The #1 Workout That BLEW UP My Back (3 Exercises)

A defined, wide back is key to achieving that Greek God look. But with over 15 different back muscles, it’s not as simple to workout your back as other muscle groups. Most guys do their back workout and back exercises wrong without even realizing it. For years my back barely grew even with all the “best” back exercises. But recently, my back has blown up. It’s broader and thicker than it’s ever been in the past. And the crazy part is, all it took was 3 best back exercises that I guarantee will do the exact same for you if you nail down the proper form during your back training. Without further ado, here’s the best back workout.

Click below for a step by step plan training plan that reveals all the best exercises you should do for each and every muscle group:
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Before we dive into the back exercises, here’s something crucial. It’s not just about doing the right exercises; it’s about doing them the right way. So, I'll show you how to perform each exercise to ensure you’re actually hitting the right parts of your back. And to take it even further, I’ll introduce some new scientific research that can help you get up to 2x the growth for every set you do.

Let’s start with your lats in our back training. Unfortunately, despite being the largest muscle in your upper body, the lats are often one of the most underdeveloped muscles. Part of the reason for this is because they’re treated as just 1 big muscle. When they should really be split up into 2 main areas - the upper and lower lats.

We’ll start with the lower lats with the lats-focused lat pulldown. Typically, when people do lat pulldowns in their back workout, they flare their elbows, which is great for the muscles around the shoulder blades but not as good for hitting the lats. To work the lats more, you want your elbows tight against your body as you pull. Focus on pulling from your elbows. Visualize them moving in a slight arc. Pull your shoulders down, away from the ears. Pull until your elbows are inline with your torso, then control the way up. At the top, fully extend your arms and let your shoulders rise up for a deep stretch. Because most of the gains seem to come from the top of the lat pulldown, when the muscle is stretched. Also, once you can’t do anymore full reps, keep going by doing as many half reps as you can in that top position.

Alright, onto the upper lats with the cable row, one of the best back exercises. You ideally want a grip where your hands are shoulder-width apart with the palms facing in. Brace your core and lean forward slightly. Next, think about pulling the elbows back and down towards your hips. Once your elbow reaches your torso, control the weight back, fully extending your arms and letting your shoulder rise up to get as deep of a stretch in your lats as possible.

An excellent alternative: dumbbell rows, but with 2 key adjustments. Instead of a flat bench, incline it slightly. Lean one arm on the bench, and then put your opposite back leg far out to the side. Next, brace your core, and think about driving your elbow down towards your hips in that same arcing motion as before. Keep the elbow tight to your sides. Keep your back flat, pull until the elbow reaches your torso, then control the weight back down. Lastly, whether you use cables or dumbbells, once you can’t do anymore full reps, just remember to keep going by doing as many half reps as you can in that stretched position.

Ok, onto our final exercise in our best back workout, which will now focus on building your back thickness. We’re going back to the cable row, but this time modified to hit the mid and upper back muscles. We need a wide grip. So in this case, an overhand grip on the lat pulldown bar works perfectly. Instead of leaning forwards, learn back slightly. Brace your core and pull the bar back and up to your chest, letting your elbows flare out in an arrow shape. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the end, and control the weight back down. But remember, most of the growth comes from the stretch, so open up your shoulder blades as wide as possible at the end of the rep.

Now you can easily do this with dumbbells instead by using an incline bench as a chest support and doing the same rowing motion. A T-bar is also an excellent choice.

After you can’t do anymore full reps, continue the set with half reps just like I explained earlier. But don’t stop there. Once you can’t do anymore half reps, rather than pulling with your arms, keep them straight with your shoulder blades opened up, then squeeze them together hard, almost as if you were doing a shrug. Open up your shoulder blades again and repeat this for as many reps as you can until the weight just won’t budge. It’s intense - but I guarantee your traps will grow really quickly from this.