The back is a very important bodypart. Not only does it help stabilize the core, but it helps with balance, and no physique looks quite complete without a wide, thick, well defined back.  A wide, thick, well defined back sets apart a weightlifter from a true bodybuilder. Top fitness models also understand the importance of choosing the right back exercises so that the many parts of the back are worked and developed to give that perfect look.

It amazes me everytime I work out in the gym, that so many people do not understand that to get a perfect back you need to work several of the smaller muscles of the back, as well as the muscles that tie into the back, like the traps, rhomboids and real delts. Addiitonally, many people do not know how to engage the muscles properly and most people do not practice proper form when doing their back workout.

With that being said, have you ever wondered what back exercises are the best to build a perfect back?  Well there is no need to wonder any more. Here's a list of the most effective and proven back exercises that will strengthen , widen and thicken your back so that your back is envied by all. 

Back Physiology

The "Back" is not a muscle. The "Back" is actually a group of muscles; three main muscles and several smaller muscles. The three main muscles are

1. The Trapezius, a diamond shaped muscle located near the top of the back and it helps with neck and shoulder blade movement
2. Latissimus Dorsi, the largest muscle in the body that is ) is located near the sides of the back. The "lats" are are used for pulling the shoulders downward and toward the back
3. The Rhomboids, located in the center of the back and are used to squeeze the shoulder blades together.

Best Back Exercises

Deadlifts

The Deadlift is one of the best power building exercises that you can do. Deadlifts work almost every major muscle group, especially the; spinal erectors, latissimus dorsi, forearms, trapezius, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteous maximus (buttocks), hips, adductor magnus, and soleus. Several other muscles are involved in stability control, including but not limited torectus abdominus (abdomen), obliques, and more!

To set up: Stand in front of a barbell with your shins close to the bar. Feet shoulder width apart. Grab the bar with your hands slightly wider then shoulder width. Keeping your arms straight, bend your legs and flatten your back. Position yourself so it is like you are doing a squat with the barbell at arms length in front of you.

To Deadlift: Pull the barbell off the floor by straightening your legs and torso until your body is completely erect. Pull your shoulders back. Then lower the bar back to the floor.

Tips: Holding the bar with one hand facing forwards and one hand facing backwards will allow you to get a stronger grip on the barbell, because as the bar is rolling out of one hand it will also be rolling into the other hand, thus allowing you to hold onto heavier weights.

Variations: Deadlifts can be performed using dumbbells or barbells, with one hand or two hands & with one leg or two legs. Common style variations of the standrad Deadlift include the Romania Deadlift, commonly used by Olympic Weightlifters which puts more emphasis on the hamstrings and glutes; the Sumo Deadlift, a variation of the deadlift whereby the legs are spread far apart to the sides (arms reaching down inside of legs), mimicking a sumo stance. The Sumo Deadlift changes the emphasis of the lift to the legs and glutes instead of the back. The Sumo Deadlift is purported to be easier for those with large waists as well as those with relatively long torsos and shorter arms, however, the Sumo Deadlift may place greater stress on the hips and hamstrings, as well as the connective tissues of the pelvec bone. Other Deadlift variations include the Side Deadlift  (AKA Suitcase Deadlift, Box Deadlift, Rack Pull Deadlift, Deadlift Lockouts, "Kuck Pulls" and Straight Leg Deadlifts (which is really a hamstring exercise and not an exercise designed to work the back).

Barbell Bent Over Rows

The Bent Over Row is a basic back exercise that works the Latissimus Dorsi, Trapezius, Erector Spinae, Biceps Brachii (biceps), and the Forearms. Bent Over Rows is one of the most important back exercises you can do for pulling strength and thickness in the upper body. The Bent Over Row  is a compound movement that works everything from traps to lats to lower back and hamstrings. Using proper form, bent over barbell rows will help you stand apart with thickness and strength, from the people who only do pull ups, chin ups, or (God forbid) pull downs.

To set up: Stand on a box or platform with the loaded barbell to avoid the plates hitting the floor when you use 45 lb plates. Your stance should be shoulder width for conventional barbell rows.

To row: Now, keeping your knees slightly bent, your head up, and your back straight, bend over until your upper body is lower than 45 degrees to the floor.  To start a row, use your back muscles to pull the bar straight up to touch your chest. The elbows should be tucked in, head up, back straight, and you should NOT bounce. Lower the weight under control and repeat. Bend over at the waist and grab a barbell with your hands placed shoulder width apart. Keep a slight bend in the knees. Lift the bar with your arms straight. Keep your upper body at a 45-degree angle to the floor and arch your back. Moving just your arms row the barbell into your stomach. Hold this position and squeeze your back muscles for a second to maximize the peak contraction. Lower the bar until your arms are straight, but do not let the barbell touch the floor in between each rep in order to keep the tension on the muscles.

