So you want to build a nice back? That’s cool I’m going to help you out with that today. I’m going to give you my 5 top favorite exercises and the Best back workout at home. I’m here in our second location in Manalapan New Jersey.
Let’s get right into this back workout the back is an amazing muscle especially for guys. It’s very important for giving you that V shape holding your shoulders back and helping your posture. And nicely defined back looks really good as well. Before we get started there’s something that I have to make absolutely clear for you guys. If you’re using your mostly your biceps in your back exercises your back is not going to get the results that it could be getting. The bicep is almost always an assistant muscle when you’re working your back so it’s very easy to incorporate it into the movement. This is what you have to know to not incorporate into the movement. All you got to do is for you’re pulling exercises pull with your elbows and not your hands and try to pretend like you’re pinching something with your shoulder blades. Like you’re trying to hold a pencil in between your shoulder blades. This will help you build your back a lot. Any kind of pull down movements that we’re going to do today where we’re pulling above us is going to hit the lights and give us that V shape. And any kind of row that we do is going to be mostly hitting the upper and the middle part of the back. I tried to include some dumbbells in these exercises because I know that a lot of people have access to dumbbells. So let’s get started first with the good old pull up.
With a pull up if you can’t do it I’m going to show you some Alternatives so don’t worry. But the goal is to eventually be able to do pull ups. Pull ups or one of the classic exercises that will just never be beat in regard to what it can do for your back. This is the exercise that will give you that V shape. We want to try to go nice and wide to hit those lats more to achieve that v look. when you’re pulling remember to pull with your elbows not your hands and keep those elbows flared out. You can’t do pull ups you can take a bar and put it in a lower position and pull up with your knees bent and your feet on the floor and use your legs to support you on the movement. Also you can get certain resistance bands for really cheap that you could tie around your pull-up bar and they’ll help you up.
Next we have a dumbbell row but we’re going to do this row a little different. I’ve shown this in a video before for the back of the shoulder but it’s also one of the most amazing upper back exercises that I’ve ever done. Instead of rowing straight back towards your belly button. You’re going to row towards your hips as if you’re trying to put something into your pocket. And then bring it straight back down and repeat. Really make sure you’re squeezing the back on this one.
Next we got an inclined dumbbell row. Are you going to take a bench incline it stand straight up and lean against it. Grab two dumbbells and row them both back at the same time while really squeezing your back together. Extend your arms straight down and make sure don’t have tension in the front of your shoulder, relax your shoulder.
The next one is the dumbbell pullover this one is excellent for giving you that V shape and hitting your back mostly your lats. This doesn’t look like an exercise for your back because you’re laying down on your back but I promise you this one is one of the most effective. Make an L shape with your hands grab the dumbbell and stack one hand over the other and then pull over your head while laying across the bench. You can get more of a stretch by dropping your hips. Make sure you don’t bring the dumbbell straight up over your chest because that’ll take pressure off of your lats. You want to stop at a little bit further than a 60 degree angle and then go back down nice and far to get a good stretch. Keep your elbows slightly bent the whole time to protect your joints.
For the last exercise you’re going to use a cable for face pulls if you don’t have the cable I’ll show you a different way to do it with dumbbells. But with the cable you going to grab a rope I’m using this blue harness and you’re going to row to your face with your elbows up nice and high. Really squeeze your back and pull at the elbows. You’re aiming to pull your hands to your ears. You can do this exercise with dumbbells as well you would bend over and have two dumbbells and row towards your ears with your elbows up. Doing this with the dumbbells you want to make sure that you’re at a 90 degree angle so parallel with the floor.
That’s about it guys, that’s the best back workout at home. If you’re going to do this as a workout you can probably get all 5 exercises in one day because the back can take a little more volume then some of your smaller upper body muscles. You can do all 5 exercises for 3 sets if your a beginner start with three or four of the exercises for three sets. Remember to really squeeze your back and pull with your elbows on all of these exercises.
