5 EXERCISES TO BUILD YOUR BACK

Being hunched over either while working off your laptops or browsing on your phones, has probably adversely impacted your back and ruined posture.

Your back muscles are required in almost every activity you do while also for protecting your spine.

For this powerhouse to do all that work, you need to make sure that its strong and capable. Weak back muscles can lead to pain and stiffness ruining your day-to-day movements and even affecting your sleep.

Strength training the back increases muscle mass, adding width to the upper back and improving body proportions by creating an illusion of a smaller waist. Building your back muscles allow you to handle heavier weights and trigger more caloric burn.

Here, I tell you 5 back exercises for working out those back muscles and be in and out of gym in max 20 minutes. You can even go watch this video of me showing how to do it.

Remember to pay close attention to the form and focusing on the targeted area. All you need is a set of dumb bells, a smith machine and a cable machine. So here you go,

1.?High Cable Machine Rows:

Purpose: Work inner back muscles engaging the rhomboids

Movement: Stand in a split position with the feet so you don’t get pulled too far. Keep your chest up right engaging the rhomboids and with your elbows pointed back, row out and in with the cables at chest level.

2. Bent Over Dumb Bell Rows:

Purpose: A compound exercise targeting upper back to improve posture and stability of spine

Movement: Assume a standing position with your legs shoulder width apart. Take dumbbells in each hand and with palms facing each other, bend forward at 45 degrees. Make sure to keep your chest upright and not round your back. Breath in and pull the dumbbells towards your chest keeping hands parallel to the shoulders. Row down while exhaling. Remain bent over until all reps are completed. This movement activates your entire upper back and adds to your spines stability and strength in doing day to day tasks.

3.?Smith Machine Pull Ups:

Purpose: To help thicken and give width to the back

Movement: Grab the bar with a shoulder width grip on your hands. Start with a hanging position and hang fully so that you feel the stretch in your back muscles. Pull yourself up and hold for 1-2 seconds focusing on the contraction before lowering. If doing pull ups is difficult for you, you can go for eccentric pull ups or pull downs. The difference is that you use a bench, stand on it and pull yourself up, hold and then lower. Once at the bottom, stand back up again and repeat. Know that the weakest part of the lift is the lift itself. You may not have the strength to hold but have the strength to lower and if you don’t have strength to lift you may have strength to hold. Doing this exercise for a few weeks, will enable you to have the strength to do the pull ups too.

4. Dumb Bell Pull Over:

Purpose: To target the lats in your middle-lower back

Movement: You can do this on a bench or on floor. Lie down with your back slightly arched, holding the dumbbells over your head with elbows pointing out. Place your palms on the bell, breathe in as you pull over. Keep your lats engaged and don’t take it all the way to chest, thereby isolating the movement and avoiding stress within shoulders from any overstretching.

5. Smith Machine Shrugs:

Purpose: To target the traps and challenging it to grow

Movement: Grab the bar with your hands shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent and your head slightly forward. Keeping the rest of your body stationary, shrug your shoulders as high up as you can and hold at the top for 1-2 seconds. Lower back to full stretch and repeat. Don’t round your shoulders when going in the lift and remember to lower it slowly back to the starting position.

These five exercises help correct postural irregularities, open the tightness brought on by desk jobs and make the spine more stable. Applying right amount of load to those back muscles stimulates them for growth.??

For each exercise, start with a lower weight and do 3 sets of 15 reps each. In the last set go to the weight that fails you. Take a rest pause no longer than 1 minute between each set.

A stronger back makes your everyday tasks easier, improves your sleep and also helps you perform better in gym.

-Christian

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Christian Williams is a global body transformation coach hailing from Wales and settled in Dubai. In 2017, he founded?Christian Williams Physique Transformation?which offers in-personal and?online coaching programs. However, how his programs differ is that each nutrition and training plan is individualized to a clients' requirements instead of providing a blanket program. He compliments his programs with weekly check-ins to ensure clients are progressing in the right direction. Christian has accumulated over 16 years of experience, knowledge, and education in the fitness industry and uses it to help as many people as he can. Christian was awarded Silver PT of the Year by the prestigious Middle East Fit Awards in November 2020.

With a practical background of competing in a variety of bodybuilding competitions since 2008, he has also won titles of Mr. Wales, Mr. England, Mr. London - to name a few. Through his articles, he aims to mentor personal trainers and pass on his learnings, accumulated over the years, in order for them to become the best versions of themselves so they help their clients achieve their goals.

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