SPORT These are the best exercises for developing a powerful back

There are several muscle groups on the back. To develop them, you need to perform different types of training. The superficial layer of muscles includes the trapezius and latissimus muscles. The deep layer is represented by diamond-shaped and serrated muscles.

Next, we’ll look at how to pump up a man’s back with exercises and the main types of training for different types of muscles.

When training the back muscles, it is not advisable to overly pump other large muscle groups, for example, the pectoral muscles. In this case, the parallel development of the shoulder girdle and the press is quite acceptable.

You should move on to spin training only after completing the basic ones.

The set of back exercises for men includes a number of trainings:

• deadlift;
• inclined traction;
• working with dumbbells;
• shrugs;
• block traction.

Deadlift

This back exercise, which men perform in the gym, is part of the group of basic multi-joint techniques. In addition, when performing it, a load is placed on almost all the main muscles of the body.

Place your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly narrower. The feet should be parallel, or with the toes slightly spread in different directions. The specific position must be selected individually, based on comfort and stability.

Squat down and grab the bar using the overhand grip method. Control the position of your hands - they should be approximately shoulder width apart.

Lean forward with your body, straighten up and straighten your waist, straighten your chest.

When starting the movement, exclude mobility of the back; you must take the weight with the leg muscles. Straighten your body, and only after it is completely straight can you straighten your knees. Reverse the steps to lower the barbell.

Important details:

• The bar should follow the path of the shins. You should not circle your knees during the execution. Your arms should hang in the lower position without tension. The bar should be moved strictly vertically. If your knees are uncomfortable, lean forward a little more. Control the interval between the projectile and the shins, it can be a maximum of 3 cm;
• Always keep your back straight. When you lean forward, do not bend at the waist; the bend is provided by the hip joint.

The photo of the exercise for a man’s back shows all the stages of its implementation. It is quite difficult to perform, so it is recommended to do it only in the gym under the supervision of a specialist.

A set of exercises for men

The program is designed for training 2 times a week. Before performing a set of exercises, you must warm up for 5-10 minutes. Back training program:

• pull-ups on the horizontal bar - maximum number of times;
• Bent-over barbell row – 3×12 with no more than 60 seconds rest between repetitions;
• block pull with a wide or narrow grip in a sitting position - 3×12;
• vertical row with maximum weight - 8x10;
• vertical row with a weight of 80% of the maximum - 8x10;
• vertical row with a weight of 60% of the maximum - 8x10.

The number of pull-ups over the course of a month should increase by an average of 3. It is recommended to focus on the lowering phase, as this forces the muscles to work at their maximum. When performing vertical rows with decreasing weight, the movements must be performed more slowly each time the weight is decreased.

Building up your back muscles is not that difficult even at home. Periodic training and adherence to the execution technique will create a beautiful muscle relief in men, and girls will be able to strengthen their muscle corset. Pumped up back muscles will guarantee the absence of spinal diseases in the future.

Bent-over row

The training ensures activation of the lats and trapezius. In this case, the biceps and deltoids are additionally connected. Therefore, this is one of the best back exercises for men.

It's done like this:

• Ensure a stable body position by choosing the appropriate width of your feet, bend your knees slightly. Bend over without bending your elbows and use an overhand grip to lift the bar. As you lift the barbell, stand completely straight.
• Make a frontal tilt of approximately 30°. The lower back should arch slightly. Hold the barbell somewhere at the level of your kneecaps. Tighten your psoas muscles.
• Pull the bar towards your lower abdomen. In this case, the elbows go only back, not to the sides; they need to be raised as high as possible, trying to use only the back muscles, but not the biceps.
• Having reached the maximum upper position, hold for up to 2 seconds and gradually return the projectile to the starting position.

In the video of exercises for a man’s back, you can clearly see the process of performing it, as well as additional recommendations from professional trainers.

Important Features:

• the head and legs should be motionless;
• You can additionally use rhombuses and trapezoids. Having reached the top position, you should bring your shoulder blades together;
• It is desirable that the hands are positioned slightly wider than the shoulders.

We pump up our back in the gym and at home

Exercising at home requires more time from you. The emphasis is on working with your own weight. However, you may also need some sports equipment: dumbbells, horizontal bar. This way the result is achieved much faster.

