How To Workout Your Back Muscles – Your Comprehensive Guide

Do you want to know how to workout your back muscles?

Great, because you’re in the right place.

As Sir Mix-A-Lot said, “baby got back.”

Wait, I think he meant a different kind of back.

He meant the part a little lower than what you would consider your back.

If you happened to be here for that, no worries I’ve still got you covered here.

With that said, let’s move up a bit higher on the body and talk back training.

In my opinion, it’s the one upper body muscle group that is the most misunderstood.

Mainly because there are so many muscles located on your back.

40, to be exact (there are 20 named but you have one of each on your left and right side).

This means that depending on how you position your body, you can target certain back muscles more than others.

And in regards to hypertrophy (training for muscle building/growth), we want this because if you want to grow a specific muscle, then you should be choosing exercises/movements that ensure that muscle or tissue receives the most tension.

From an efficiency standpoint, it’s like trying to get your daily list of tasks done.

Would you rather work on one thing at a time and do it really well?

Or would you rather try to “multitask” and work on many things at once and do them all poorly or worse get none of it done?

Now with that being said, here’s what you can expect from this article:

• Your Back Musculature Anatomy
• Exercises And Movements To Target Specific Back Muscles
• What A Sample Workout Looks Like

Now, before we dive in, I just want to say please give this a thorough read.

Not only because I’ve spent hours on it, but because it is chock full of information you don’t want to skim around and miss.

Even though I may be biased, dare I say this is going to be the best guide you’ve ever read on how to train your back.

And that’s not because I’ve been able to learn all of this by myself. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to know all this without the education of N1. So go ahead and check them out and give them the support because they are the best in the biz for all things weight training in regards to optimal programming following proper anatomy and biomechanics.

So without further ado, let’s dive in.

The Anatomy Of How To Workout Your Back Muscles

Confused and slightly frightened? Perfect.

Truth be told, you don’t need to know 95% of the muscles listed here.

I just wanted to throw up a random picture with a bunch of names to scare you lol.

All jokes aside, here are the main muscles you should be concerned with for training your back:

• Upper Back Muscles, which are further broken down into:
  • Rear Deltoid (commonly shortened to “rear delt”)
  • Rhomboids Major + Minor
  • Trapezius (commonly shortened to “traps” and they are a rather huge muscle so they are further broken down into three divisions: the upper, mid, and lower traps)
  • Teres Major + Minor
• Latissimus Dorsi (commonly shortened to “lats”)
  • These are also another huge muscle on your body so they are further broken down into three divisions: the thoracic, lumbar, and iliac lats

Before we dive into the specifics, as a general rule of thumb, when training any muscle in the body, keep in mind that you want to line up the weights/resistance with the way the muscle fibers run. This allows the particular muscle you’re trying to work to get the most mechanical advantage (fancy term for the ability for that muscle to do work).

How To Workout Your Back Muscles – The Upper Back

First up, let’s talk upper back.

When people talk about building back “thickness” these are the main muscles that are going to contribute to that look.

Here’s the real chart of all of the upper back muscles you need to be concerned about.

Doesn’t seem so intimidating now, does it? 😉

(This is the part where you say yes.)

Great, because I’m all about keeping simple fitness as simple as necessary. 🙂

Scapula Movement

Let’s take a quick detour and talk about the scapula, the anatomical term for your shoulder blades.

The main reason is that most of your back training is going to involve this bone in one way or another.

Remember how I said I want to keep this as simple as necessary?

Well, I’m keeping my promise.

So I’ll keep this short and sweet.

When you’re doing any back movements, don’t think about actively retracting, protracting, rotating, flipping upside or sideways, or any other motion.

Because when you consciously think about manipulating your scapula, you don’t allow your body to naturally move how it’s supposed to.

And the result?

People end up with things like shoulder impingement, pain, numbness, or shoulder soft tissue-related injuries.

So save yourself the trouble and don’t think about them. Just do the back movements as follows and let your scapula do their thang.

How To Workout Your Back Muscles – Upper Back Exercises

Rear Deltoid or “Rear Delts”

The rear delts aren’t necessarily a single muscle, but rather a division of an entire muscle called the “deltoid” or as most people know them as your “shoulder muscle.”

