When you look around the average gym or fitness center and observe how athletes train, it becomes apparent how poorly training is often done. One of the aspects that is often done incorrectly is back training. Perhaps it’s because the back is at the back of your body, or maybe people just aren’t interested, but you see few performing back exercises correctly. Consequently, back development is usually subpar.
In this article, I want to provide some tips on how to train your back better so that it doesn’t remain a wallflower!
Movements and functions of the back muscles
The back consists of a complex mass of muscles, each with its own function. Fortunately, most muscles work in a similar manner, so you don’t have to perform specific exercises for each muscle. The function of the back is mainly to keep your upper body upright, in conjunction with the abdominal muscles.
Roughly, the back can perform only a few – important – movements:
- The back muscles enable the arms to move backward
- The back muscles enable you to move your arms from top to bottom (as in pull-ups)
- The back muscles pull your upper body straight from a bent position
Exercises for the back
There are many different exercises for the back, which are all variations of the three movements described above. To give some examples:
Moving the arms backward
This is essentially a rowing movement, which is also mimicked with a rowing motion. Examples of exercises include:
- Barbell rows
- T-bar rows
- One-arm dumbbell rows
Moving the arms downward
Actually, this is pulling yourself upward. If you can do that: perfect! However, this is quite heavy (depending on your own weight and flexibility), and it’s possible to imitate the movement in reverse, pulling slightly downward. This can be done in many ways, but to give a few examples of exercises:
- Front Pulldowns
- Behind the neck Pulldowns
- Reverse-grip pulldowns
Straightening the upper body from a bent position
- Deadlifts
- Good Mornings
- Hyperextension
Back Training Tips
Weightlifting Belt
Wear a weightlifting belt only when it’s absolutely necessary!
Excessive use of a weightlifting belt is a common mistake. Many people are afraid that their lower back might get damaged if they don’t wear a belt during their training. Therefore, they almost always wear it, even during triceps and chest training. In my opinion, this is not only unnecessary but also weakens the lower back.
If you always wear a belt, your lower back hardly has to do anything. Muscles that do nothing become weaker, making the problem even bigger! Your muscles are made to work together with other muscles. The only way to do that is to give them this opportunity! When you do, your lower back will come into balance and remain with the rest of your muscles.
I’ve taught myself to wear the weightlifting belt only when my lower back is put in a potentially dangerous position. I now only wear the belt for three exercises: Barbell rows, T-bar rows, and heavy squats.
Deadlifts and regular squats don’t need a belt because they actually make your lower back stronger, and it’s rather strange to protect them then…
Of course, you should wear a belt if you already have a significant lower back problem or if your doctor has recommended it. Except in these situations, it’s usually not necessary and even harmful.
Use Straps or Hooks
Your back muscles are very strong and need heavy loads to fully develop. Your hands can handle that to a certain extent, but at some point, your back muscles need more stimulation than your hands can handle.
To prevent this, there are two aids to ensure that you can continue training even if your hands can’t:
Straps are cotton or leather straps that you put around your wrists and wrap around the bar. Your hands keep the straps in place.
Hooks are wristbands or gloves with a metal hook attached. The hook ensures that the weight stays in your hands. I used these myself because my right hand doesn’t work well due to an accident. However, I switched to straps because they work better for me.
For athletes without disabilities, straps are a better choice.
Perform Exercises with Controlled Movements
A very common mistake is not controlling the weight being used during training, not only in back training but also in general. This can cause your muscles to be improperly stressed, leading to injuries.
This is often most evident when people do a lat pulldown. Many athletes use too heavy a weight and therefore have to exert a lot of effort – and often perform strange movements – to get the weight down. When the weight is down, they quickly let the cable snap back. This can have two consequences:
- your muscles miss the controlled negative movement, so they don’t get stronger in that regard
- your muscles get a blow from the too fast movement, which can bruise or even tear them!
As with all exercises in the gym:
- always keep the weight under control
- ensure that both the positive and negative movements receive attention. Use a lower weight if necessary
- pay attention to your execution!!! Look in the mirror (yes, they are also there to see how you perform an exercise…)
- try to perform the negative movement slower than the positive movement (a good rule of thumb is 2 seconds positive, 3 seconds negative)
Feel your muscles contract!
Do Exercises with Free Weights
Many athletes primarily train their back (and often the rest of the body) with machines and cables. Now, machines and cables have their place in a good back training, but the foundation should be exercises with free weights. This is for the following reasons:
Free weights allow your muscles to follow their natural movement. Machines have a fixed movement, which doesn’t allow for any play. This means that machines can never train the muscles over their full length and entire range of motion.
Free weights force the stabilizing muscles to become stronger, making the whole body stronger. Stabilizing muscles are all the muscles that allow a certain posture and/or movement to be adopted and maintained. Take bent rows, for example: bent rows target the latissimus dorsi (large back muscle), but they train many more muscles:
- the lower back (erector spinae) keeps the upper body stable in the bent-over position and absorbs the shocks from the movement of the weight
- the hamstrings allow the body to maintain the bent-over position
- the biceps are heavily involved in the rowing movement
- etcetera
Machines are designed to train (almost) only the muscle you want to train, without training the supporting muscles. Machine training alone will never give you the development that free weight training gives your body.
Don’t Forget the Basic Exercises!
Like all muscle groups, the back responds best to basic exercises, which train multiple muscles simultaneously. The body is a machine that works best when systems cooperate. For the back, rowing movements are especially important basic exercises, but don’t forget the deadlift!
Many athletes are afraid of the deadlift because it can be dangerous if the movement is not performed correctly. Therefore, make sure someone demonstrates the exercise correctly and corrects you when you do the exercise yourself.
The deadlift, like the squat, is an exercise that can trigger a growth spurt if done correctly and with heavy weight. It trains the entire body and ensures that your lower back becomes strong enough to support you in all other exercises.
Push with Your Elbows, Not Pull with Your Hands
During back training, many athletes make the mistake of pulling with their hands. By pulling with the hands, you quickly lose the feeling in your back muscles (often already a difficult muscle group for many athletes), so the growth will never be maximum. Furthermore, the hands are not strong enough to sustain this for long, as the back muscles can handle very heavy weights.
The best way to train your back muscles is to push with your elbows. You can achieve this by concentrating on your back muscles, not your hands.
You should consider your hands as hooks to which the weight is attached. By pushing with the elbows, it also becomes much easier to properly engage the back muscles.
How do you do this? Try it out with a lat pulldown: grab the bar and pull it down by pushing your elbows down and squeezing your shoulder blades together. You’ll definitely feel the difference!
Keep Your Arms Close to Your Body
Many people think that you can widen your back muscles by keeping your hands as far apart as possible. However, the latissimus dorsi (large back muscle) runs from the lower back to under your armpits. You achieve the greatest stretch when you keep your hands quite close together and fully stretch your arms forward or upward.
In most exercises, you’re best off keeping your hands shoulder-width apart, depending on your body build and muscle mass. In some exercises, you can even bring your hands closer together, such as in reverse-grip lat pulldowns. The most important thing is that you can contract your back muscles well, i.e., bring your shoulder blades together. The position of the hands allows you to move your elbows as far back as possible, allowing you to contract your muscles very well.
Follow the advice in this article, and your back will no longer lag behind the rest of your body!
