The bench press may be the ubiquitous weightlifting exercise, but working your back muscles is just as important as building impressive pecs. Since both chest and back muscles work on the same joint (your shoulders), pulling in opposite directions, they should be kept in as even a balance of strength as possible. Your major back muscles can be divided into three main groups: latissimus dorsi, trapezius muscles and erector spinae.
Pull-ups and Pull-downs
Lat pull-downs, done with a weight machine or with a high cable pulley, and pull-ups both focus on your large, powerful latissimus dorsi muscles. These muscles, when well developed, form a distinctive “V” shape from your armpit to the back of your waist.
For maximum overall benefit, do your lat pull-downs (or pull-ups) with a medium grip, palms facing away from you and spread slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Instead of pulling your hands down to your shoulders, imagine pulling your elbows down to your ribs. Keep your core muscles tight throughout the entire motion and keep your shoulder blades down and together; this might limit the range of motion slightly, but it also helps focus the effort of lifting on your lats.
Rows
Row exercises also focus on the latissimus dorsi muscles if done with a narrow grip, elbows tucked against your sides. This exercise can be done on a belly button-height cable pulley, on a weight machine or with dumbbells. As with pull-up and pull-down exercises, keeping your shoulder blades down and back will help focus the stress of lifting on your lat muscles.
If you let your elbows splay away from your body (if working with a pulley, raise the pulley up to chest height and switch to a handle that’s at least as wide as your shoulders; if using a row machine, switch to the wide, palm-down handles), you’ll be focusing the exercise on your trapezius muscles, the large, roughly diamond-shaped muscles that sit between your shoulders and extend up toward the base of your skull and down toward the middle of your back.
If you’re doing wide grip (trapezius) rows, avoid jerking your shoulders or torso backward to help with the lift; keep your chest pressed up against the chest pad of the machine or, if using dumbbells or a cable pulley without a chest pad, squeeze your core muscles tight to keep your torso steady.
Straight Leg Deadlifts and Back Extensions
While all back exercises force your erector spinae to stabilize your spine, deadlifts and back extensions put special emphasis on these fingers of muscle that extend up and down your spine, responsible for holding it steady against the force of your abdominals.
The key to both straight leg deadlifts and back extensions is to avoid arching or hunching your spine; that way lies injury. Instead, squeeze your shoulder blades down and back to help stabilize your upper back, then engage both your abdominals and your back muscles (erector spinae) to hold your spine rigid in its natural “good posture” curve as you hinge forward from the hips.
Straight leg deadlifts already involve a weight that slides up and down the front of your legs as you hinge forward from the hips. You can add intensity to the back extension, which is done in a special back extension bench that secures you from the hip down but allows your upper body to move freely, by either extending your arms overhead or clutching a dumbbell or weight plate to your chest.
About this Author
Marie Mulrooney has written professionally since 2001. Her diverse background includes numerous outdoor pursuits, personal training and linguistics. She studied mathematics at the University of Alaska Anchorage and contributes regularly to various online publications. Print publication credits include national magazines, poetry awards and long-lived columns about local outdoor adventures.