I’ve covered how to train these in my other article, The Best Shoulder Workout Routine.

Even though that article is still full of good information, I’d like to cover this in more detail here.

The primary functions of the rear delts are going to be shoulder extension with a bit of scapular retraction (bringing your shoulder blades back).

With that said, if we want to get the most out of training the rear delts then we need to pick movements that maximize shoulder extension.

When most people think about training the rear delts, this is the movement and piece of equipment they first think of.

While this isn’t necessarily a bad movement, it’s not the most efficient or optimal way to train your rear delts.

This is mainly because this arm path isn’t going to maximize the amount of shoulder extension we can get.

As we can see in the two pictures above, if we followed the arm path like most reverse pec deck machines put us in, you don’t get that much shoulder extension.

(If you think I’m faking this, try this out for yourself. I guarantee you’ll feel and see a difference!)

However, with a slight adjustment by bringing your arms closer to your torso (around 45-ish degrees), you get more shoulder extension which allows us to further shorten and train the rear delts.

With that said, you’re now probably asking, “Okay cool Austin, now that I know the correct anatomy, biomechanics, and arm path for rear delts, can we just get to what exercises I can do?”

Well, I’m glad you asked because I want to thank you for your time for reading through this entire article.

So I have exactly three exercises that will give you maximal rear delt development.

Rear Delt Rows

While yes, all rowing movements will work all of your back muscles to some degree, we want to be picking certain movements that will advantage one muscle over the others because remember the focusing on one task analogy?

So with this, we’ll apply all of the things we talked about with rear delts while doing this row movement.

Points of Performance

• Arms out to side where you can drive your elbows back the farthest (for most people, this is about 45 degrees)
• Bench angle where you can drive your elbows back without gravity pulling the dumbbells too much towards your legs
• Focus on drive your elbows back hard

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

Rear Delt Cable Pulls (Mid)

Points of Performance

• Arm path should be about 45 degrees away from body
• Set cable height to accommodate arm path (cable should stay in line with arm the entire time)
• Keep elbows locked
• Drive elbows back as far as you can

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

Rear Delt Cable Pulls (Lengthened)

Points of Performance

• Reach for the opposite ear
• Maintain that arm angle and drive elbows back
• Keep torso stable to prevent twisting

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

If you have any further questions, be sure to shoot me an email with the subject line “The Best Exercises To Build A Strong And Defined Back: Rear Delts.”

This way I know where you came from and which specific part of the article you have questions about. 🙂

Cool? Cool. Let’s move on.

Rhomboids, Traps, And Teres

I decided to group both the traps and rhomboids into one section because they both work in conjunction to do similar movements (especially the upper + mid traps and rhomboids).

These two muscle groups function as scapula retractors – meaning they pull the scapula (shoulder blade) back and together.

So these muscles will be heavily involved in any rowing motion where your elbows are driven as far back as they can.

However, if you want to bias these muscles more than your other back muscles, then we’ll need to pay attention to arm path.

Now, as you’ll notice the muscle fibers run out directly toward the side. This means to best target the traps and rhomboids, we want our arms out to the side while we’re rowing.

As for your teres major + minor, these muscles do get plenty of work from rowing movements so you don’t necessarily have to get specific work for these muscles, but their primary function is humeral adduction or bringing your arm toward the midline of your body – think if you were to flap your arms like a bird, the teres muscles do the “down flapping” motion.

There are tons of exercises you can choose, but here are a few of my favorites.

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row

Points of Performance

• Set incline to about 45 degrees
• Drive elbows back, not up
• Dumbbells should follow an “arc motion”

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Upper Back Hammer Strength Row

Points of Performance

• Slightly arch upper back
• Drive elbows back hard
• Let shoulder blades move naturally

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Pull-Apart Pulldowns

Points of Performance

• Use individual handles
• Lean back slightly
• Don’t internally rotate shoulders
• Arch upper back
• Drive elbows out and back

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Pull-Apart Cable Rows

Points of Performance

• Arms flared out slightly
• Drive elbows back hard
• Pull handles apart as you pull back

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Cable Y Raise

Points of Performance

• Stand far back enough so cables don’t contact your body when performing movement
• Start with arms slightly in front of you
• Push hands up and back towards back corners of wall

So, if you have already read my article on how to build your shoulders, you’ll know that the Y raise is excellent for getting the medial delt fully shortened.

