Best Back Exercises For Building Muscle and Strength

Benefits: Deadlifts strengthen your entire posterior chain, which is a fancy way of saying all of the muscles on the backside of your body. This includes everything from your calves to your traps. Specifically, deadlifts increase strength in the hamstrings, glutes, and back—yes, even your upper back.  

How to do it:

1. Load one of the best powerlifting barbells with weight plates on the floor. Use standard-sized Olympic plates for the best deadlift setup. Put on one of the best weightlifting belts if you’re going heavy (and you know how to wear one). 
2. Walk up to the barbell like you’re about to absolutely hulk-smash it. Position your feet so that the bar hovers over your midfoot and sits close to your shins. Your feet should be stacked beneath your hips. Hinge at your hips and grip the barbell with your hands just outside your legs. 
3. Drive through your heels and engage your glutes and hamstrings to pull the weight off of the ground. Keep your spine in the neutral position (no arching or rounding) and push your hips forward until you reach full hip extension. 
4. With control and maintaining your neutral spine, lower the barbell back to the ground by hinging at your hips, then your knees, to create one fluid motion. 
5. The rep is finished once the weight plates touch the ground; you can either do touch-and-go reps or reset entirely. 

Benefits: The trap-bar deadlift is a deadlift alternative and a compound exercise with an emphasis on the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. The nature of the trap bar means your grip is higher (if using high handles) and wider than it is during conventional deadlifts, and this results in greater knee movement in comparison. It also means the load is displaced more across your scapula and lats, versus more centered on a barbell deadlift. 

How to do it:

1. Grab one of the best trap bars and load plates on each side. Stick with Olympic-sized plates.
2. Step inside the hexagon of the trap bar. Make sure you’re standing in the center, and plant your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend down to grab the trap bar handles, making sure your back stays flat (don’t arch or round your spine). 
3. Drive through your heels to stand up with the weight. Squeeze your glutes and fully extend your hips, but be careful not to hyperextend your back. 
4. Lower the hex bar back to the ground, squeezing your shoulder blades together and engaging your core to prevent your back from rounding.
5. Continue with touch-and-go reps or let go and reset if you’re pulling heavy weight. 

Benefits: Bent-over rows increase strength and muscle mass in your upper and mid-back. Developing those upper and mid-back muscles transfers to other movements, particularly pull-ups and chin-ups. Upper back strength is also important for manhandling the bar when it comes to power cleans and snatches, as well as maintaining your grip on the bar during heavy deadlifts. 

How to do it: 

1. Load a barbell on the ground with Olympic weight plates. 
2. Stand with your feet beneath the barbell as if you’re setting up for a deadlift. Grab the bar, ideally with a double overhand grip for this lift, with your hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing down. You should be in a hip-hinge position with your back straight. 
3. Think about squeezing your shoulder blades together. Pull the barbell toward your torso and try to tap it to your sternum. Your elbows should travel backward and point to the sky behind you. Palms remain facing down. 
4. Extend your arms to lower the barbell back to the starting position. 
5. Start a new rep when your elbows reach full extension. 

This back exercise is just like the regular barbell row, except you use a wide grip instead of a standard grip.

Muscles worked: Lats, biceps, delts, rhomboids, erectors, hamstrings, and core.

Benefits: Wide-grip rows are great for physique athletes who want to develop a wide, V-shaped back. By placing your hands farther apart on the bar, you require your lats to do more work than they would on a standard-grip barbell row. In addition to good looks, wide-grip rows help with pull-up strength.

How to do it:

1. Place your barbell on the ground and load it with Olympic weight plates. 
2. Bend down and grip the bar with your hands wider than shoulder-width. For those who know CrossFit or weightlifting terminology, use your snatch grip. The bar should rest right around the crease of your hips while standing. Hinge at the hips and keep your spine neutral.
3. Squeeze your shoulder blades together to pull the barbell perpendicular to your torso. It should tap lightly somewhere between your bellybutton and your sternum, depending on your grip and stance. 
4. Slowly extend your arms to lower the barbell.
5. The rep is complete when your elbows reach full extension. 

RELATED: Best Deltoid Exercises

Benefits: High pulls train your upper back, specifically the traps and rhomboids, as well as the middle head of your deltoids and your biceps. They’re great for developing the strength needed for heavy power cleans and snatches. 

