these types of injuries and chronic pains. 

If the muscles in your back are weak, specifically the lower back, you are far more likely to experience lower back pain or pain in your pelvis and hips. This is because when the muscles in your back are not strong enough, you compensate by rounding your back or using other improper lifting techniques, putting excess strain on your spine and pelvis.

Everyday tasks like carrying groceries, picking up your kid, or doing yard work can cause back pain or injury. Adding in a back day to your training routine can prevent this and make the everyday tasks in your life pain free. 

Improved Posture

Poor posture is something that plaques many people. Sedentary desk jobs that keep you slouched over a keyboard all day are in easy scape goat to blame for this. Weak back muscles however are an often overlooked cause of this as well. 

Many people over train their chest muscles which pulls your shoulders forward. This causes you to round your shoulders and creates a slouching appearance. Training the muscles in your upper back will pull your shoulder blades together causing you to sit up straighter and not round your shoulders forward. 

Core Strength

Dedicating workouts to your abs and using weights to train your abs is extremely beneficial to your core strength. But, there is more to your core than just your abs. Your lower back is a key component of core strength.

Training your abs and neglecting back training creates tension on your lower back and can cause damage to the disks in your spine. Making sure to work your lower back on your core training day will eliminate this issue and help build an overall stronger set of core muscles.

Creating strong core muscles will help you improve in all of your other core lifts such as squat, dead lift, over head presses and many more. 

Back Exercises

If you are new to strength training or just looking to change up your workout, knowing what exercises to do is the first step. There are really only a few main back exercises out there however there are a ton a variations in how you can perform each one. 

All back lifts are considered pulling exercises, meaning you are pulling the weight towards you, or in the case of pull ups, you are pulling your weight up. Anything done in the vertical plane, starting above your head and pulling down, will put more emphasis on your lats. Exercises done in the horizontal plane, having your hands out in front of you and pulling them into your body, will work more of your upper back. Below is a list of essential back exercises, a demonstration, brief description and a few variations of the lift.

Dead Lift

You may be thinking, isn’t this a leg exercise? You aren’t wrong but you aren’t right. It is a compound movement meaning that you engage multiple muscle groups throughout the lift. While it is fantastic for hitting your glutes and hamstrings, it also requires your lats and traps to engage heavily at the top of the lift. The benefit of compound lifts in every lifting session cannot be overstated. Usually squats are done on a leg day so shifting dead lifts to your back session is a great way to get a compound movement in.

How To Do It:

Start with your feet shoulder width apart and your shins touching the bar. Bend at the knees and sit your butt down like you are going to sit in a chair. You can grab the bar with either a double over hand grip (palms facing towards you) or an over under grip (one palm facing you, one palm facing away). Drive your heels into the ground when you start lifting as if you are trying to push the floor away from you. Push through your hamstrings and glutes so that your butt raises first. Your hand should follow your butt, dragging the bar up your shins and thighs. Lock out at the top of lift so that you are standing straight up.

Demonstration:

Pull Ups

Pull ups are an incredible back and upper body workout. Not only that but it is one of the pinnacles of fitness achievement. These take insane upper body strength and hard work to be able to consistently perform. 

How To Do It:

These are pretty self explanatory. Grab the bar overhead and pull yourself up so that your chin is level or above the bar. Your grip is what can vary the most with this exercise. The wider the grip the more lat engagement you will get. As you start to move your hands closer together, the more you will be engaging your upper back muscles. If you flip your grip to an under hand grip you are doing chin ups. These still engage your back but also use a lot more assistance from your biceps. The grip you choose should depend on what you are try to target but you should try to go as wide as possible. 

Demonstration:

Variations:

This movement does not have a lot of variations. However, most people can not come into the gym and just start doing pull ups. You need to work your way up and here are some good ways to do assisted pull ups.

• Use the pull up machine. Many gyms have these. You can put your knees on the platform and the machine will assist you depending on the amount of weight you set the machine to. As you get stronger you can decrease the weight you use, increasing the amount of work you are doing.

• Use resistance bands. If you string resistance bands under the pull up bar (will need a squat rack with a pull up bar to use this method) you can rest your feet on them which will assist you in the upward motion. As you get stronger, decrease the resistance band tensions (usually indicated by the color of the band).
• Use lat pull down machines to increase your back strength. If you really are a beginner, start on a lat pull down machines to generate a better muscle base before attempting pull ups.
• On the flip side, if you are already capable of body weight pull ups and want to increase the size of your lats, add weight to your pull up. Either through a belt with a chain, a weighted vest or a dumbbell between your feet. 