However, an excellent, lesser-known benefit of Y raises is for strengthening the lower traps which perform a lot of scapular stabilization, upper rotation, and tilt.

In fact, something that I am extremely proud of is that many of the people I have programmed Y raises for in my online coaching program have found that their shoulder pain and issues to have improved or gone away from simply strengthening this movement pattern!

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 8-12

Teres Pull In

Points of Performance

• Drive elbows in toward hip

This machine may say “lats”, but as we’ll explain more on below, the lats aren’t the prime mover here.

Upper Back Pronated Pulldown

Points of Performance

• Use grip slightly wider than shoulder width
• Lean back slightly
• Arch upperback
• Drive elbows down
• Don’t let shoulders roll forward as you’re pulling

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Yes, you read that right.

Upper back pulldown, not lat pulldown.

Keep in mind the things I’ve said regarding arm path and muscle mechanical advantage.

Your body will recruit the muscles that will perform a specific motion with the most efficiency.

So while your lats aren’t completely turned off, they are necessarily the “prime mover” in this movement.

In this case, contrary to popular belief, the lats are not the most efficient muscle at performing this motion.

More of this will make sense as we dive into the next section about lats.

How To Workout Your Back Muscles – Using The Right Equipment

Oh, and one last thing regarding upper back training.

If you have used or are using any of the rowing handles that look like this, ditch them immediately.

This is because this handle will actually restrict from getting the full range of motion with any pulling movements.

So while yes, I forgive you, but please promise me you’ll start using wider grip handles or use two single hand handles like I am in the demo videos above.

How To Workout Your Back Muscles – The Lats

Next up, let’s talk lats.

This is the muscle that contributes most to back “width.”

As you can see, it is a huge muscle that originates in three areas across your spine and inserts into your humerus (upper arm).

• The thoracic lats – named for the ‘thoracic’ divison of your spine (mid-back)
• The lumber lats – named for the ‘lumbar’ division of your spine (lower back)
• The iliac lats – named for the iliac crest or the big bony border portion of your hip bone.

The main function the lats perform is humeral depression or driving your upper arm down toward the side of your body.

However, because there are three divisions to the lats, there are small tweaks we can make to train and bias each of these divisions.

Before we get into these exercises, I wanted to talk about the proper setup and execution of all lat biased movements so that you can get the most out of them.

For all lat movements we want to make sure:

• We maintain a neutral spine. The lats use your rib cage as leverage so when you arch your spine in either direction, the lats will lose the ability to maximally work and your other back muscles will become more involved.
• We keep our arm close to the side of our body. Remember how I said for back training, we need to be especially attentive to arm path? This is another one of those times. When you flare your elbows out, you will start to involve other back muscles which will mean less involvement from the lats.
• We don’t pull our elbows past our torso. Again, when we pull our elbows past our torso and behind the body, the lats lose the ability maximally work and we start to involve other back muscles.

Now, let’s go over each of the lat divisions, what movements they perform specifically, what exercises best target that division.

Thoracic Lats

So going from top to bottom, we have the thoracic lats first.

This division of the lats is going to mainly perform a lat biased row from low to high (specifically from about 30 degrees of shoulder flexion – if you were to start with your arms resting by your side, bring them up about 30 degrees).

This should make more sense when we throw a couple of my favorite exercises in down below.

Points of Performance

• Row with about 30 degrees of shoulder flexion
• Neutral spine, don’t arch back, core braced
• Use bench or object to help stabilize and brace against
• Find stance so barbell doesn’t run into leg
• Drive elbow into hip
• Don’t pull elbow past body
• ROM is much smaller than you think it is

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-10

Points of Performance

• Row with about 30 degrees of shoulder flexion
• Neutral spine, don’t arch back, core braced
• Use bench or object to help stabilize and brace against
• Drive elbow into hip
• Don’t pull elbow past body
• ROM is much smaller than you think it is

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-10

Lumbar Lats

The next division down is going to be the lumbar lats.