Read: How to warm up before training

Training program for pumping up your back at home

Deadlift

The exercise uses all the muscles of the body. It is best to start training your back muscles with deadlifts.

Technique:

1. Stand up and straighten up. Take some weights. If it's a bar, use a wide-handed reverse grip. You can use dumbbells or bottles filled with something. Direct your gaze forward.
2. Take a breath. Rise up until your back is straight.
3. Exhale and lower yourself to a half-squat position. Don't arch your back, breathe correctly.

Exit with a jerk

Don't be alarmed when you feel that the exercise is quite difficult. Later it will become familiar to you, pumping your back will bring pleasure.

Read: Effective exercises for the back

Performance:

1. Hang from the horizontal bar. Rock a little with your leg movements.
2. Pull yourself up with your hands, making a sharp rise over the bar due to swinging legs.

Exit with a jerk

Pull-ups

Read: Training programs for pumping up the back

Performance:

1. Hang from the bar. You need to grab it so that the distance between your palms is greater than the width of your shoulders. There is no need to wrap your thumb around the horizontal bar.
2. Slowly pull yourself up. Watch your posture. The chin will become parallel to the horizontal bar.
3. Lower yourself so that at the bottom of the exercise your shoulders and elbows are straight.

Pull-ups

One arm bent over row

It is possible for men to perform the exercise without focusing on anything.

Performance:

1. Stand up straight. Place your palm and leg bent at the knee on some surface. Bend your lower back slightly. Lean your body forward slightly. The leg remains on the floor in a slightly bent state. Take weights with your free hand: a dumbbell or a bottle of water or sand.
2. Pull weights up to waist level. Make sure to keep your elbows close to your body.
3. Return to the starting position. The back muscles will stretch.

One arm bent over row

Hyperextension to do at home

The safest exercise to train your back at home. If you want to complicate your task, men can pick up weights.

Read: Exercises for the upper back

Technique:

1. Lie down on a flat and hard surface (sofa or table) with your stomach down. Secure your legs with a large backpack or other weight. Place your hands behind your head. If you have a partner, ask him to sit on top of your legs.
2. Raise your body. Fix yourself in an achievable position. Don't bend your lower back too much. All movements are made smoothly. The gaze is directed forward.
3. Lower yourself to the starting position.

Hyperextension to do at home

Pushups

Concentrate on your posture. Tighten your stomach to avoid tilting your back forward. If the exercise is difficult for you to do, do push-ups with emphasis on your knees, and spend time on the plank.

Pushups

Raising your shoulders up (shrugs)

The exercise is aimed at working the upper back.

Read: A set of back exercises with dumbbells for men

Performance:

1. Starting position – standing. Take dumbbells in straight arms.
2. Perform shoulder lifts. Pay attention to your posture.

Raising your shoulders up (shrugs)

Number of approaches and repetitions

Do each exercise an average of 15 times in 3 sets. Gradually progress the load by increasing the number of repetitions.

Useful tips for training your back at home

• Take time to warm up before performing the main set of exercises. Run in place and jump for 5 minutes.
• Gradually increase the load by choosing a weight and doing as many reps and sets as possible.
• Train three times a week. But don’t forget about breaks: muscles, joints and ligaments need time to recover. Exercise in such a way as to load all groups of back muscles.
• Adjust your diet. Eat foods containing protein: lean fish, cottage cheese, eggs. Eat porridge: it contains carbohydrates. Eat often, but in small portions.
• Try to sleep 8 hours a night. This time for sleep is enough to produce the hormone necessary for muscle growth.
• Finish your workout with stretching. This will relax the muscles being trained.

Read: Quadratus lumborum exercises

Work with dumbbells

An effective exercise for strengthening the back muscles for men is the dumbbell row. In this case, the hands are used alternately. This way the lats swing most effectively.

This method allows you to achieve an increase in the amplitude of movement, in contrast to classical traction, which is important, without putting excessive stress on the spine.

