For the best back workout, you need to be working out both your upper and lower back muscles to strengthen the whole muscle group.
Often left out in your home workouts, the back workout is an important group to develop so our exercise programs and stretches should help develop strength and dencrease your risk of developing pain down the road.
Furthermore, the right back workout program will develop strong back muscles to help make every day activities much easier, such as picking up boxes, twisting and turning for various reasons or performing routine household jobs.
The main back muscles that you should concentrate on are the Trapezius, the Latissimus Dorsi, the Teres Major and Minor and the Erector Spinae. They are the larger groups that will play the most predominant roles in all the movements you make.
As far as exercises go for working this area of the body, you will be looking at ones such as the bent over row, single arm row, lat pull-down, pull-ups, shrugs, back extensions (supermans) and deadlifts. You always must remember that for the majority of these exercises the spine needs to stay in proper alignment, being as straight as possible. Additionally, it is very important to always include a good warm-up and cool down before performing exercises for this part of the body. If you don't, you could risk tearing one of the small muscles in the erector spinae (these tend to get injured relatively easy) or straining one of the bigger ones. Both circumstances will take a long time to recover from and could keep you away from physical activity for a couple of months.
Once you have an injury in this area it has a nagging tendency to stay with you for potentially the remainder of your life so it is extremely critical to take precautionary measures. Luckily a good program along with smart practice of exercise, sport and every day activities will significantly reduce your chances of becoming sidelined.