This division of the lats is going primarily row from your arm straight out with 90 degrees of shoulder flexion while driving your elbow toward your hip.

The same drill, here are a couple of my favorites.

Points of Performance

• Brace core
• Neutral spine, don’t arch back
• Drive elbow toward hip
• Don’t pull elbow past body

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-10

Points of Performance

• Use handle that allows you to line up grip about shoulder width apart
• Neutral spine, don’t arch back, brace core
• Drive elbows toward hips
• Don’t pull past body

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-10

Iliac Lats

Now, for the lowest division, we have the iliac lats.

This division is going to function best while performing lat pulldowns from high to low.

To reiterate, what people traditionally call a “lat pulldown” (shown above) is not actually a lat pulldown.

Is this to say that the lats aren’t working at all doing this motion?

Of course not. The lats are still involved.

However, if we want to train a specific muscle, then we want to be choosing exercises that maximally load the muscle that we want to train.

For example, while the triceps are involved in a chest pressing motion, we don’t choose chest presses to maximally load the triceps. That’s what isolation triceps exercises are for. We do chest presses to train our chest.

This is called the prime mover of the exercise – the muscle that is going to be the most heavily involved in whatever exercise we choose to do.

So in your traditional “lat pulldown”, the lats aren’t the prime mover, rather your upper back muscles are, mainly the teres and rhomboids.

Instead, here are the real lat pulldowns to train your iliac lats.

Points of Performance

• Don’t let shoulder blades pull all the way up
• Make sure cable is slightly in front of you, not directly overhead
• Drive elbow toward hip
• Neutral spine, don’t arch neck or back

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Points of Performance

• Use dual rope to help arms stay shoulder width apart the entire time
• Core braced, neutral spine, don’t arch back
• Soft bend in elbow is fine, but keep arms stiff
• Drive elbow toward hip

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

Points of Performance

• Neutral spine, chin tucked
• Don’t arch upper back
• Drive elbows towards hips
• Don’t pull elbows past body

Again, the main cues for training your lats, regardless of division are to:

• Keep the arm close to your body
• Use a neutral grip
• Keep a neutral spine and not flexing or extending the upper back
• Driving the elbows towards the hips and not pulling your elbows past your torso

Sets: 2-4

Reps: 6-12

How To Workout Your Back Muscles – Sample Workouts

Now, let’s put it all together and take a look at what a sample back day workout would look like.

Personally, you can focus on one specific area of your back, for example, an upper back focused day or a lat focused day.

Upper Back Focused Day:

1. Chest Supported Dumbbell Row – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
2. Pull-Apart Pulldowns – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
3. Dumbbell Rear Delt Row – 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Lat Focused Day:

1. Cable Lat Row – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
2. Landmine Thoracic Lat Row – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
3. Cable Iliac Lat Row – 3 sets of 6-12 reps

Or you can do a general back day with one movement from each muscle group (which is how I personally like to program).

General Back Day:

1. Lat Hammer Row – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
2. Upper Back Hammer Row – 3 sets of 6-12 reps
3. Rear Delt Cable Pulls (Mid) – 3 sets of 8-12 reps

And that is literally it. 3 exercises per workout and it covers all of the main back muscle groups.

Efficiency is the name of the game and I am playing it.

Final Thoughts On How To Workout Your Back Muscles

Aaaaand that’s it.

That about covers the basic anatomy, biomechanics, and training information you need to know to build that wide and thicc bacc (I know how to spell it, this is how the kids say it nowadays. I think…).

If you want to know everything about designing your own strength training I have an entire article written here.

Otherwise, if you don’t want to go through the guesswork of figuring everything out, I do have online coaching which includes ongoing support and workout programs so that you know exactly what to do every time you step foot into the gym.

The main perk is that all you have to do is put in the work and you’ll see results. No guessing. No wondering. This can be found here.

But that about wraps it up for this article.

As always reach out if you ever have any other questions.

Until next time,

-Aus