Back Exercises

Bent Over Barbell Row – Underhand Grip

Primary muscle group(s):
Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps.

Warning: If you suffer from lower back problems, this exercise is not recommended.

Always keep your back straight and core activated throughout this exercise.

Set up a barbell on the floor or rack and stand facing it with your legs slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent. Bend forward at your waist and grip the barbell with an underhand grip. Keep your back straight at a 45 degree angle. Keep your head and neck straight. This is the start position. Without moving your torso, exhale and lift the barbell up to the crease in your hip. Keep your elbows close in to your body and squeeze your back muscles.

Bent Over Row With Torsonator

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Avoid this exercise if you have lower back pain or lower back injuries.

Insert an Olympic Bar into a Torsonator or Landmine sleeve or place the bar into a wall corner. Use a cable V grip or you can grip the bar with your hands.

Straddle the bar with your knees slightly bent. Bend forward at the waist until your torso is at a 45 degreee angle. Grip the bar close to the weight plates with both hands, using a neutral grip. One hand in front the other. Keeping your back straight and exhaling, pull the bar straight up by bending your elbows until the plates touch your chest. Hold and squeeze your back muscles. Return to the start position in a slow smooth movement to place emphasis on your lats. Inhale as you do so. Keep the bar from touching the floor. Pause then repeat.

Standing Cable Row

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Adjust a cable pulley to above shoulder level. Attache two cable handles or a V shaped cable attachment handle. In a standing position with a tight core slightly lean back and pull the handle to just below chest level, squeezing your shoulder blade into the middle of your spine as you’re pulling the cable in. Hold the contraction in your back and slowly return the cable to the starting position. Repeat.

Dumbbell Row

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps.

Lean forward into a bench on one knee. Using a neutral grip, hold a dumbbell in one hand so your palm is facing inward. Your arm should be fully extended and hanging straight down. This is the start position. Pull the dumbbell off the floor towards your hip, flexing your elbow and retracting your shoulder blade. Return to the start position. Control the weight down, don’t let the dumbbell fall down with gravity.

Inverted Row

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps.

For this exercise, you can use a Smith machine bar or an Olympic bar on a rack. Set the bar to your waist height. Lie on your back under the bar. Reach up and grip the bar with an underhand grip with both hands. Keeping your body straight, pull yourself up towards the bar by pulling your elbows as far back as you can and trying to touch the bar with your chest. Hold and squeeze your arm and back muscles. Lower yourself back to the start position in a controlled motion. Repeat.

You can use and overhand wide grip or underhand narrow grip.

Inverted Row Knees Bent

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps.

For this exercise, you can use a Smith machine bar or an Olympic bar on a rack. Set the bar to your waist height. Lie on your back under the bar with your knees bent. Reach up and grip the bar with an underhand grip with both hands. Keeping your body straight, pull yourself up towards the bar by pulling your elbows as far back as you can and trying to touch the bar with your chest. You can also push through your feet to assist yourself up. Hold and squeeze your arm and back muscles. Lower
yourself back to the start position in a controlled motion. Repeat.

You can use and overhand wide grip or underhand narrow grip.

Inverted Row Feet On Bench

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps.

For this exercise, you can use a Smith machine bar or an Olympic bar on a rack with a bench or box. Set the bar to your waist height. Lie on your back under the bar with your feet on the bench. Reach up and grip the bar with an underhand grip with both hands. Keeping your body straight, pull yourself up towards the bar by pulling your elbows as far back as you can and trying to touch the bar with your chest. Hold and squeeze your arm and back muscles. Lower yourself back to the start position in a controlled motion. Repeat.

You can use and overhand wide grip or underhand narrow grip.

Bent Over Dumbbell Row

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Holding a dumbbell in each hand bend at the waist to approximately a 45 degree angle with the palms of your hands facing each other. Have a slight bend in your knees. Row both dumbbells up to hip level squeezing your shoulder blades together. Return to the starting position.

Reverse Grip Pull Ups

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts and Biceps

Standing under a pull up bar, reach up and hold onto the bar with an underhand grip. Make sure your hands are about shoulder width apart. If using a reverse grip, grip the bar at shoulder width. If using an overhand grip, grip the bar wider than shoulder width. Keeping your body straight and not swinging your weight, pull your body up towards the bar by pulling your elbows down towards your chest. Continue lifting until your chest is nearly touching the bar. You should feel a “squeeze” at the base of your lats (about midway down your back and to the side) as they contract. Once your lats have completely contracted at the top of the movement, slowly lower your body to the starting position.

Assisted Wide Grip Pull Ups

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts and Biceps

Choose an appropriate weight on the weight stack. If this is your first time choose a decent amount of assistance in order to get an idea of how much assistance you need. Standing under a pull up bar, reach up and hold onto the bar with wide grip, approximately 1 1/2 times shoulder width. If using a reverse grip, grip the bar at shoulder width. Keeping your body straight and not swinging your weight, pull your body up towards the bar by pulling your elbows down towards your ribs. Continue lifting until your chest is nearly touching the bar. You should feel a “squeeze” at the base of your lats (about midway down your back and to the side) as they contract. Once your lats have completely contracted at the top of the movement, slowly lower your body to the starting position.

