The Best Back Exercises for Muscle, Strength, and Posture

If you want a leaner, more defined, and muscular back — or you just want to improve your posture — you’ll need to train your back muscles.

In this article, I’ll break down the main muscles of the back, how to train them effectively, and the best back exercises for strength and muscle growth.

Overview of Back Muscles

First, let's go over the back muscles.

Don't skip over this part. This will help you understand the exercises and what muscles are being worked.

Don't worry, we won't be going too much into depth. Just a brief general overview of your back muscles will be helpful.

Upper Back

Let's start with your upper back muscles.

These are:

• Rhomboids

• Rear Delts

• Traps (Upper, Mid, and Lower)

The rhomboids are the muscles between your spine and shoulder blades. They help pull your shoulders back, stabilize your shoulder blades, and assist in proper shoulder movement.

The rear delts are the back muscles of your shoulders. They pull your arms backward and outward, assist with rotation, and help maintain an upright posture.

The traps or trapezius is divided into 3 different parts: upper, middle, and lower. They are the muscles that go from your neck down to your mid-back and across your shoulders. They control your shoulder blade movement in almost every direction (up, down, back, rotation) and stabilize them for strong, efficient upper body movement.

Lats (Latissimus Dorsi)

The lats are one big muscle. They connect your upper arm to your spine and pelvis. They pull your arms down, back, and in, while also helping stabilize your back and core.

Now, although the lats are one large muscle, they are actually divided into three regions. Similar to how the traps have 3 different parts, upper, middle, and lower traps.

Each region contributes slightly differently depending on the movement:

The thoracic lats are attached to the upper/mid spine.

The lumbar lats are attached to the lower spine.

The iliac lats are attached near the pelvis, and they help more with shoulder extension.

Keep in mind that the entire lat muscle, all 3 parts, are working together at all times. However, you can bias different areas with exercise selection and arm angle.

How to Build Your Back Muscles

If you want a leaner, more defined, muscular back, then, in addition to what exercises are best and how to perform them, you'll also need to know how to build muscle.

There are a few key principles, like:

Training intensity: You'll need to train hard. Those last few reps should be challenging. In some cases, you might even be lifting close to failure while maintaining proper form.

Nutrition: You'll need enough calories to fuel your workouts as well as enough carbs and protein to help your muscles recover and grow.

Recovery: What you do outside of the gym matters just as much, or if not more. How you recover plays a big part in building muscle. What you eat matters, how much you eat matters, your rest matters, and getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep matters.

The Best Back Exercises for Muscle, Strength, and Posture

Now that you have a general idea of what your back muscles are made of, where they are located, their functions, and how to build them, we can delve into how to train them.

Each muscle can be targeted in slightly different ways. However, in general, you will be doing a combination of both rowing and pulling.

Pull Ups: One of the Best Back Exercises

Let's start with a Vertical Pull.

Pull-ups are a great exercise for your back. They target your overall back.

The primary muscle targeted is your lats, which are the largest muscles in your back. The secondary muscles being worked are your traps, rhomboids, and rear delts.

Now, if you can't do a pull-up yet, start by working on getting your first chin-up.

You can download my free guide here.

Chin-ups still target your back like pull-ups do. However, because your palms are facing towards you, your biceps are assisting with the movement more than they would with a pull-up.

Single Arm Dumbbell Row

Next, let's do a horizontal row.

I'm sure you've seen this exercise before.

Watch this video, but the main takeaway is to drive your elbow down and back towards your hip.

It mainly trains your lats, traps, and rhomboids, with help from your rear delts.

Standing Single Arm Low Cable Row

I also like the Standing Single Arm Low Cable Row, another horizontal pull.

This exercise mainly targets the lower lats (lumbar lats), rhomboids, traps, and rear delts.

Lat Pulldown

Let's go back to another vertical pull.

This exercise helps isolate your lats and upper back.

Now I see a lot of people royally screw this exercise up at the gym.

So make sure you watch this video for a proper exercise tutorial.

Half Kneeling Single Arm High Cable Row

Another great exercise for a horizontal pull option.

Because the cable is set high, the row path is slightly downward, which emphasizes the mid/upper back (rhomboids, traps, rear delts).

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row

This is one of my favorite horizontal pulling exercises.

Because it prevents you from using momentum from your hips or spine, it isolates your upper back more strictly.

The angle of the bench keeps the pull between a horizontal row and a slightly angled row, depending on how you set it.

This exercise primarily targets your lats, rhomboids, mid trapezius, and rear delts.

How Often Should You Train Your Back?

Now you know some of the best back exercises you should perform.

But how often should you be performing them?

It has been shown that to stimulate muscle growth, training should be done twice a week.

I recommend following a 4-day-per-week upper/lower body split. This means you'll be hitting both your upper body and lower body 2 x per week.

You could do a 3-day-per-week upper/lower/full-body split. Where you train just your upper body once a week, just your lower body once a week, and then you hit both upper body and lower body on your full-body day.

I would not recommend a 2-day full-body split. There are too many exercises to include to achieve the desired outcome, and trying to fit everything into two sessions per week would not be enjoyable.

Yes, something is better than nothing, and if you're just getting started with strength training, training twice a week can help you build strength and gain muscle in the beginning. The longer you've been strength training, though, training twice a week will help you maintain your strength and muscle, but not make a lot of improvement.

As you can see, it will be individualized depending on your training age. But if your schedule permits, try to go with a 4-day split.

Sample Back Workout Plan

Now you can't, or at least shouldn't, just train your back muscles. You'll also need to train the opposing muscles.

So for your 2 Upper Body Days, your workout could look something like this:

Day 1: Upper Body

Pull Ups: 6-8 reps x 3 sets

Chest Exercise

Single Arm Dumbbell Row: 8-12 reps x 3 sets

Shoulder Exercise

Half Kneeling Single Arm High Cable Row: 8-15 reps/ each side x 3 sets

Tricep Exercise

Day 3: Upper Body

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row: 8-10 reps x 3 sets

Chest Exercise

Standing Single Arm Low Cable Row: 8-15 reps/ each side x 3 sets

Shoulder Exercise

Lat Pulldown: 8-15 reps x 3 sets

Tricep Exercise

*You'll be doing lower body on days 2 and 4.

Form Tips for Better Back Training Results

There are some things I want you to keep in mind while performing these exercises.

First, ensure you are going through a full range of motion while performing each rep. This means you'll need to fully extend your arms at the beginning of each rep, and then pull the weight or your body fully to complete the rep. Don't cut your range of motion short and do a bunch of half reps. If you do, your muscles will do less work, and your muscles need to work to grow.

Second, don't rush through the movement and use excessive momentum to complete each rep just to say you've done it. This takes the tension off the muscle you're trying to target. You're not going to be able to build muscle performing the exercise that way.

Final Thoughts: Build a Stronger, Leaner Back

I hope this article was helpful in knowing what the best back exercises are.

There are many more back exercises. So if you're thinking, "just tell me what to do and I'll do it," feel free to apply for 1-on-1 Online Coaching.

Whether you want to get your first pull-up, want a leaner, more defined, muscular back, or just want better posture. I'd love to help you achieve your goals!

I’ll take the guesswork out by giving you a clear plan with the exact exercises, sets, and reps you need, so you’ll never wonder what to do. This all will be based on your initial assessment, goals, and the equipment you have available.

You'll receive a personalized plan that fits your lifestyle, along with support to help you build muscle and achieve sustainable progress in your training and nutrition.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Talk soon,

Deb