You all know that Back is the second largest body part after the leg.
And, you all will agree with me that it is difficult for you when it comes to train and developed the large body-parts.
Building a proper thick and wider back is often considered as a complicated.
As, many people don’t know which exercises they should be doing to developed the V-Taper Back and Thickness of Back.
I tried many exercises, routines and what not!
But I can’t achieve my dram back until I know about the exercises that I should do.
Don’t worry! In this article, I’m going to share the best back workout which will help you to create your perfect back.
before jumping into the exercise, it is very important for every fitness freaks to know the anatomy of the muscles, he/she will train.
This will allow you to know what muscles you should be training to accomplish perfect definition of that individual muscle.
The Anatomy of Back Muscle
As I said earlier, back is the second largest muscles in the whole body
And, it is important for you to train all the muscles to gain size, strength and thickness.
Back Involves 7 different type of muscles.
Shocked Right?
You didn’t know about it because you only train 1 or 2 muscles from the back in your routine which is not enough to build back.
Muscles
- Trapezius (traps)
- Rhomboids
- Teres major and minor
- Infraspinatus
- Latissimus dorsi (lats)
- Erector spinae (iliocostalis, longissimus, and spinalis muscles)
There are main two section of back: Upper back, and Lower Back.
When people talking about the upper back, they mainly referring about trapezius, rhomboids, teres muscles, infraspinatus, and lats (latissimus dorsi).
The lower back has only one muscle but it has the highest priority, if you want to create that V-Taper Look.
Here’ how the back-muscle look:
Mistakes that I did
Once, I was also beginner like you but time makes me perfect and I learn from my mistakes.
So, I want you to learn my mistake and if you’re also doing that kind of mistakes then avoid it to get your dream back.
1. Perform only small number of exercises.
This is the most common mistake when it comes to target any large body-part i.e. leg, back and chest.
People only do 3 or 4 exercises to train those muscles which are not sufficient.
2. Stick with only one type of lat-pull down.
Doing only normal type of lat-pull down only help you to grow lats.
But if you’re performing lat pull downs with different type of grip then it will also help you to target different back muscles.
3. Never do pull-ups or do only 5-15 pull-ups.
Did you know that you can build your entire back with only pull-up variations?
No! Right?
Pull-ups have many variations, and include it in your back workout to target different back muscles.
4. Never do deadlifts or exercise that will hit lower back or erector spinae.
The deadlift has one of the best compound exercise you can do at the gym.
To create that Christmas tree shape in your lower back it is very important for you to train your lower back.
The Best Back exercise you should be doing
Now you understand the entire back muscles anatomy and the mistake I did.
So, it’s time to see the best 5 back exercises that will hit your each and every back muscle.
I bet, if you’re a beginner or intermediate, you may know about the exercise that will train your particular muscle.
There are many exercises to train every back muscle but we’re going to see which are best and explained by science.
Exercise 1: Lat Pull Down (Emphasis on latissimus dorsi)
which literally is the 'broadest muscle of the back' and thus responsible for back width.
There are many exercises for your lats but you should do only 2 or 3 exercise for lats.
I know, most of you’re doing lat pull down and I agree it is one of the best exercises to target your lats.
But if you want to get 100% from the lat pull down then you should change your grips.
A study done by Gregory J Lehman suggest that instead of doing conventional lat pull down, people should do the supinated grip lat pull down as it has higher lats activation compared to wide grip lat pull down.
If you want to compare the EMG activity of different exercises on the lats. Check out the below graph for the reference.
- Lat pulldown to sternum (PS1)
- Lat pulldown to neck (PN)
- DB row, bend over (DB1)
- Lat pulldown to sternum (PS2)
- DB row, bend over (DB2)
- Lat pulldown to sternum (PS3)
- Seated cable row (CR)
I saw literally 100 times that people do different pulldown variations.
However, Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies, A founder of IFBB found that there is no significant difference between the activation of the upper, middle and the lower part of latissimus dorsi.
In other words, you can’t train the upper, middle and lower part of the broad back muscle in isolation.
So, if you’re already doing different type of pull downs then STOP it and do only supinated grip lat pull down
You may see that people done lat pull down with the leaning back, and like me, you also taught that they are cheating but it is actually beneficial as far as activation of broad back muscle concerned (if they are not doing it with the momentum!)
If you don’t want to do it supinated lat pull down. It’s Ohk!
You can still have higher lats activation with the conventional lat pull down but there is a slight change.
Your arms and torso should bend slightly back to 135 degree will increase the muscle activation of the lats by 11%.
Exercise 2 Pull-Ups
Like I said earlier, there are plenty of exercise for lats but HERE we want only those exercises which are the best.
Lats are the biggest muscle in your body and it is not enough to develop it with only one exercises.
The second exercise, we’ll be doing is the pull-ups considered as the “GOLDEN 5” exercise.
According to one study done by American Council on Exercise on the healthy males between the ages of 18 and 25 years old.
They found that the pull-up and chin-up had significantly greater muscle activation than the other six exercise i.e. the bent-over row, inverted row, lat pulldown and seated row.