Bent Over Rows

There are about ten million variations of this movement but the execution of each one is pretty much the same. 

How To Do This:

Bend at the waist keeping your back flat, never rounded, and pull your arm back so that your elbow go behind your back and pinch your shoulder blades together. Control the weight all the way through the movement, do not just let your arm loose on the way down because you can injure your shoulders and elbows.

Demonstration:

Variations:

• T-bar Row. Use a barbell and the v-grip attachment. Put weight on one end of the bar and stick the other in a corner and row the weighted side up towards your chest.
• Single arm bent over rows with a bench. Kneel on a bench and row with one arm at a time.
• Flat bench row. Lay flat on your stomach on a bench and row the weight back with either a barbell or a dumbbell.
• Machine Rows. Can use a cable machine or the machine shown below.
• Single arm cable rows. Set a cable machine at waist height and grab the handle. Sit back as if you are sitting in a chair and pull the weight towards your chest.

Pull Overs

This is a great auxiliary exercise to target your lats and do in conjunction with pull downs. You will generally use lighter weight and just focus on your form.

How To Do It: Use a cable machine and short straight bar. Grab the bar and walk a few steps back and stand with your feet together, slight bend at the knees. Hands should be about shoulder width apart. Have a slight bend in your arms but otherwise keep them straight throughout, do not bend as you go or you will be doing more of a triceps exercise. Start with the bar in front of your face and pull it down so that it touches your thighs. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the bottom of the exercise. 

Demonstration:

Variations:

• You can also use a bench set at an incline. Sit on the bench with your back facing the machine so that you are grabbing the bar overhead. Pull it down from overhead until it is at chest level and then back up. This eliminates the possibility of your body swaying and isolates the lats more.

Lat Pull Downs

These are another great compliment to pull ups and add good variety to your routine. 

How To Do It:

These are commonly done on a cable machine or a lat pull down machine. Simply sit down and grab the bar overhead. Keep your back straight, do not sway your body, only pull the weight down with your back and arms. Pull it down to chest level with a slight pause at the bottom and then all the way back up so that you can feel the stretch in your lats.

Demonstration:

Shrugs

Similar to dead lifts, this exercise is done on different days by different people. Some add it into their shoulder routine and some on their back days. I prefer to do it on my back day because your traps extend down into your upper back as well.

How To Do It: Grab a barbell and hold it in front of you with your arms hanging down. Shrug the weight up as if you are trying to touch your shoulders to your ears. Control the weight back down, just letting it fall down can pull on your joints and cause shoulder injuries. This is a very short range of motion so the amount of weight you can use increases.

Variations:

• While the movement is the same, the type of equipment you use can differ. This can be done with a barbell or dumbbells. If using dumbbells, hold the weights at your side and shrug up from there. 

High Volume Back Workout

In my article on High Reps Vs. Heavy Weight I outline the difference between the two workout styles. In my opinion, high volume training aligns more with your average fitness junkies goals. It provides more aesthetic value, increasing your muscle size and definition, while still providing some strength gains. The workout below is a high volume program. If you are a strength competitor this probably isn’t for you.

1. Dead Lift: 5 total sets. Set 1 10 reps @ 60% of 1RM. Set 2 8 reps @ 70% of 1RM. Sets 3-5 6 reps @ 85% of 1RM.
2. Pull Ups: 5 Total Sets. Sets 1-3 8-10 reps with shoulder width grip. Sets 4-5 6 resp with shoulder width grip. Immediately drop, rest 30 seconds and use wide grip until failure.
3. Bent Over Rows: 4 total sets. Use two arm bent over dumbbell row style. Sets 1-3 8-10 reps @ 80% of 1RM. Set 4, drop set on row machine, 5 total sets in drop set, drop weight one pin every set, no rest between sets.
4. Lat Pull Downs: 4 Total sets. 8 reps @ 80% of 1RM. Superset with lat pull overs, 8-10 reps.
5. Shrugs: 4 total sets. Sets 1-2 with barbell, 8 reps. Sets 3-4, superset barbell shrugs with dumbbell shrugs until failure.
   

Wrap Up

Back workouts are an important element of a healthy body and complete fitness routine.

Working your back can help prevent injury, improve posture, increase core strength and create a strong looking physique. Get familiar with the exercises listed and try this high volume workout routine to increase the size and/or definition of your back muscles.

Let me know what you think in the comments! Thanks for reading!