Best Back Exercises for Women You Should Know

A healthy back is key for maintaining balance and coordination, both during exercise and in daily life. Therefore, it’s important to help your back stay strong. The back consists of an intricate network of muscles running down the length of your spine. Whether at the rhomboid muscles of the upper back or the erector spinae at the base of the spine, there are many places where pain and discomfort can potentially seep through. That’s why it’s important to exercise your back regularly. Here are some of the best back exercises for women to practice regularly.

Best Back Exercises for Women

1. Swimmers

This back exercise looks deceptively easy, but if you’re tightening your core and truly engaging your lats, deltoids, and traps, you’ll feel a burn. The key here is to keep your chest and thighs lifted throughout the entire movement.

How to do swimmers:

• Lie face down on a yoga mat and extend your arms in front and legs behind you.
• Tightening your core and back, lift your right hand and left leg off the mat at the same time.
• Then, alternate sides by raising your left hand and lifting your right leg behind you.
• Move at a fast pace to get your heart rate up.

2. Bent Over Row

Although bird dog is mostly known as a core stabilizing exercise, your back muscles are recruited to help you balance and keep your hips square as you lift one hand and leg up.

How to:

• Start on all fours with wrists under shoulders and knees under hips.
• At the same time, extend the right arm and left leg to straight in the air so both are parallel to the floor.
• Return to start and repeat on the opposite side. That’s one rep. Do 15 to 20 reps then continue immediately on to your next move. (Remember: You’re doing five total.) After you finish your last exercise, rest for up to two minutes, then start over from the top for a total of two or three rounds.

4. Renegade Rows

Calabrese swears by this full-body exercise move that not only targets the back but also requires stabilization through the core. This move can also be modified by lowering your knees to the floor.

How to: 

• Start in a plank position with hands-on dumbbells directly under your shoulders and feet hip-distance apart (or wider for more stability).
• Maintain a strong and stable core while you lift the right weight off the floor and drive your elbow up towards the ceiling.
• Pause at the top, then return to the start position. Repeat on the left side.

5. Supermans

Supermans are the ultimate bodyweight back exercise for tightening all the muscles in your posterior chain, aka the back part of your entire body. With this move, you’re not only engaging your back, but your core, glutes, and thighs too. Remember to keep your shoulders back and down to get the most out of the exercise.

How to do supermans:

• Lie face down on a yoga mat and extend your arms in front and legs behind you.
• Tightening your core, back, glutes, and thighs, lift your arms and the tops of your thighs a couple of inches off the mat.
• Hold for two to three seconds before lowering your arms and legs back down to the mat. This is one rep.

6. Arnold Press

 

Change up the standard shoulder press with this move that adds rotation and hits all angles of the deltoids and recruits a ton of stabilizing back muscles.

How to:

• Stand tall with feet hip-distance apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand.
• Start with your arms bent and palms facing towards your shoulders, like you would at the top of a bicep curl. As you press your arms up overhead, twist them on the way up so that your palms are facing away from you.
• Make sure to reach full extension where your biceps are touching your ears, then rotate your arms as you lower back down and repeat.

In conclusion, these are the best back exercises for women to add to the daily workout.