Like the lat pulldown you can also target different lats area with the different grips.
There are total 4 different type of pull-ups grip.
- Pull up to neck, wide overhand grip
- Pull up to sternum, wide underhand grip
- Pull up to sternum, wide overhand grip
- Pull up to sternum, narrow overhand grip
Check out below graph to know which type of pull-ups have higher lats activation.
IF you cannot do the “classical” pull up because your shoulder, neck or whatever starts hurting or you’re a beginner then find yourself one of those pull up towers.
Exercise 3 Emphasis on The Trapezius & the Rhomboidei
Most of the beginner and even intermediate fitness freak don’t know that the trapezius made up with three muscles upper, middle and lower.
In order to achieve thickness in back then it is very important for you to train all the muscles of trapezius and rhomboidei as well.
There are many exercises you can do for the whole trapezius muscles which I listed below.
The upper part of the m. trapezius
- DB shrug
- BB front raise, narrow grip
- Deadlift
The middle part of the m. trapezius
- Machine rev. fly (int. rotation, 90°)
- DB reverse fly (90°)
- BB bend over row (90°)
- Straight bar cable rows
- Face pulls
- DB row (90°)
The lower part of the m. trapezius
- Machine rev. fly (ext. rotation 120°)
- DB reverse fly (120°)
- Machine rev. fly (ext. rotation 90°)
- Shoulder pulls, on lat pull down
- DB reverse fly (90°)
- Machine reverse fly (int. rotation 90°)
After reading this long list of the traps exercises, you may be confused about the best traps exercise. Right?
Check out the below image and do only those exercises which have higher trap activation.
Many of you don’t have proper good looking back because of lesser development of the lower traps or middle back.
There are some exercises you can do if you want to isolate only your lower traps.
A simple change in the angle between your arms and your torso from 90° to 110° switches the focus of both the free weight, as well as the machine-based exercise towards the lower part of the traps.
An ideal isolation exercise that will also help with posture and the prevention of the dreaded "impingement syndrome".
However, this exercise is no common in bodybuilding regimen, incorporation of effective rehab exercises like this can help injury prevention.
Exercise 3 Emphasis on Infraspinatus and Other Supported Muscles
These are the smallest muscles group in your back and Trust me! It is not easy to train and developed them.
Because there are no isolation exercises for them and even for any muscle group.
In the same study done by the ACE shows the EMG activation of Infraspinatus muscle between the 8 different back exercises.
They concluded that I-Y-T raises and bent over raw exercises have higher muscle activation than all other six exercises.
Many of you may know about the I-Y-T exercise, that’s why I put a video below which shows how to perform I-Y-T exercise.
Exercise 4 Emphasis on Erector Spinae: Barbell Bent Over Raw
This is the longest muscle in your back, starting from the common origin and insert into the lower ribs.
This muscle has its own importance.
Without development of this muscle your back has nothing to see because this muscle will create that beautiful lower back shape.
Like all the other exercises there is no doubt that this muscle can also be train with many different exercises.
But We need the BEST!
According to same study done by ACE shows that barbell bent over raw has the higher muscle activation when it comes to erector spinae compare to other 7 back exercises.
Check out below EMG data result!
Exercise 5 Emphasis on Overall Back: The deadlift
According to one research most of the beginner never do deadlifts or even sometimes intermediate gymers.
Deadlifts is considered as a “KING OF ALL EXERCISES”
People named it because of the reason.
Deadlifts mainly add thickness in your back since you can overload it easily.
When you do deadlift the main muscles, which are training is the trapezius and erector spinae.
If you’re one of them who has a fear of injury while performing deadlifts then don’t worry about it.
Because some studies show that not only are deadlifts safe for the back, but they actually seem to prevent back injuries.
Some people prefer to do deadlifts on leg day as squats and deadlifts have almost similar amount of erector spinae activation while performing it.
In alter of deadlifts, you can do above-the-knee rack pulls in your back routine.
It is also considered as one of the best back exercises after the deadlifts.
Although this is a topic for another article, I strongly advise you do your research into how to properly perform them beforehand.
Sample Back Workout Routine
Now you know the anatomy of back and the best exercises to train them.
But what about the Workout?
How to arrange the exercises in order to have best back workout.
Pull-Ups: 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps
Lat Pulldowns: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
I-Y-T Raises: 2-3 sets of 10+ reps
Barbell Bent Over Raw: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Deadlifts: 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
If you want to have that wider and thicker back then you have to stick with this workout for the couples of months.
Make sure you’re following proper diet according to your goal.
Because, without it your all hard work goes into the dustbin.
I saw many females who never do a full back workout.
If you’re a female reader and wants a development of a strong good looking back then all of the above exercises and information will also apply you too.
Final Thoughts:
The article shows that there isn’t one specific exercise that best activates all five muscles but it shows which exercise best for individual muscle.
This workout plan can be different from others since every individual are use a variety of exercises to train their entire back effectively.
Do you have a proper back development and used different back workout than this let me know in the comment section below?
