So here we are, back with a new article. Back with new insight to add to your muscle and mentality aims. Back with one of the most aesthetic and foundational muscle groups known to anatomy: the back.

(and of course back with a pun or two, can’t help it I’m a father).

Whether you want to accentuate a V-shaped body, to create symmetry among the many muscles that make you move, boost your bench press (you read that correctly), enhance overall performance, impress a potential mate at the beach, or even limit back pain – developing back muscles is a move for you. Although we won’t touch on the lumbar in this column, the point remains.

Also doesn’t hurt that the ladies enjoy a nice back and ladies if you’re unaware.. I can safely say us gents don’t mind a cared for posterior structure below the neck either.

Today you’ll find: some of the major muscle groups of the back and how they function, what it takes to develop a V-shaped body, how to approach back training, the most effective back exercises, and how to eat to build back muscles.

SECTIONS:

Aesthetic Muscles Of The Back And How They Function

How To Get A V-Shaped Body
How To Work Back Muscles

Back Training Frequency
How To Improve Back Mind-Muscle Connection
The Overload Principle
How To Create A Back Workout
- Example Back Day Workout

Exercises To Build Back Muscles

Lat Exercises
Trap And Rhomboid Exercises
Infraspinatus Exercises
Teres Major And Teres Minor Exercises

How To Eat To Grow Back Muscles
My Thoughts

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How To Build Back Muscles

Aesthetic Muscles Of The Back And How They Function

Getting your back in order separates the part-timers and the full-timers. They say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but that’s a falsehood.

Putting off turning around and pointing a mirror at a mirror to check out your underdeveloped, above waist posterior can hurt you.. well at least hold you.. back 🥁😆.

Not only because your physique will render itself incomplete, and your posture ultimately inept in the way your anterior will be overdeveloped in comparison.. but in the way that back strength impacts your bench, squat, and of course your deadlift.

The three major lifts.

So even if you happen to be the reason I can’t ever bench press on a Monday, take heed. These muscles are a help to your cause. We’ll start with a little anatomy and function. What we refer to as the back is a series of complex posterior muscles that can be filed into three groups: superficial, intermediate, and deep.

These groups predominantly pertain to the shoulder, thoracic cage, and vertebral column respectively [1].

For this body of work we’ll focus on the muscles that’ll grant you admission to the great looking and performing back university, the non-deep ones. The muscles that attach to the bones of the shoulder.

Namely: latissimus dorsi, trapezius, teres major and minor, rhomboids, and infraspinatus.

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Latissimus Dorsi Muscle Function

When you start, you start big. So first and foremost is the lats, the big dogs. The largest and consequentially most powerful back muscles. That tends to get them the most attention and they’re the ones you’re likely most familiar with.

I know before I was knee-deep in the fitness industry, my curiosity for back anatomy didn’t go much further than what lats are. “Lat” is short for latissimus dorsi and if developed enough you can see the latissimus dorsi the front like a good set of calves.

Again.. largest back muscles.

Commonly referred to as a set of wings, their job description contains adducting, medially rotating, and extending the upper limbs. There are many moves, many that we’ll get to soon to work your lats, but one of my favorite wing developing movements is the bent barbell row.

It’s my top choice because with good focus and technique you can in time load the most resistance to continuously overload your lats. Pretty much no limits.

Lats play a large role in providing stability for the barbell bench press too by the way. More stability gives you the foundation to move more weight.

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Trapezius Muscle Function

The back is full of pun-able muscle groups and some puns I’m not mature enough to ignore. And some people agree with me. They realize that it’s a.. trap 🥁😆. Alright on to the trapezius BKA the traps.

As we get into the traps (had to) you’ll find this muscle has a trapezoid-like shape that originates at the skull. The attachment is at the clavicle, scapula, and acromion.

Traps are responsible for scapular elevation, suppression, retraction, and rotation. One of the best moves for building upper traps is the shrug. Good upper trap strength makes you good at acting clueless 🤷. For middle-lower traps go for a close grip cable row with high elbows and depressed shoulders (sounds complicated I know, but it works).

Teres Major And Minor Function

Teres minor and major muscles anatomy — [11][10]

The teres major is one of my favorites, probably because it took me a while to have the capacity to contract it on command.

..a long while..

The teres major and teres minor originate at the scapula.

