The Best at-home Back Workouts for Health and Muscle Growth - Kiến Thức Cho Người lao Động Việt Nam

While working some muscles can be a pure vanity project – we’re looking at you, abs – back workouts, even at home, are an investment in your future.

According to Arthritis Research UK, around 10 million people in England and Scotland have persistent back pain, while multiple sources estimate that 60 to 80 per cent of adults living in Western countries will at some point experience low-back pain. And if you’re one of those people what’s the best thing you can do? Well, according to research published in journal The Physician and Sports Medicine, “If you suffer from low-back pain the most important part of your treatment is something only you can give yourself – exercise.”

Given how important the back is then, both for aesthetics and fending off pain, we can’t accept any excuses for not exercising it. No, the gyms being closed and a lack of equipment aren’t a reason to give up on your back workouts, especially when there are so many good home back workouts for you to do.

Below are four examples of simple home back workouts. So whether you’re training with dumbbells, a kettlebell or just your bodyweight, it’s time to build yourself a bigger back.

Why You Need to Train Your Back

Before we get onto the workouts, lets first look at why you need to work out your back. A strong, well-developed back will improve your workouts in the gym and help you develop full-body muscle. A strong back, for example, will provide the foundations for your deadlifts and squat, as your body will be able to call upon more stabilising muscles, enabling you to lift more.

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Training your back is also the most effective way to prevent back injuries. As specialist sports physiotherapist, Adam Meakins, says: “A stronger more robust back can resist stresses and strains when bending, lifting, twisting, turning throughout the day, but also with just postural positioning, so for people who have to sit at desks and stay still for long periods of time, a stronger more robust back will allow you to tolerate that better.”

Struggling to maintain balance with your overhead press? A strong back will put an end to your wobbles.

Which Muscles Make up ‘the Back’?

When we discuss working out ‘the back’ we often talk about it like it’s one complete muscle. In reality, the back is made up of a number of muscles and areas that can be divided up in a few different ways.

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Erector spinae: “The main back muscles that run the entire length of your spine are called the erector spinae,” says Meakins. “Made up of various different muscles, they form large, powerful columns, either side of your spine, that are responsible for helping to move your spine from a flex position to upright. They’re also there to hold you up against gravity throughout the day as well – they’re the main muscles that run up the whole of the spine.”

Local and stabilising muscles, including the multifidus: “We have these smaller muscles that sit closer to the spine, which are sometimes called the local or stabilising muscles,” says Meakins. The most commonly talked about of these muscles is the multifidus, and, as Meakins explains, “their role is predominantly to help stabilise one vertebrae on another, along with all the ligaments and the tendons that also wrap around the spine.”

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Obliques: “You have the obliques, which make up the back muscle,” says Meakins. “These oblique muscles are commonly thought to be abdominal muscles, but they wrap around and attach onto the thoracolumbar fascia around the back. You have internal and external obliques, and they’re predominantly responsible for the rotation and the side bending of the trunk, and they also help provide stability as well.”

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Latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles: “Their role is more associated with head, neck and shoulder functions rather than back functions,” says Meakins.

Teres major: Teres major is a small muscle that’s located on the underside of the upper arm. It’s sometimes called “lat’s little helper” because of its partnership action with the latissimus dorsi.

Rhomboid major and minor: These two muscles lie underneath the trapezius. The rhomboids provide stability for the shoulder complex and are responsible for the retraction of the shoulder blades.

The Best Way to Train Your Back

With so many muscles to take care of, you may think you have to work out morning, noon and night to exercise them all. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, the body doesn’t really work like that, so it’s hard to isolate and work out the back’s muscles separately.

Split your workouts into vertical and horizontal pulling movements

Instead, PT and musculoskeletal osteopath at Third Space, Henry Howe recommends splitting your workouts into vertical and horizontal pulling movements. By vertical, Howe is referring to things like pull-ups, and for horizontal think pulling movements think rowing.

“In every pulling movement, you’re going to have a bit more bias to different areas of the back, but it’s pretty hard to work them independently,” says Howe. “I prefer to go down the route of looking at vertical pulling and horizontal pulling, and then you’re going to have different parts of the back that are looked at.”

The 6 Best at-home Exercises for Your Back

Some exercises sit head, shoulders and back above the rest when it comes to back exercises. Make sure these movements make it into your home routines.

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The Deadlift

Generally speaking, when you deadlift you’re utilising most of the muscles that make up your core or trunk, as well as your legs. “Your lower back, glutes and hamstrings, so that classic posterior chain, is going to be the main working area,” says Howe. “Also, anytime we’re lifting we’re seeing increases in activity through the core as well,”

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If we’re specifically looking at the back muscles deadlifting works it all begins with your obliques, which will contract to maintain spinal stability. Meanwhile, the erector spine deep spinal extensors undergo concentric contraction to bring the spine into an upright position, and finally, the latissimus dorsi come into action and help you stabilise whatever weight you’re using.

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Bent-over Row

If you’re going to be working your back from home then you’re going to have to get used to rowing. Our favourite variation: the bent-over row, which works your middle and lower traps, rhomboid major, rhomboid minor, upper traps, rear deltoids and rotator cuff muscles.

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Kettlebell Swings

If you want to work your back’s posterior chain there are few better moves than kettlebell swings. In fact, the only bad thing about kettlebell swings is getting hold of a kettlebell at the minute, but we can also help with that.

inverted row

Inverted Row

While at first glance it may seem that this upper-back killer is impossible to do at home, we have a workaround for you. Simply grab a couple of chairs and pull yourself up between them. Oh, and bear in mind, this exercise can be made more difficult or simpler depending on the placement of your feet.

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Renegade Row

The renegade row combines two of our favourite movements, the plank and the press-up, but then it is made even more effective by destabilising you and forcing your core to fire. All too often though, this exercise is ruined by people rushing through it. Remember, the goal here is not to row as heavy a weight as possible as quickly as possible; the goal is maintaining proper spinal position.

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Wide-grip Pull-ups

There aren’t too many bodyweight exercises that are really effective back builders, but wide-grip pull-ups are definitely worthy of inclusion on this list. Targeting your lats and giving your torso a wider, V-shape, no bodyweight back workout is complete without them.

The Best Home Back Workouts (with Dumbbells, Kettlebells or Bodyweight)

Ready to take all you’ve learned and put it into practice? These are the best home back workouts, whether you’re training with dumbbells, a kettlebell or if you’re only equipped with your own bodyweight.

Home Back Workout: Dumbbells

Howe has put together the ultimate dumbbell back workout, so whether you’re at home or back at the gym, you can give your back the workout it deserves.

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