Build a Bigger, Stronger Back with the Best Back Exercises and Workouts for Men
How Can I Shape My Back Fast? Why did we put together an extensive article on back exercises and back workouts? We’ll put it this way, there’s a reason we don’t shoot Men’s Health cover stars from behind. It’s because we know that given the choice men want to see abs and arms, chest and boulder shoulders, not back muscles. But when it comes to working out, you should be paying the same attention to back exercises as you do any other muscle group. There are loads benefits to training your rear, from injury prevention, to helping you pull more weight in all lifts, to developing the coveted V-shape. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that 16 weeks of back workouts was enough to alleviate discomfort felt by 30 men who had suffered from chronic back pain for around two years. Another more recent study published in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation reported that deadlifts can be used to decrease pain and increase the quality of life for people living with lower-back pain.
The benefits of training your back speak for themselves, and that’s why we’ve put together this guide to the best back exercises and back workouts for men. The 23 lifts included are moves that no back workout is complete without. Plus, our list of the best back workouts for men includes everything you’ll need for a well-rounded back-building programme. There are myriad reasons to train your traps, lats and beyond. We’ll let Ben West and Jordane Zammit Tabona, co-founders of London gym 360Athletic, talk you through them. If you spent most of your week – and, at that, your life – slumped over a desk and slapping a keyboard, your posture is likely to have taken a bit of a beating over the weeks, months and years you’ve been at work. According to Zammit Tabona, this can cause ’rounding of the shoulders and upper back,’ and back workouts, handily, will help get rid of the desk-bound ‘hunch’.
For the average Joe, life generally looks like long periods of being sedentary – the commute, a desk job, nights on the sofa watching telly – frequently interspersed with high-intensity workouts that take you from zero to 100 and back again in a mere 45 minutes. And we wonder why we get injured. Besides helping your posture, back workouts can help reduce pain and risk of injury, making you focus better and work more efficiently,’ West adds. Back workouts will also encourage weaker muscles to grow, helping boost performance with Prime Boosts strength in other lifts you may not expect. A stronger bench press, anyone? Likewise, your shoulder joints will be more stable and considerably stronger. Your back muscles and spine support your body, without them it would be very weak,’ says Zammit Tabona. Having a strong back will therefore help support your body and have you functioning better and more efficiently.’ Sounds like a win-win-win to us. Alongside a more pronounced chest and bigger arms, the want for a V-shape physique is one of the most regular occurrences in the Men’s Health inbox.
Thankfully, spending more time on your rear will help you earn that coveted v-shape upper-body. Having a balanced, well-rounded physique is what most of us aspire to have aesthetically, and training your back frequently will certainly help with this,’ says West. By strengthening your spine, Prime Boosts Official Website shoulders and core, the back exercises below will improve strength and begin to erase the strain of lower-back pain, which encroaches on the lives of thousands of men every day. Partnered with effective stretching routines and dynamic movements, these moves could help to make lower-back pain a thing of the past. Considering four in five adults will experience back pain at some point in their lives, it’s understandable why so many of us want to strengthen it. But reducing the impact of back pain doesn’t just come in the form of muscle-building exercises. Simple stretches are able to reduce tension, tightness and discomfort as well as build conditioning and tissue elasticity. Why: The role of the glutes is to stabilise the pelvis and the hip.
By strengthening them, they will provide adequate support to the torso and take some of the brunt of the effort during your lifts. How: Lie flat on the floor with your legs bent. Drive through your heels to push your hips upwards as far as you can go. Ensure your hips and shoulders form a straight line. Squeeze your glutes and keep your abs drawn in. This will prevent you from overextending your back. Pause and return to the start. Why: A great exercise to stretch the lower back, increase flexibility and stabilise the pelvis. How: Lie on your back with both legs extended. Draw both knees to your chest with your fingers interlaced around your shins. Hold this position for 30 seconds, and then release. Repeat this stretch 5 times on both legs. Why: An effective exercise that puts minimal strain on your back while also lengthening and stretching the muscles around the spine.