The teres major works in tandem with the lats to extend, adduct, and internally rotate the humerus.

A personal go-to for teres major development is the wide grip pull up.

On the other hand, the teres minor is a rotator cuff muscle. So it stabilizes the ball-and-socket glenohumeral joint. Basically assists in keeping your upper arm attached to your scapula. Arguably an important mission.

Being that the teres minor externally rotates the humerus, external cable humeral rotations will give this muscle group adequate attention.

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Rhomboids Function

Next we have the rhomboids. Being that they’re placed beneath the trapezius conglomerate you won’t see the work you put in on your rhomboids, but they’re still notable.

Rhomboids retract and rotate the scapula, so there’s room to focus on these bad boys when doing the also rear delt friendly reverse fly.

Infraspinatus Function

Lastly, here’s a less than often spoken about back personality adder: the infraspinatus.

This rotator cuff muscle is heavy in the external rotation of the humerus zone, the assisting with abduction of the scapula zone, and the shoulder extension zone [7].

When your mind-muscle connection is high you can intentionally contract the infraspinatus. A badge of honor to do so I might add.

And for a fully developed back you’ll want that kind of connection. My favorite exercise for these is the high cable row with elevated elbows, a slightly wider than shoulder width grip, and depressed shoulders.

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How To Get A V-Shaped Body

Performance aside, health aside, good feelings aside, and looking like you care about anatomy aside..

If you want to be an extra for the next live motion picture version of Dragon Ball, or 300 part 300.. you want a V-shaped body. There is no V-shaped body without a Goku-like back.

A V-shaped body is one with full shoulders, a slim waist, and a broad set of back muscles:

To get that coveted V-shape, you need those shoulders so wide you have to walk sideways through the door. To achieve such a hindrance, vigorously hit the medial deltoids with moves like lateral raises.
Note: The 6-12 rep range is particularly special for hypertrophy AKA building muscle.
Trim that waist and not by waist training or begrudgingly working your way through a commercial detox. Those “quick fixes” that in fact don’t fix are a poor use of time, money, and effort. Fix your diet instead.
Along with a better diet that has you in a calorie deficit for fat loss purposes, avoid low-rep heavy oblique training. Stick to higher rep ranges to avoid packing on too much oblique muscle. Good for performance, yet on the aesthetic side if that matters to you.. thick obliques lend to a blockier appearance. Almost refrigerator-like.
Then of course there’s the back. With wide shoulders and a broad back, namely the kind of lats that’ll make an anatomical model jealous.. you’ll develop the V-shape. The back accentuates a small waist. Even in the case of a not particularly small waist, a solid back-shoulder combination makes your midsection appear thinner. It’s all about proportions. But for the back of your dreams – continue on.

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How To WOrk Back Muscles

Now the fun part. The gym part. The “I wouldn’t be surprised if you skipped to this” part.

Back training.

All there is you need to know to get the most out of a back session. All you need to know to build a back workout. What you need to know to ensure your back progresses over time. And even a back workout you can take with you.

But the bottom line is back isn’t unlike other muscle groups.. whether it be calf muscles, glutes, or forearm muscles.

You need apropos frequency, focus, volume, and rest periods matter too.

How Often To Train Back Muscles

The formula for how often to train back is simple, but it’s a bit case-dependent. The idea is to train your back muscles enough to stimulate a physiological response that favors muscle growth, but fails to undercut recovery. That includes considering the potential for overtraining syndrome.

Overtraining syndrome is a condition where your body’s ability to recover falls short of the stress you place upon it. By stress it isn’t only physical, mental stress contributes to an almost greater degree. So stress management isn’t to be ignored.

Basically if you train your overall body at an intensity greater than your recovery tactics.. your potential for hypertrophy goes in the toilet.

Now the answer: exercise frequency varies by individual genetics, training history, sleep patterns, nutritional habits, and ultimate goals.

A rule of thumb to live by is to train your back muscles at minimum once weekly with a max of 3 times per week. The reason is you want at least one day off between sessions. Otherwise you won’t optimize hypertrophy potential.

You grow during recovery. If you keep training and breaking the muscles down, they’ll never get the chance to grow to their full potential. Get your recovery on.

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How To Improve Your Back Mind-Muscle Connection

I always label mind-muscle connection as the most underrated aspect of training.