How to do it:

1. Load your barbell, keeping in mind you likely can’t lift as much on upright rows as you can on bent-over rows. 
2. Grab the bar with a standard or narrow grip (your preference; narrow grip isolates the traps more) and stand up with your arms extended. Keep a slight bend in your knees and hips. 
3. Pull the barbell up toward your chin, leading with your elbows. Keep the bar close to your body. The height you’re able to pull the bar will depend on your mobility, but anywhere between your sternum and chin is good. 
4. lowly lower your arms to return the barbell to the starting position.
5. The rep is complete when your arms fully extend. 

Benefits: It might sound dangerous or risky to place heavy loads on your back, but like all exercises, rack pulls are safe if you do them right and with an appropriate weight. And if you do, the benefits are many—rack pulls are arguably the best exercise for isolating your back muscles from your leg muscles, which can lead to greater strength and muscle increases. Rack pulls are often used to help athletes overcome a deadlift plateau and improve their lockout.   

How to do it:

1. You’ll need a power rack in addition to your barbell and weight plates. You can also use jerk blocks or stacks of 45-pound bumper plates, but a power rack works best. Set up the bar so it rests at your sticking point in the deadlift. For most people, this is just below or just above the knee. 
2. Stand in front of the bar and assume your normal deadlift stance. Grip the bar and plant your feet. 
3. Take a deep breath, tighten your core, and pull until you reach full hip extension. 
4. Don’t just slam the bar back onto the safety bars. Lower the barbell back down with control to get the most out of the exercise.
5. You can reset in between each rack pull rep. It’s probably a good idea if you’re going heavy. 

Benefits: A well-executed single-arm row is one of the best back exercises for hypertrophy—aka muscle growth. Not only that, single-arm rows can reveal muscle imbalances and correct them. They’re also great for increasing grip strength and improving posture. 

RELATED: Best Gymnastic Grips CrossFit

How to do it:

1. Grab one of the best weight benches or a low box for this. I recommend a bench because the padding is more comfortable for the knee you’re placing on it. Set up your bench and place a dumbbell on the floor next to it. (You can do single-arm rows without a support, but we recommend it because it allows you to focus on the contraction of the back muscles rather than supporting yourself in the tripod position). 
2. Place your right knee and hand on the bench. Shift your weight to let the bench support you. Plant your left foot and grab the dumbbell with your left hand. Tighten your core so your back stays flat. 
3. Pull the dumbbell toward your body, taking care to row backward, not upward—pull with your back, not your shoulders or traps. It might be helpful to think of yourself starting a lawnmower. You should feel most of the tension in your lats and the muscles in between your shoulder blades.  
4. Give your shoulder blades a good squeeze at the top and then carefully lower the dumbbell. You can maximize your results from this (and any) exercise by taking the eccentric slowly. 
5. Once you complete all the reps on one side, switch to the other. 

Benefits: Bent-over dumbbell rows have the same benefits as barbell bent-over rows, but using dumbbells instead of a barbell adds an element of instability, which can lead to greater recruitment of muscle fibers. In other words, your muscles have to work harder to move the same amount of weight, and that challenge can increase muscle hypertrophy. 

How to do it:

1. Choose two dumbbells of equal weight and set them on the floor a couple feet apart. Stand in between the dumbbells; you’ll want to keep your stance about shoulder-width apart. Grab the dumbbells and hold them by your sides with your arms extended. You can also sub in kettlebells for this exercise. 
2. With your arms at your sides, send your hips backward and bend over so your torso becomes almost parallel to the floor. Plant your feet firmly and keep a soft bend in your knees. 
3. Squeeze your shoulder blades together to row the dumbbells toward your torso. Keep pulling until your elbows reach or surpass your sides. 
4. Extend your elbows to lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. 
5. To protect your equipment and floor, don’t drop the dumbbells when you finish your set. Bend over to place them on the ground. 

Benefits: Reverse flys work all of the muscles involved in contracting and relaxing your scapula, which makes this a phenomenal move for improving posture. It’s also great for correcting muscle imbalances in people who are chest-dominant or lat-dominant. And, if you’re after a well-balanced physique, rear delt flys can help. 

How to do it:

1. Stand with a soft bend in your knees and hold the dumbbells by your sides. Hinge at the hips and bend forward as if you’re about to do a bent-over row. The starting position is the same, except you’ll assume a soft bend in your elbows.
2. Engage your core and, with an exhale, raise your arms out to the sides. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and lift through your full range of motion. If you have good mobility, your hands will surpass the height of your shoulders. 
3. Inhale as you lower the weight. Keep your spine neutral and avoid hunching your shoulders. 
4. Return to standing when you finish your set and place your dumbbells back on the ground. 

