How to build a strong back?

Building a strong back can be very simple. It doesn’t have to be complected, Do the fundamental movements and you will succeed at increasing your back strength. Everything in this world narrows down to simplicity and it’s the things that people have been doing for years that work. Keep your training simple, start doing the strengthening movements that strengthen your whole body. The body is a unit and it made for every muscle to work in harmony with each other. Therefore, you should do that in your training.

There is a structure and a plan to every programme and a reason why it is done a certain way. For example as a personal trainer in Windsor, if my client hasn’t done any cardio vascular training and their body is weak I will strengthen the body before they start any cardio. This is what I do with all of my personal training clients so it will help them train with me injury free throughout their programme.

Pulling exercises

Translating this into training, to get a strong back you have to train your back from multiple angles. You can do lower body pulling movement where you have to have thoracic extension of the spine which strengthen your posterior chain. For example, in any deadlifting movement your upper and lower back should be engaged.

Upper body pulling movements that strengthen the big muscles in your upper back. For example, vertical pull like pull ups or horizontal pulls like any rowing movements. These will all help strengthen the whole of your back. They all have to be done throughout the week. you can’t just focus on one of them because that will create unwanted imbalances.

Core movements for a strong back

Core movements and isometric holds are exercises that strengthen the muscles surrounding your spine. If you strengthen these as a unit you will have a strong back that is pain free. Focus on using the whole of the core including the hips and the shoulder when doing any core movements. For example, trunk rotations or bird dogs are both using the hips and the shoulder girdle.

Spinal mobility

It is important to keep the spine mobile and not too tight. Everything is transferred through the spine so it has to be strong to be able move your body around. If parts of the body get tight like the hip flexors or glutes, then your upper and lower back muscles may also get tight. You have to have a mobility routine that stretches and mobilises the muscles to keep them healthy. This can be done through yoga movements or general mobility movements and stretching.