We give credence to what move or how many times to do the move and what not, but how well you get a targeted muscle group to exert itself during each rep is a growth agent. And we like growth agents.

So don’t leave the growth agent mind-muscle connection happens to be out. Your mind-muscle connection is the capacity to contract a particular set of muscles on command.

With great mind-muscle connection you:

Incite more stimulation per rep
Create fuller muscles
Get more out of lower levels of resistance
Better gauge if your form is targeting the muscles you’re intending to target
Recruit more muscle tissue involvement from the desired muscle group

So how locked-in are you?

How hard are your contractions?
Do you contract the appropriate muscle at the appropriate time?
Is your rep speed concentrically and eccentrically where it needs to be to maximize a contraction?
How about rest periods? Are those in concert with your goals?

The supportive elements are almost as important and/or directly contribute to mind-muscle connection quality.

And to double down on this header.. back muscles are tough to aggressively contract. Whether you’re new to this or a life-longer - so take these words seriously and focus.

Be intentional with your movement patterns and your vigorous contractions.

Make the most of your time.

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The Overload Principle

Then of course we have what you’re lifting versus what you’re capable of lifting.. versus what you are to tactically aim for to get your body to respond dutifully.

The overload principle or progressive overload is you pushing your body to a new limit over time.. progressively. It’s upping the ante as you adapt to greater workloads due to adequate training and recovery habits.

Progressively overloading can include: more volume, more resistance in a particular rep range, more reps with the same resistance, etcetera (ways to progressively overload).

To be clear, this principle isn’t about maxing out day after day. That’s not effective for hypertrophy. It’s about doing a little more than you’re capable of to force muscular adaptations.

It’s challenging your muscles. If you did 3 sets of 10 bodyweight pull ups and it was a breeze for all 3 sets? The following week do 3 sets of 11, or add a 4th set of 10 l, or add 5-10 pounds to your body for the 3 sets of 10.

Those are all examples of progressive overload.

The motivation is your body needs a reason to grow.

You have to convince it the environment you live in is strenuous enough on your targeted muscle group to warrant additional muscle tissue. Progressive overload does just that.

You work to persuade yourself that the load you move in the gym needs to be able to move more easily for a comfortable life.

For that your resistance needs to be just out of your comfort zone or at worst at the limit of your comfort zone. With decent form of course.

Note: To progressively overload like a pro you need reference points. By that I mean you can’t change your base exercises every single week and expect to steadily overload. How would you know what you’re progressing from? Stick to your base exercises for at least 3 weeks at a time before making swaps. And if you stay longer that’s also fine. Same rep and rest period schemes too. One of the main reasons to keep an exercise journal by the way.

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How TO Create A Back Workout

If you’re a gym rat here’s a treat. If you’re a “this is a means to an end” gal or guy.. here’s a means.

Right above I gave you a back workout you can take and run off with. Down below you’ll have a pretty long list of back exercise options.

Currently is the how for putting an idea of a back workout together.

What I recommend is you ensure you hit at least one latissimus dorsi focused move, and an upper back focused move each session you give your back muscles a whirl.

But if you want to take your level of detail to an advanced degree include:

A lower lat move
An upper lat/teres major move
A mid to low traps move
An infraspinatus move
And at least weekly for shoulder health, you should do external humeral rotations and that’ll cover teres minor

For volume, anywhere from 6-16 total back focused sets in a workout.

Note: Some exercises touch on multiple back groups by default, but if I highlight a part of the back.. it means that muscle is targeted to a higher degree.

Another Note: For repetition schemes.. 1-5 reps is strength/power focused, 6-12 is hypertrophy focused, and 13+ is endurance based. *All rep ranges spark strength increases, power increases, muscle growth, and endurance gains to a degree. But as stated in the note – there are specialties.

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Exercises To Build Back Muscles

A quick note for the exercise list. You do not need every move at once. Please do not spend 17 hours in your local gymnasium trying to touch every exercise listed in one session.

The list is the result of experience knowing there are trainees that can’t fathom sticking to the same few moves week in and out (no matter how tried and true they are).

But remember you can’t change too frequently or you’ll compromise the overload principle.

Still with our topic muscle group there’s plenty of variation to go around.

Many exercises, yes. Again, do you need to do them all in a workout? No.

Do you need to do them all in a training block? No.

