Back Muscle Exercises

Having a strong and muscular back serves a bigger purpose than just looking good.  With a strong back, you will have better posture and it also helped me get rid of lower back pain.  In this post I'm going to cover my 3 favourite back exercises.  Pull-ups, Pull-downs and Rows.  These 3 exercises will build muscle mass on your back and also somewhat on your biceps, as back exercises work together with your biceps and vice versa.

1. Pull-ups

- Grab the pull-up bar with your palms facing towards you and a grip just closer than shoulder width apart.
- With both arms extended in front of you, keep your torso as straight as possible while creating a curvature on your lower back and sticking your chest out.
- As you breathe out, pull yourself up trying to get your chin to around the same level as the bar.
- At the top of the pull-up, squeeze and contract your biceps for a second and then slowly lower yourself back down while breathing in.

2. Pull-downs

- Sit down at the pull-down machine with a wide bar attached to the top cable.
- Grab the bar with the palms facing forward using the grip shown in the picture above.
- With both your arms extended, stick your chest out and arch your lower back.
- While breathing out, bring the bar down until it touches your upper chest by drawing the shoulders and the upper arms down and back.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together for a second, then slowly raise the bar back to the starting position until your arms are fully extended and your lats are fully stretched. Inhale during this part of the movement.

3. Rows

- There are many types of rows but for this exercise, we will be looking at T-Bar Rows
- Lift the bar off the rack and extend your arms in front of you.  While slowly breathing out, pull the weight up and then squeeze your back at the top.
- You should have an arch on your lower back.
- Also, try not to pull the weight up using your forearms, concentrate on working your back muscles.
- Then, while slowly inhaling, slowly go back down to the starting position.