Band Assisted Wide Grip Pull Ups

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts and Biceps

Choose a heavy resistance band to begin with and place is over the chin up bar. You can either stand on the band or have the band around your knees. Reach up and hold onto the bar with wide grip, approximately 1 1/2 times shoulder width. If using a reverse grip, grip the bar at shoulder width. Keeping your body straight and not swinging your weight, pull your body up towards the bar by pulling your elbows down towards your ribs. Continue lifting until your chest is nearly touching the bar. You should feel a “squeeze” at the base of your lats (about midway down your back and to the side) as they contract. Once your lats have completely contracted at the top of the movement, slowly lower your body to the starting position. The band should give you a boost at the bottom of the movement, it shouldn’t do the work for you.

Back Extensions

Primary muscle group(s):
Lower Back, Erector Spinae, Hamstrings, Glutes

For this exercise you will need a back extension frame/machine. Firstly lie on the machine and make sure the leg support ends before your hip crease. Once you are lying on the machine, cross your arms across your chest, keep your back straight and lower your upper body by bending at the hips until your hip crease angle is approximately 90 degress. Raise your body back to the starting position but do not hyper-extend your lower back.

Weighted Pull Ups

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts and Biceps

Standing under a pull up bar, attach a weight chain to your waist with the appropriate weight attached. Reach up and hold onto the bar with an underhand grip. Make sure your hands are about shoulder width apart. If using a reverse grip, grip the bar at shoulder width. If using an overhand grip, grip the bar wider than shoulder width. Keeping your body straight and not swinging your weight, pull your body up towards the bar by pulling your elbows down towards your chest. Continue lifting until your chest is nearly touching the bar. You should feel a “squeeze” at the base of your lats (about midway down your back and to the side) as they contract. Once your lats have completely contracted at the top of the movement, slowly lower your body to the starting position.

Wide-Grip Lat Pull Down

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Middle & Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Using a wide grip bar sit on the seat facing the lat pull down machine. Keep your feet flat and planted firmly on the floor and legs under the leg guard. Using an overhand grip, hold the bar as wider than shoulder width. (Your hands should be about 1 1/2 times body width apart.) Keeping your back straight, pull the bar towards the top of your chest using your shoulders while arcing your elbows into the sides of your body. At the end of the movement squeeze your shoulders together slightly and hold for a count of one. Return to the start position by controlling with bar back up.

Reverse-Grip Lat Pull Down

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Middle & Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Using a narrow and underhand grip, grip the bar shoulder width, sit on the seat facing the lat pull down machine. Keep your feet flat and planted firmly on the floor and legs under the leg guard. Using an underhand grip, hold the bar shoulder width. Keeping your back straight, pull the bar towards the top of your chest using your shoulders while arcing your elbows into the sides of your body. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you’re pulling the bar down. Return to the start by controlling the bar back up.

Straight Arm Pulldown

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats

For this exercise you will need a single cable machine and a straight cable bar or rope. Fix the cable pulley to the top setting. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Keep the lower back straight and the core tight. Hold the bar or rope with a wide grip. Keeping your arms straight with a very slight bend in the elbow, pull the bar down to your hips. Don’t grip the bar or rope too hard as this can cause your triceps to take over the movement. Breathe out and squeeze your lats as you do so. Pause and slowly return to the top of the movement. You can also use a more bent over position for extra range of movement.

Bent Over Reverse Cable Flys

Primary muscle group(s):
Upper Back, Rear Delts

For this exercise you will require a cable machine with two pulleys. Set the pulleys to the lowest settings. Hold the left cable with your right hand and right cable with your left hand. Take a bent over position with your upper body parallel to the floor. Pull your shoulders back so your arms are out stretched by your sides. You should feel this exercise between your shoulder blades, upper back and back of your shoulders. Return the cables to the starting position. You won’t require a large amount of weight for this exercise to be effective.

Incline Bent Over Barbell Row

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Rear Delts, Upper Back, Biceps

For this exercise you will need an incline bench press. Set up a barbell on the floor in front of the incline bench press You may need to raise the bar off the floor or use safety arms of a squat rack to elevate the bar. Lie face down on the bench with your feet on the floor and your knees slightly bent. Hold the bar just wider than shoulder width apart with an overhand grip. Pull the bar up to the bottom of the bench and then return to the starting position.

Inverted Row With TRX

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps.

For this exercise, you will require TRX bands or Olympic rings fixed to a wall. Start by holding the handles at chest level. Lean your body slightly backwards and extend your arms keeping your entire body straight so that your arms are fully extended. Pull your body back up so that your hands are beside your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades at the same time. The more that your body is horizontal the harder the movement will be. You can use either an overhand / wide grip, inverted grip or underhand grip.

Narrow Grip Seated Row

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Middle & Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Sit on the seated row seat with your feet on the foot plates. Reach forward and grasp the V shape handle. With your back straight pull the cable into your mid torso area and squeeze your shoulder blades together and then extend your arms back to the starting position. Don’t sway backwards and forwards.

Neutral Grip Lat Pull Down

Primary muscle group(s):
Lats, Middle & Upper Back, Rear Delts, Biceps

Using a narrow and underhand grip, grip the bar shoulder width, sit on the seat facing the lat pull down machine. Keep your feet flat and planted firmly on the floor and legs under the leg guard. Using an underhand grip, hold the bar shoulder width. Keeping your back straight, pull the bar towards the top of your chest using your shoulders while arcing your elbows into the sides of your body. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you’re pulling the bar down. Return to the start by controlling the bar back up.