There’s a greater benefit in being able to compare results with a particular exercise.. workout after workout. As opposed to doing something entirely new each time.

All in all, we have an endless combination of ways to attack the back. You can take one move and turn it into several moves by merely altering hand placement, or grip width. You can adjust what part of your back gets the most attention by manipulating your elbow motion arc, height, or width. We can even step into the realm of unilateral movements to double the combination possibilities..

More combos than Jackie Chan at an Arby’s drive thru.

Before we indulge.

A solid rule of thumb: The closer your elbows are to your torso during contraction, the more lats are involved. In contrast, the further your elbows are from your body during contraction.. the more upper back takes over.

The Best Form Specific Lat Muscle Exercises

You need form for formidable lats. I know, not a groundbreaking statement. Form always matters.

But if you don’t lock-in when training lats you probably won’t “feel” a thing. So on just about every move, do as follows:

Ensure your stretch is impeccable at starting position by hunching forward while maintaining a neutral spine. And protracting the shoulders. You’ll also depress your shoulders and reverse your elbows in sort of an arching motion.

Chest goes out and proud as you pull backward to maximize your contraction. While simultaneously squeezing your elbows toward the body.

Returning to start position by reversing your initial steps to stretch the lats as far forward as possible. Maintaining a neutral spine. Shoulders remain depressed throughout the set.

Bent row
Hammer strength row
Cable pulldown
Hammer strength pulldown
Cable row
Pendlay row
Landmine row
Lawn mower row
Meadows row
Straight arm cable pulldown
Deadlift
Rack pull
Pull up
Pullovers
Inverted row
Yates row

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Best Form specific Trap and Rhomboid muscle Exercises

Adjusting your sights to upper traps is a different animal from lower traps, so this is a two-part explanation.

Upper trap isolation is mostly about elevation of the shoulders. In addition to elevating try bringing your shoulders back and toward one another simultaneously.. not just a straight up and down shrug.

This combination is most effective when it includes a slightly forward lean maintained throughout the movement.

The lean may decrease the sheer amount of resistance you can move, but it greatly increases targeted muscle fiber recruitment.

Hand placement is to be wider than shoulder width, a 30-45 degree angle will do. You’ll get the best angle from a trap bar or with dumbbells because you can have your hands by your sides. This placement has the greatest impact. But other placements can still get the job done.

With all of that said, if you’ve gathered that shrugs are the best for upper traps. You are correct.

Upper trap and rhomboid Moves:

Dumbbell shrug
Cable shrug
Barbell shrug
Hammer strength shrug
Upright row
High pull
Farmer’s walk

For middle and lower traps form you want high elbows with depressed shoulders and a close grip for most moves. Ensure your stretch is impeccable at starting position by hunching forward while maintaining a neutral spine. And protracting the shoulders. When pulling backward retract the shoulders while maintaining depressed shoulders and elevated elbows throughout the movement.

The higher your elbows are, the more middle and lower traps you get. Same with the closer your hands are together. I like neutral grip best here. Focus on contracting your target as always.

Note: Infraspinatus chips in a lot with middle/lower trap focused movements.

Middle/lower trap And Rhomboid Moves:

Bent row
Cable row
Hammer strength row
Hammer strength pulldown
Face pull
Reverse fly
Pull up
Scapular pull up
Cable pulldown
Inverted row
Yates row

Form Specific infraspinatus Muscle Exercises

On the infraspinatus front, you get a lot of the same form cues as targeting middle/lower traps.

You want high elbows with depressed shoulders. Again, ensure your stretch is impeccable at your starting position by hunching forward while maintaining a neutral spine. And protracting the shoulders. Yet, when pulling backwards don’t retract the shoulders, but maintain depression and maintain elevated elbows throughout.

With high elbows, regardless of hand placement the infraspinatus is active, being that it externally rotates the humerus. However.. in my experience I feel more activation when my wrists and elbows align.

Extreme focus on contractions.

Cable row
Bent row
Pendlay row
Hammer strength row
Inverted row
Yates row
Reverse fly

Note: External humeral cable rotations hit the infraspinatus, but is an exercise more for rehab and shoulder health maintenance. The goal isn’t to overload your muscles with as much resistance as possible as these other exercises may suggest.

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Form Specific Teres Major And Teres Minor Muscle Exercises

The teres major works in tandem with your lats, so hitting the lats will recruit your teres major muscles. If the execution is intentional that recruitment will be to a.. major degree.