Tips: For variety you can use an pronated underhand grip (i.e. palms of the hands facing forward) this will work the lower lats more. You can also do this exercise with dumbbells or a low cable pulley.

Variations: close grip, wide grip, medium grip, two arm dumbbell rows, supinated rows (palms facing away). There is also a machine called the T-bar that can be used for rowing. Old school lifters might even put one end of an Olympic bar in the corner of a room, and use the other end as a T-bar and a neutral grip cable attachment as the handle.

Pull Ups and Chin Ups
The pull up works the lats, rear deltoids, biceps, and forearms.  Pull ups and chin ups are a true measure of strength. They are one of those exercises that can be used to gauge a person's physical strength relative to their body weight. For example a powerlifter might be able to bench press 600 lbs at a body weight of 280 lbs, but maybe he can only do 4 pull ups. Meanwhile a 175 lb guy can only bench 315, but he can bust out about 30 pull ups. Pull ups are an advanced exercise because you have to be able to lift your entire body weight.

To set up: stand on a box or a platform if you need to, or just jump up, so you can reach the bar. Pull ups are typically harder than chin ups, but I recommend you switch off between the two. Pull ups use a pronated grip (palms down, or in this case palms facing away), while chin ups use a supinated grip (palms up). Hands should be just wider than shoulder width for a medium grip pull up, or just inside shoulder width for a medium grip chin up.

To pull up: the goal is to pull yourself up until your chin is over the bar. Keep your head up, possibly looking at the ceiling, and get that chin over the bar, pause just long enough to get a full contraction. Lower yourself back down so that your arms are about 99% straight, don't bounce.
If you can't do a pull up, most gyms have assisted pull up machines. Start there and work your weight towards your first body  weight pull up. If you can do more than 10 pulls up with body weight, it might be time to consider weighted pull ups and weighted chin ups. You can do this by hanging a dumbbell between your legs or ankles, or by using a belt with a chain to suspend the weight between your legs.

Pull-up and Chin-up Technique.

• Start each rep from a dead hang with straight elbows. Clear the bar with your chin on every rep.
• Squeeze The Bar. And put the bar close to your fingers, not in the palm of your hand. It minimize callus formation.
• Breathe at The Bottom. It's easier to breathe at the bottom. Take a big breath before pulling yourself up.
• Chest Up. Don't let your shoulders go forward: it's unhealthy for your shoulders. Lead with your chest up and keep your shoulders back.
• Look Up. Never look down during Pull-ups & Chin-ups. Look at the bar. Look where you're pulling yourself up to.
• Elbows to The Floor. Drive with your elbows to the floor. This involves your stronger back muscles more.
• Bend Your Legs. And cross your feet. Letting your legs hang means less strength in my experience. Squeeze your glutes on the way up.

Tips: c

Variations: wide grip, medium grip, narrow grip, neutral grip (palms facing each other), pull ups, chin ups, towel pull ups to blast your grip and finger strength. Many people do lat pull downs on machines or with cables, but I'm telling you not to. Stick with free weights!

Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs

The Wide Grip Lat Pull Down is a compound exercise designed to stress and develop the Latissimus Dorsi muscles (Lat). The Wide Grip Lat Pull Down is a compound exercise because it requires movement at two joints (elbow and shoulder). The full range of the motion required by the exercise also works the Rhomboids, Teres Major, Trapezius, Brachialis, Brachioradialis, Rear Deltoids, Infraspinatus, Levator Scapulae, Lower and Middle Trapezius and Biceps Brachii (biceps).biceps muscle in the arm and the muscles of the middle back. The Wide Grip Lat Pull Down uses a similar motion as the chinup.

To Set Up: Position yourself on the lat pull down machine with your hips right up under the pads (they are hip pads, not knee pads). Depending on the desired width of the grasp (moving hands closer, or farther apart will stress different parts of the muscles) grasp the overhead bar in a prontated (overhand) grip (palms facing away from you towards the front, knuckles up and toward the rear). The feet should be flat on the floor and knees tucked under a padded bar, to keep the athlete seated firmly.

To Perform the Wide Grip Lat Pull Down:

• Start with your hands near the ends of the bar arms straight and palms facing forward.
• While keeping your chest up and your elbows out to the side, pull the bar in a smooth controlled fashion straight down under your chin, toward the top of your chest.The move should be executed by concentrating on attempting to bring the shoulder blades together in the back and your elbows as far towards the floor as possible.
• Hold in this position briefly, concentrating on form and bringing the shoulder blades close and contracting the Lat.
  
• Slowly and in a controlled manner, return the bar upward until your arms are straight, then move your shoulder blades wide and shoulders up high as if you are shrugging and allow the pull of the bar to stretch the muscles in your back that were contracted performing the exercise. Relax for a second, pause and repeat the exercise until repetitions are complete or muscle is exhausted, according to your plan.

