Who’s got your back?

A bentover cable row

Hopefully, you do.

But, what I really mean is, what are you doing to strengthen your back?

A strong back helps to eliminate the little aches and pains you might otherwise experience on a daily basis.

A strong back will also help to keep you upright and active into the years to come.

What do I mean by a strong back?

Srong back muscles. Strong spine.

Research tells us that the average woman loses roughly 50% of her bone mass through her lifetime. She also loses close to half her muscle strength by the time she’s 89.

This might explain in part why the spine is one of the 3 sites most vulnerable to fractures (bone breaks) as we age. (Also fracture-prone are the hips and wrists.)

Strong back muscles support your spine and can help you maintain bone mineral density (BMD) there.

(An aside: My spinal BMD is not so great, despite my years of exercise. But I am happy my back muscles are developed and strong, since they help support my spine and decrease my fracture risk.)  

So what do you do?

Weight-training exercises for the back are particularly effective at strengthening the muscles that support your spine and hold you upright.

Pull-downs, chin-ups, pull-ups:  With your torso in an upright position, your arms are outstretched above you and you use your latissimus dorsi (the muscles in your upper back, most visible in the area beneath the armpit) to pull down.

You might be pulling weight down toward your chest (as in a pulldown), or you might be pulling weight (specifically, your body weight) up toward your lats (as in a chin-up or a pull-up). 

In either case, the ultimate destination is a  full contraction of your lats.

Rows: In these movements,  your arms are outstretched in front of your torso. You pull toward your body.

You might be bent over at the hips, with your chest facing the floor, as in a DB row or a bentover BB row. OR, you might be seated at a machine or cable station, your torso upright.

Same thing: You’re going for a full contraction of your lats with each repetition.

How I work out

I tend to have one day per week where I concentrate on these types of back exercises.

(I also do planks, both unweighted and with a light weight plate on my back, which support the entire core–the muscles that support your spine like a girdle–on two days a week at the end of my workouts.)

When I train my back, I often select two pulldown-type movements and two row-type movements. But not always. On occasion, I’ll mix it up, depending on the equipment available to me that day. (No harm in getting 3 rows and just one pulldown. Change is often good.)

I do see men and women training back. But what I see most is people who are just going through the motions.

Here are 4 things to watch:

1. Focus on the movement. Many people are just not “present” during the exercise. To make it more of a back exercise, less of an arm exercise, focus on using your back muscles to move the weight.

2. Use proper form. On a pulldown, neither lean too far back nor hold your torso too upright. On a row (where your chest is not supported, as at a cable station for a low cable row), avoid leaning back at the top of the movement and getting your low back into the action. You want to come back to an upright position with your torso, and fully squeeze the lats. No lower back involved!

3. Use a full range of motion. Fully stretch the lats. Fully contract the lats. Don’t shorten the movement. You’ll lose the full benefit.

4. Select the proper weight. Go too light and you’re not making much of a difference. Go too heavy and you won’t be able to maintain good form (increasing your risk for injury) or go through a full range of motion.

If magazines represent reality…

You probably worry more about your stomach (and abs) than you do your back. (Think of all the magazine cover lines blasting “the ultimate ab workout” inside.)

Your back is a large muscle group. Including it in your exercise program burns calories and can have such a positive impact on your body composition.

That’s in addition to all the spine-strengthening benefits it provides–for both today and tomorrow.

What do YOU do to strengthen your back?