Your form cues include much of what you do for lats, but with a 45 degree angle between the humerus and torso. This gives the teres major a truly good working.

You still exaggerate the lat/teres major stretch at starting position and eccentrically. You still transition into an arch while contracting. And you still maintain depressed shoulders throughout the movement. The other change is that you won’t squeeze your elbow toward the body before returning to start.

Note: I won’t go into teres minor detail since you don’t exactly lock-in on the teres minor. When you do your external humeral rotations the teres minor will be handled.

Pull up
Cable pulldown
Hammer strength pulldown
Bent row
Hammer strength row
Cable row
Pendlay row
Landmine row
Lawn mower row
Meadows row
Straight arm cable pulldown
Rack pull
Pullovers
Inverted row
Yates row
Deadlift

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How To Eat To Grow Back Muscles

In the perfect world you would lift and you would grow. No extra steps necessary. But the world ain’t perfect my friend. If it were that simple at 5-7:30pm the gym would be more packed than it already is..

There’d be lines out the door, plural. And I’d never find a locker to hold the excess amount of equipment in my gym bag.

There’s a step between lifting and growing. That step is recovery.

Boring maybe, necessary absolutely. Recovery requires rest, but equally important it requires tools to make repairs. Those tools are in the form of nutrition.

When you train your back you cause microtears in the muscle fibers. Growth occurs when those microtears repair better equipped to handle a similar load in the future.

The repairs and the enhancements aren’t possible without the tools.

Let’s talk macronutrients.

Protein is number one for muscle building because without protein you simply cannot build muscle. Can’t retain muscle either. Protein is comprised of amino acids and some of those amino acids can only be obtained through direct consumption. They can’t be constructed by your body. So you have to consume these essential amino acids. No way around it.

Then you have dietary fats, which are a staple for anabolic hormones.. you don’t want your testosterone and growth hormone activity to slack. When they slack, your back results slack.

And don’t sleep on carbs for fuel, muscle fullness,, and so on. Carbohydrates are consumed and converted to glycogen. The way you store glycogen in the muscles allows glycogen to be quickly converted to fuel for short burst movements, IE weight training. More energy for weight training means better, more intense lifts. That leads to greater long-term results.

That covers the small picture. For the big picture..

With all things considered a calorie surplus will have you gain weight, which we often call a bulk in the fitness world. If you’re wondering what calorie surplus means, it’s when you consume more calories than you burn over a period of time. Deciding whether you should gain or lose weight, AKA cut is dependent on where you start.

From a low body fat percentage starting point it’s easiest to build muscle when bulking. At a higher body fat percentage it’s better to trim fat, and add muscle while doing so.

Bottom line: Ensure your protein intake is where it needs to be, do not neglect dietary fats, and don’t drop your overall calories too low if you decide to cut. A moderate calorie deficit is all you need.

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My Thoughts

You probably see a looooot of unilateral (one sided) back exercises on your social media feed. Don’t get me wrong, they are valuable and it is a bit easier to increase range of motion and more adequately contract when doing one side at a time. But if you’re within your first few years of lifting seriously, I suggest you spend more time with bilateral movements than anything else. Greater hormonal response, and you get more work done in less time. Unilateral training is more for gym vets, and/or clean up work when you have a good idea of your dimensions after building a decent amount of muscle.

Taking the time to work on contractions via flexing/posing practice isn’t reserved for bodybuilders. Going over your contractions is quite the gym assistant. All lifting quality can improve by having the knowhow of hitting that muscle on purpose. Try flexing between sets to improve your mind-muscle connection even more.

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So, It’s About That Time To Build A Back

And there she goes, your ticket to a back from the Marvel comic universe. A bunch of pictures and a bunch of words describing what part of your back does what, and how to best prime each part for growth. Now it’s on you to execute.

The back is involved in all pulling movements, is a stabilizing staple, and separates serious gym rats from the ones that only show up on push day.

So pull yourself together (had to) and create the foundation for a V-shaped body and a complete physique by building a dream back.

Thanks for the read, I greatly appreciate it. If you gained anything from this collection of words, feel free to join the Muscle And Mentality Journal reader’s list. You’ll get all releases first.

Enough talk, let’s get to it and Be Great.