There are 2 variations of the starting position:

• sideways to the bench on which the left shin and knee are located, and the left hand rests against it. The torso tilts horizontally, the right leg moves back and to the side;
• feet are on the floor. But the right one protrudes above the left in the frontal direction and is curved at the knee joint. The bench serves as a rest for the left hand. The body assumes an inclined position.

Done this way:

• Take the dumbbell in your right hand. In this case, a neutral grip method is used. Allow your arm to hang freely.
• Inhale, pull the dumbbell towards your waist or higher, visually outlining an arc. Hold the upper position for a couple of seconds and bring your shoulder blades together.
• Exhaling, return the projectile down.

These are good back exercises for men at home, since they require a minimum set of sports equipment - a dumbbell and a bench.

Important points:

• you cannot turn your body to lift the dumbbell as high as possible;
• Elbows should not go to the side.

Training order

You should understand that you won’t be able to pump up your back quickly. It is necessary to be systematic and follow the basic principles of training. Only if all conditions are met will it be possible to achieve your goals. The first changes and improvement in well-being can be noticed after 2-3 weeks of constant training.

You can improve the quality of the training process if you remember:

Gradual. Start your training with simple exercises and minimal load. Increase the intensity of your exercise gradually. Smoothness. All movements should be smooth and measured, without jerking or twitching. Frequency of classes. It is optimal to exercise 3-4 times a week. Correct breathing. It is necessary to breathe slowly and deeply. Concentrations

It is important to focus on doing exercises and working specific muscle groups. Constancy

You need to train systematically without skipping or making excuses. Security. Follow the technique of performing the exercises, use safety elements. Convenience. You should exercise in comfortable clothes and shoes. During the exercises, nothing should hinder movements or cause discomfort. Active lifestyle. Try to move more outside of training. Walking in the fresh air, cycling, hiking - all this will have a beneficial effect on the well-being of the back and the functioning of the nervous system.

Video in which Dr. Sergei Bubnovsky shows his exercises to strengthen the back:

Set yourself a goal and go towards it

It is very important to realize that such training is needed not only to maintain beautiful shapes and ideal parameters, but also one’s own health and prolongation of life

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Shrugs

Shrugs are effective exercises for a man's back, similar to shrugging, but with a load. They are isolated type trainings and are intended for trapezius training.

A good addition to basic back training. Beginners can do without it, but in the future, to achieve better results, they must be included in the training program. There are different ways of doing it.

Standing shrugs

This option can be implemented using regular dumbbells. You can also use a barbell with a curved bar. A regular bar is not used in this case, as it will put pressure on the groin area or legs.

The starting position is similar to the top position when performing a deadlift. It is necessary to achieve the highest possible position of the shoulders, eliminating the bending of the arms.

Drop your shoulders. In this case, the movement of the bar must be performed using muscles.

It is best to perform this exercise using dumbbells or a trap bar. If there are none, and only a regular bar is available, it is worth using a different grip to hold it. In this case, one hand should be positioned straight, and the other, as with a reverse grip. Alternate hand positions periodically.

Subtleties of execution:

• The shoulders should not perform rotational movements. This is fraught with injury to the shoulder joint;
• use a power frame or support structures to prevent the bar from lowering too low.

Shrugs lying down

The lesson trains the trapezius, deltoid and chest muscles.

• Lie down on a horizontal bench equipped with a power frame structure. Fix your feet on the floor. Fully straighten your elbows, and install limiters 10 cm below the resulting level.
• Remove the bar from the holder, grasping it shoulder-width apart, move your shoulder blades, and press your shoulders against the bench.
• Exhaling, straighten your shoulder blades, lift your shoulders slightly so that they come off the bench.
• Inhaling, return to the original position.

Requirements:

• do not lift your head and upper back from the bench;
• work with your hands equally and at the same time, the hands should not warp relative to each other.

How to strengthen your back muscles

It is quite rightly believed that the back is one of the most complex muscle groups, so the question “how to strengthen the back muscles” worries many.

Back muscles

• Firstly, the back muscles have the largest mass, unless, of course, you count the leg muscles. This is why when training your back you need to use such large weights.
• Secondly, there are quite a lot of muscles on the back. You can’t remove a good dozen of the superficial ones alone. And these are just the superficial muscles. But there is also an inner layer of muscle.