Tips: Do not lean back and use your body weight to pull the bar down. Remember to "Pull" the weight with the Latissimus Dorsi muscles (the "wings") while bringing your shoulder blades together. Envision trying to hold a tennis ball with your shoulder blades. The finish, at the top of the reach and the downward shoulder movement at the beginning, is very important in ensuring complete muscle involvement and maximizing benefits derived from performing the exercise.

Close Grip Lat Pull Downs - Mid back, lats 

• Start with the body vertical, arms straight over your head
• While keeping your chest up and your elbows to your side, pull the bar in a smooth controlled fashion straight down under your chin, toward the top of your chest. The move should be executed by concentrating on attempting to bring the shoulder blades together in the back and your elbows as far towards the floor as possible.
• Hold in this position briefly, concentrating on form and bringing the shoulder blades close and contracting the Lats.
  
• Slowly and in a controlled manner, return the bar upward until your arms are straight, then move your shoulder blades wide and shoulders up high as if you are shrugging and allow the pull of the bar to stretch the muscles in your back that were contracted performing the exercise. Relax for a second, pause and repeat the exercise until repetitions are complete or muscle is exhausted, according to your plan.
  

• Start with just dropping your shoulder girdle.
• The arms should not bend in this part of the movement.
• Your shoulders should just drop down a few inches.
• Practice this short movement a few times.
• Once you have the feel for that, continue with the pull down movement.
• This technique will lock your lats into activation.
• Repeat this technique at the start of every rep.

Variation: The Close Grip Lat Pull Down can be varied most notably by the hand position. Changing the position of the hands from overhand, to supinated, to parallel will alter the path the elbows take and thus stress different portions of the muscle. Cables may be used by advanced bodybuilders to escape the motion limitations imposed by the use of a single bar. using cables also makes the exercise more difficult because of the stability required to keep the movement fluid.

Barbell Shrugs - Upper back

Shrugs target the upper trapezius (trap) muscle. The middle trapezius and Levator Scapulae, and Erector Spinae are also worked indirectly.
To set up: Stand holding barbell with a overhand or mixed grip; shoulder width or slightly wider.

To shrug: take a pronated grip on the bar just outside your hips and unrack the weight so that it hangs to mid thigh. Always stand straight with your head up, and knees just barely bent. Try to touch your shoulders to your ears by shrugging straight up, as high as you can. Hold for half a second to really get that contraction. Lower the weight under control back to mid thigh.

Tips: It's only necessary to raise and lower the shoulders during shrugs. Do NOT roll the shoulders.

Variations: There are many variations to the standard shrug. variations include dumbbell shrugs, reverse grip shrugs, behind the bak shrugs, Cambered Bar Seated Shrug, Trap Bar Shrug, Smith Machine Shrug, Cale Shrug, Lever (Plate Loaded) Shrug, just to name a few.

One Arm Dumbbell Rows

This is a great way for you to isolate each side of your back in turn. While you can't go as heavy as barbell rows, you can still go pretty heavy and you can get a fuller contraction with a greater range of motion because the barbell does not restrict your scapula from fully retracting on each rep.

There are a couple different ways for doing One Arm Dumbbell Rows. I prefer to do One Arm Dumbbell Rows off the floor with both feet on the floor, with a staggered step and one hand on the dumbbell rack. One Arm Dumbbell Rows can also be done using a weight bench. This is usually the more common, so i will discuss how to perform One Arm Dumbbell Rows this way. In both positions bend over so your back is parallel with the ground. Now reach down and pick up a dumbbell while keeping your back flat and parallel to the floor. The other arm should be locked out on the bench.

To set up: Grab a dumbbell and place it beside a bench. Now place one leg (knee) up on the bench for support, and the other leg on the floor just behind you creating a base. Now place your hand on the other end of the bench for support. At this point your upper body should be parallel to the floor.

To row: Grab the dumbbell with a neutral grip (palm facing your body), arm fully extended and lift the dumbbell off the floor. Without cheating pull (lift) the dumbbell in a slow controlled fashion to side until it makes contact with ribs or until upper arm is just beyond horizontal. Keep your stomach tight, and do not rotate your body especially your hips. Squeeze the lats before lowering the dumbbell to the starting position about an inch off the floor. Repeat to failure. Then continue with opposite arm.

Tips: Be sure to keep your abs contracted throughout the movement to support the lower back.  Allow scapula to articulate but do not rotate torso in effort to throw weight up. Torso should be close to horizontal. Positioning the supporting knee and/or arm slightly forward or back will allow for proper leveling of torso.

Variations: you can use a machine or a cable exercise for this, but I highly recommend you stick with free weights.
Honorable mentions: Pull overs (an auxiliary isolation exercise that works primarily the lats), Hyper extensions (an auxiliary compound exercise that targets the spinal erectors, lower back, buttock, adductor magnus and hamstrings), and cleans and snatches for the traps.

About Jeff Behar