Benefits: Compared to bent-over rows and other row variations, the main benefit of the incline row is the opportunity to really hone in on the contraction of your back muscles. Thanks to the support of the bench, your core, hamstrings, and glutes are spared of the responsibility of holding your body up. 

How to do it:

1. Set up an adjustable bench at a 45-degree incline. Choose your dumbbells and set them down, one on each side of the bench. 
2. Sit on the bench facing the incline. Lean into the bench and allow it to support your body weight. Grab the dumbbells and hold them with your arms extended. 
3. Just like any other row variation, squeeze your shoulder blades together and draw your elbows back to pull the dumbbells toward your body. Pull until the dumbbells reach the height of the bench where your chest lies.
4. Lower the dumbbells with control. 
5. Repeat for reps, and set the dumbbells down on the floor when you’re done. 

Benefits: If you want a stronger back, pull-ups are a good place to start. Not only are they great for increasing upper body strength, but they build muscle in all the right places for the V-shaped torso that bodybuilders chase after. 

How to do it:

1. Stand beneath a pull-up bar. Use a box or stool if you can’t reach. 
2. Jump up toward the bar and grab it with a double-overhand grip, with your hands slightly wider than your shoulders. Try to wrap your hands all the way around the bar. 
3. Think about drawing your elbows toward your obliques. Pull yourself up to the bar by contracting your lats and squeezing your shoulder blades back and down. Avoid rounding your shoulders. Pull until your chin surpasses the height of the bar. 
4. Don’t just flop back down—control the descent and remain on the bar until you reach full extension of the elbows and shoulders.  
5. Drop down from the bar or start another rep after reaching full extension. 

Benefits: Like pull-ups, chin-ups are great for developing strength throughout your entire upper body and contribute to muscle growth in your back and biceps. 

How to do it:

1. Stand beneath a pull-up bar, using a stool if necessary. 
2. Grab the bar with a double underhand grip about shoulder-width apart. Hang from the bar with your arms straight. 
3. Pull your body upward until your chin is above the bar. 
4. Lower back down with control.
5. The rep is complete when your arms become straight again. 

Benefits: A horizontal bodyweight pulling exercise, ring rows have similar benefits to bent-over rows. However, they’re really a full-body exercise. When you do ring rows, your hamstrings and glutes engage to keep your body in a straight light. And your core does a lot of work to keep your spine in a neutral position. 

How to do it:

1. Adjust a pair of gymnastics rings or a TRX system to an appropriate height. They should be high enough to where you hover off of the ground when holding the handles with your arms fully extended. The higher the rings, the easier the exercise will be. 
2. Make a straight line with your body from your feet to your head. 
3. Pull your body up to the rings, ideally touching your torso to the rings. Draw your elbows straight back and keep your core tight. Avoid the common mistake of protruding your neck. 
4. Extend your elbows to lower your body back to the starting position. 
5. The rep is complete when you reach full elbow extension. Sit on the floor before releasing your grip from the rings or TRX. 

Benefits: Lat pulldowns strengthen and shape the latissimus dorsi—the long muscles that run from the back of your rib cage just below your armpit to the back side of your hip bones. I like to call those your “pull-up muscles.” However, because the pulldown exercise is done with a cable and you’re seated for the exercise, you can move a lot more weight than you probably can on pull-ups.  

How to do it:

1. Assuming you have a lat pulldown attachment, adjust the seat to a comfortable height. You should be able to drive your feet into the ground while pulling. 
2. Grab the attachment with a wide grip. Sit tall, look forward, and press your feet into the ground. 
3. Squeeze your shoulder blades back and down, drawing your elbows toward your sides. Pull until the bar lightly touches your chest, just above your sternum. 
4. Slowly return to the starting position by extending your arms. 
5. When you finish your set, make sure there’s no slack in the cable before getting up. 

Benefits: The best thing about cable rows is that you can isolate your back muscles since you’re seated. Unlike other back exercises that require you to engage other muscles—like your entire lower body—this one’s all about the back.   

How to do it:

1. Clip a neutral-grip attachment onto the cable machine and select your weight. 
2. Hold the bar with a neutral grip. Sit up tall with your back straight, your feet on the footplate and your knees bent.
3. Pull the handle toward you in a straight line, tapping your sternum with it. Squeeze to ensure full muscle contraction. You should feel this exercise in your upper and middle back, and maybe a little bit in your rear deltoids. 
4. Return the handle forward without leaning forward. Keep your back flat. 
5. Lean in to remove any slack from the cable before getting up.