10 Workouts That Will Make Your Back Stronger
A weak back cuts down on your strength, mobility, and fitness capabilities in a big way. To avoid this, do these exercises for a strong back.
Your back is a sensitive part of the body. If you injure your back, it significantly reduces your athletic performance.
By training your back strong, you support muscle groups like the core, legs, and arms.
For any back workouts, the key to making your back stronger is to focus on your core. A strong core supports your back, while a weak core weakens it and puts you at risk.
By strengthening these core muscles, you support your spine and keep the hips aligned. This lets you lift more, reducing the risk of injury.
Before trying any intense workouts, consult with the specialists at your physiotherapy clinic to ensure the exercises are safe for you.
The Best Exercises For A Strong Back
Here are some workouts to make your back stronger, increasing your ability to lift and stretch:
1. Bridges
Anyone can do bridges. Here’s how to perform this back stretching exercise:
- Lie on the ground and bend the knees hip-width apart.
- Raise your buttocks until the body is in a straight line.
- Then, squeeze the buttocks and hold for two seconds, and lower.
A set of bridges is an extremely safe way to train your lower back by working the large muscle of the buttocks and helping strengthen this area in no time.
2. Resistance Band Pull-Aparts
A set of resistance bands are a must-have workout tool for anyone coming back from a back injury. You can adjust the intensity and form.
Safe and effective, resistance band pull-aparts can be used either as a warm-up or a way to strengthen the mid-back.
3. Knee-To-Chest Stretches
Knee-to-chest stretches will stretch out and elongate everything in the lower kinetic chain, relieving unnecessary tension and helping work out some of the pain we can sometimes experience in our lower back.
If you suffer from lower back pain at all, this is going to help relieve it and allow you to focus on strength training the back.
4. Hyperextensions
Here we start with muscle building. Hyperextensions target the lower back muscles.
This is working everything supporting the lower spine. With hyperextensions, you also work the butt, hips, and shoulders at the same time.
Be careful with hyperextensions and any other back exercises as back injuries occur when this part of the body is overworked.
Good mornings are another way to do hyperextensions and target the lower back. Here’s how to do it:
- From a standing position, good mornings are advanced and can be done with a barbell.
- With feet positioned shoulder-length apart, hinge the hips and lower the torso to the ground stopping at a parallel position and with your back still straight throughout this movement.
- Then, return to start.
5. Wide Grip Chin-Ups
Chin-ups are an optimum back exercise. They work the whole of the mid-to-upper back, along with the biceps, forearms, shoulders, and lats. You are also engaging the abdominal muscles.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone can do chin-ups. They’re very difficult, especially when a person carries more weight than the average person.
Even so, if all you’re able to do is 1-2 chin-ups, this can offer immense benefits, especially for your back.
6. Wide-Grip Pull-Downs
Wide-grip pull-downs are similar to chin-ups. Instead of pulling up your body weight, you’re pulling down plate weight.
You can do these close-grip except wide-grip is usually more comfortable as it reduces the range of motion happening at the shoulder joint.
This is one of the best exercises for a strong back that’s also responsible for creating that ‘V’ look in the back.
Wide-grip pull-downs add functional strength and the look of a big, bad, beautiful back!
7. Cat Lift And Cat Arch
Your back’s strength relies heavily on its ability to be flexible and not carry a lot of tension. Cat stretches lift the back and arch it, bending it downward and upward in an all-fours position.
Applied from yoga, this lengthens the muscles in the back, gets the blood flowing, and helps keep the back strong.
It’s a great exercise to use near the beginning of the workout or towards the conclusion.
8. Barbell Rows
What a bench-press does for the chest, barbell rows do for the back. They are very similarly designed.
If you enjoy lifting heavy weights, this is the exercise for you. It’s a big-muscle movement.
If using a barbell does not feel comfortable, try a rowing machine instead. When you row, a person’s working their shoulders, upper back, and lats.
9. Barbell Deadlifts
For those who want to use some heavyweights and strengthen their back this way, barbell deadlifts work the lower back, spinal muscles, hamstrings, and glutes.
Your form needs to be on point to complete this movement. And you need to start at the lowest possible weight and work up to the most comfortable level.
10. Supermans
Supermans do not look like they would be very difficult. However, they are deceivingly hard to pull off. Here’s how to do it:
- Lie on your stomach and arms extended overhead.
- Engage your core and glutes, and lift the upper and lower body off the ground as high as you can without straining.
- Pause for 1 second and return to start.
Supermans will work your back like no other exercise and can be easily modified according to your intensity level.
The Takeaway
If you want to exercise your back, there’s no limit to the variety of back workouts you can engage in. But when your goal is to make your back stronger, then these 10 back exercises are the best.
Whether you’re already doing these exercises for stronger back or planning to, don’t overexert yourself.
Make sure to follow the instructor’s guidelines and if you feel any pain in your back, consult with a doctor immediately.