Everyone knows that to pump up your back well, you have to do too many different exercises. And what to do, because these deep muscles give additional mass

Moreover, many bodybuilders pay great attention to muscles such as the latissimus and trapezius. After all, you must admit that a developed latissimus muscle looks quite impressive

But pumping up these muscles takes a lot of time.

Why don't the lumbar muscles work?

And this very time is sorely lacking to work out the muscles of the lower back. But to be honest, many athletes, even if they know about the existence of this muscle group, simply do not pay attention to it, considering it simply unimportant. Or there is simply no energy left to train the lower back.

But few people suspect that this is a big mistake. Moreover, given our sedentary lifestyle. But it’s no secret that all so-called heavy exercises, including squats and deadlifts, and even bench presses, create one of the worst types of tension - static.

Older athletes, and not only them, but many in general, often talk about lower back pain. But most of these cases are not spinal injuries, or even pinched intervertebral nerves, but just a so-called spastic spasm.

How to get rid of lower back pain

Long-term statistical tension in the muscles of the lumbar region develops into this very cramp. But the reason has long been known: weak lumbar muscles. And the cure is also known: you need to make the muscle stronger. But it has long been proven that when performing hyperextension with weights, a person who may have had back pain for years, in most cases, such a person is healed.

This has always been the case: a beginner, forcing the load, takes on too much weight, and as a result receives overstrain of the weak lumbar region and, as a result, severe pain.

Too intense pumping of the press also gives similar results. In bodybuilding, antagonist muscles are usually pumped at the same time: for example, biceps and triceps, quadriceps and hamstrings. The famous Schwarzenegger combined training of the back muscles and chest muscles.

This approach to training is considered optimal, since joint training of antagonist muscles strengthens ligaments and joints. For example, the biceps ligaments become stronger first, and only then the triceps ligaments, since they are located on the back of the elbow joint.

For the lumbar muscles, the antagonist is the abdominal muscles. And although the abs and lower back are not treated exactly the same, it must be taken into account that one-sided training is guaranteed to deform the skeleton. We conclude: the stronger the press with an undeveloped lower back, the higher the risk of severe spinal injury.

There are also other arguments: without a well-developed lower back, high performance in many exercises is simply impossible. But it is the lumbar region that stabilizes the body in exercises such as squats, deadlifts and, perhaps, in all exercises performed while standing.

Athletes have long proven this statement in such experiments: it was noticed that after pumping the lower back, squats will not work the next day. Having pumped your lower back to the fullest extent today, tomorrow you will not lift even half of your working weight in squats.

How to strengthen your back muscles: lower back

The lower back is pumped using extensions: first, the body is tilted, then the back is straightened. But there is one subtlety: the back needs to be slightly rounded. With a straight spine, it is not the lower back muscles that will work, but the hamstrings and gluteal muscles. They are the ones who will straighten the body.

For tasks such as pumping the lumbar region, exercises such as hyperextensions and bending are suitable. Bent-overs can be performed with both kettlebells and dumbbells. And even with a light weight barbell.

But you just need to hold the weight in straight, downward arms and with a slightly rounded back. If the weight is low, don't be afraid to hurt yourself. A strong lower back is the key to further achievements!

Based on materials from: Athleticism.com.ua

Details

Upper block pull

Gives a load on the latissimus, anterior deltoids and biceps.

• Take the machine with a wide grip, with your arms slightly bent. Arch your lower back and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
• Pull the handle toward the top of your chest. Continue to squeeze your shoulder blades together as much as possible.
• Slowly return the handle to its original position.

Nuances:

• to unload the biceps, use the open grip method (thumb at the top of the bar);
• do not connect or pull your elbows back; they should be vertical.

Lower block thrust

Training for forearms, lats and deltoids:

• Sit on the machine, ensure that your feet rest firmly on the structure, and grab the handles. Keep your back straight and tense and lean back slightly. Stretch your arms forward, relax your shoulder muscles and biceps.
• Pull the handles towards the abdomen without changing the position of the back.
• Having reached the maximum position, squeeze your shoulder blades together.
• Straighten your arms to return to the starting position.

Peculiarities:

• the back should not take a rounded shape;
• Follow a consistent tempo when performing repetitions.