3 Best Muscle Building Back Exercises

Most of the muscles in the upper and lower back are actually part of your core muscle group. The basic muscle group is naturally the most important muscle group for strength training, hence the term "core" muscle group. If they were not the most important muscle group, they would probably be called something like the "support" or "secondary" muscle group. Either way, the muscles in your back are incredibly linked to most other muscles in your body. For example, the back muscles allow you to stand up and move your arms and shoulders.

Therefore, it is important that you develop a solid routine to develop your upper and lower back muscles. Although not a glamorous muscle group, strong back muscles will naturally make you stronger in several other muscle groups and stabilise your core.

Here are 4 back muscle strengthening muscles that you absolutely must have in your back workout routine:

1. Dead elevator

This exercise is for your lats, backbones, glutes and traps. Interestingly, this exercise works up to 70% of all the muscles in your body at the same time. Needless to say, this is a pretty intense exercise. With this exercise, you will need to place weight on a bench press bar directly in front of you. Then, with the knees slightly arched back, you will increase the weight about the knee and you will drop it. A word of caution: this exercise can cause very serious injury and you should never try to put on more weight than you can bear.

2. Pull-Ups

This is a proven back exercise and likely as old as time itself. There are currently two types of pull-ups: a long grip and a short grip. When doing this exercise, you can either place your hands at shoulder length (long hold) or side by side (short hold). A mix of both is essential for excellent back training. Tractions also work your shoulder muscles and triceps.

3. Bent Over Rows

With this exercise, you grab the bar and bend your torso forward with both arms extended. The bar is then pulled down from your chest and down. For the three exercises, you want to shoot for about 6 sets and about 6 repetitions per set. Because the spine is located in your back, you should always exercise caution when doing heavy back exercises. This means wearing a weight belt at all times and never want to show by lifting more weight than you can bear.