A powerful and toned upper back not only helps in improving the posture but it is a very crucial aspect of gaining overall strength in your body. Including upper back exercises in your routine can help focus on the upper muscles which support muscle growth, stability, and even reduce risk of injury. These exercises can help you build a bigger, stronger upper back.
Deadlifts
The upper back is among the many muscle groups being worked when you perform deadlifts.
Focus on lifting the barbell by using your upper back muscles throughout — especially think about squeezing the traps and rhomboids to keep that neutral spine.
Deadlifts are great for building general strength, and help you a lot in upper back hypertrophy.
Bent Over Rows
This exercise is focused on the upper back muscles(lats, rhomboids)
How to do: Hold a barbell or dumbbells with an over grip and bend at the hips back straight.
While intentionally retracting your shoulder blades into each other for activating the upper back muscles.Pull the weight towards lower chest.
Pull-Ups
One of the original bodyweight exercises, pull-ups mainly target the lats.
Change your grip from wide to narrow grips- engaging different parts of the upper back.
Pay close attention to the slow and controlled manner in which you execute your movements whilst targeting a full range of motion for optimal performance.
Face Pulls
Face Pulls On A Cable Machine For Rear Deltoid And Upper Trap Targeting
Set the cable to be at face level, use a rope attachment and face pull.
The Swiss Ball Y Rotational Row increases the health of your shoulders, and targets what is usually a weak link in most peoples upper back…your rear deltoids.
Lat Pulldowns
One example of the latter is lat pulldowns using a cable machine or indeed sitting at their fancy-schmancy Nautilus Multi Exercise Machine to work on your lats and upper back.
Lean back slightly and pull the bar down in front of you — try to concentrate on using your upper back muscles this time.
Handle both the negative and positive portions of the movement for full benefit.
T-Bar Rows
T-Bar rows offer a variation on the traditional bent-over row with an emphasis for upper back development.
Perform with T-Bar row machine or a landmine attachment and barbell.
Maintain a straight back, and pull the weight towards your chest by squeezing shoulder blades together.
Dumbbell Shrugs
Dumbbell shrugs focus on the trapezius muscles only.
Pick up a weight in each of your hands and lift the weights toward your shoulders.
The descent, the moving part of a shrug is somewhat important, but make sure you really focus on pulling up and squeezing at the top when your muscles contract to fully engage those upper traps.
Adding these upper back exercises into your regular workout regimen will help provide a more powerful and functional top body. Ensure you place an emphasis on proper form, adhere to a balanced approach and find ways to increase the resistance in a way that challenges your muscles! Whether you are looking for strength or functionality, sculpted physique, great upper back is the first step.
