12 Best Back Exercises Women Can Use to Build Muscle

Written by Kirsten Yovino | CPT Brookbush Institute

Fact checked by Tyler DiGiovanni, BSBM

FACT CHECKED

Updated On: May 06, 2024

When it comes to weight lifting, legs tend to get more attention from ladies than some of the less glamorous body parts. There's no denying the beauty of defined quads and visible calf muscles that pop in heels, but hear us out: Think of how amazing your strapless dresses and tank tops will look when paired with a sleekly sculpted back.

Plus, training a major muscle group like your back results in more calories burned during your workout and after, and that's great for your overall physique. And if you're not in it for aesthetics, it'll also help prevent lower back pain.

After reading this post, you’ll know:

Whether gender makes a difference in determining the best back exercises
12 best back exercises for women
Back muscle training tips for women
Two best back workouts for women
Commonly asked back-training questions and answers

DOES GENDER REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR WHAT BACK EXERCISES ARE BEST?

Just as the best weight lifting moves are timeless, the best back exercises are genderless.

In fact, back workouts such as these do a great job building muscle and strength, regardless of whether you're a girl or guy. When women first dip a toe into the weight lifting world, an overall concern can be looking too big or bulky. Men want a big, broad back, while women's priorities gravitate toward a sleek back and toned muscles.

This is certainly not to say that some women don’t want broad backs. Everyone has a different goal, and we love ladies who aren't afraid to grow! But biologically, men and women are not the same, so even when following the same exercises and routine, each gender will see significantly different results.

Ladies, as you grow your back muscles, your figure will become even more feminine, as your defined upper back tapers down to tight lats and a waist that continues to look more narrow the more muscular your back becomes.

To further put your minds at ease, research shows that men have higher muscle thickness values, which the study at least partially attributed to gender differences¹. Another study found that men experience greater muscle volume gains than women, indicating that genetics wires guys to build larger muscles than ladies².

Now, if you are hoping to develop large, visible muscle mass, this is certainly not to say you can’t make it happen. Women can absolutely build muscle! But just know your genetics are much more inclined to develop in a way that maintains your girlish figure.

12 BEST BACK EXERCISES FOR WOMEN

1. Superman:

The superman is an excellent erector spinae exercise. In addition, the rhomboids and traps also feel the burn in this versatile exercise, leading to that tight, muscular back we previously discussed. Looking for some variety? Try holding a dumbbell or medicine ball.

How to do a Dumbbell Superman:

Lying face down, extend your arms straight in front of you and legs behind you, placing your forehead on the floor.
Simultaneously lift your head, arms, and legs off the floor, keeping your arms and legs straight. At the top of the movement, pause for a few seconds, before slowly lowering your head, arms, and legs back to the ground. That's one rep.

2. Bent-Over Dumbbell Row:

A long list of back muscles, including the traps, rhomboids, teres major and minor, with help from the erector spinae and lats, are working in the bent-over dumbbell row. The neutral grip helps target your middle back, and the dumbbells work great for providing you with a greater range of motion.

This move is a staple in many trapezius workouts. It's also a great compound exercise that helps build all the muscles while burning calories. Using less of a break in between sets will increase your heart rate and blast extra fat.

How to do the Bent-Over Dumbbell Row:

Start by standing with your legs shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, holding a dumbbell with a neutral grip in each hand, palms facing each other.
Bend forward at a 45-degree angle, stopping just before your torso parallels the ground. Your arms are straight; retract your scapula to engage your back muscles.
Bend your elbows, pulling your dumbbells toward the outside of your chest. Your upper arms should be parallel to your shoulders.
With control, slowly lower your dumbbells back to the starting position.

3. Overhand Grip Bent-Over Barbell Rows:

There's a reason you'll see rows on repeat in upper back workouts. The traps, rhomboids, and upper lats, in particular, get some love in the bent-over barbell rows, creating a back physique you’ll love.

We suggest rotating between the overhand and underhand grips, as the underhand grip targets your lower lats and erector spinae. Alternating between the two week-to-week ensures you’re developing your back muscles equally.

How to do the Bent-Over Barbell Row:

With an overhand grip, grasp a barbell, placing your feet shoulder-width apart.
Keeping a neutral back, sit back to hinge forward at your hips, bending your knees slightly. Aim for a 45-degree angle for your starting position.
Bring the bar toward your abdominals by bending your elbows and pulling them behind you. Retract your scapula, squeezing them through the entire movement.
Straighten the arms to lower the bar back to your starting position.

4. Lat Pull-Down:

Another excellent compound movement, the lat pull-down engages your lats and upper back, making it an essential exercise for upper body workouts for women. The latissimus dorsi is a large, flat muscle that runs across the middle of your back, and developing it helps create the tapered look we’re striving for.

It’s also a great first step to mastering the pull-up, which we’ll see later on in this list of exercises.

How to do a Lat Pull Down:

Sitting at a lat pulldown machine, put your legs tight under the thigh pads with your feet on the floor. Grab the bar using an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
Keep your shoulder blades in a neutral position. As you pull the bar downward, pull your elbows toward your body and your scapula down. Continue pulling the bar down until it is close to your collar bone.
Extend your elbows to straighten your arm as you return the bar to the starting position.

5. Seated Cable Row:

Your lats and rhomboids are fully engaged in this pulling move, while the traps step in to assist. For some variation in your back exercises for women routine, consider occasionally swapping this move out for a cable row alternative.

How to do a Seated Cable Row:

Sitting on a bench or chair, keep your knees bent and feet on the ground, grabbing the cable attachment on the weighted cable machine. You can use a bar or a triangle-shaped handle as an attachment. Your palms face upward when using a bar and toward each other with the triangle attachment. Distance yourself from the attachment so it's just out of reach when you're not stretching.
Pull the attachment toward your lower stomach, keeping the work in your back muscles by keeping a straight back and retracting your scapula.
Slowly straighten your arms to bring the attachment back to the starting position.

6. Renegade Rows:

When you’re striving for a lean and muscular look, the renegade row is the move for the job. The best back exercises for women are those that torch calories while sculpting. As an added bonus, it also improves core strength, making it the perfect exercise for your entire body and ideal for at home back workouts.

How to do the Renegade Row:

Place two dumbbells in front of you, slightly wider than shoulder-width, on the floor, grasping them with your hands as you move into a high plank position. Your feet should be just wider than hip-width; keep your core tight.
Keeping your back neutral and scapula retracted, gaze at the floor in front of your dumbbells throughout the exercise. Your body should be in a straight line.
Bending your right elbow, pull your dumbbell toward you, close to your hip. Don't rotate your shoulders and hips; keep them square to the floor.
Lower the dumbbell back to the floor, repeating with your left arm.

7. Kettlebell Farmer’s Carry:

Your upper back gets lots of love in the farmer’s carry, a move that also encourages good posture and burns calories quickly as you walk around with two semi-heavy kettlebells. Calories out, and muscle in will get you to your goals! The farmer's carry is also great for building powerful forearms, which helps improve grip strength. And if that's not reason enough to do this move, you'll also get some lower body work in too. Talk about building overall muscle mass everywhere.

We like kettlebells for this exercise as they provide equipment variety in your routine and enable you to grip them comfortably, likely leading to an increased ability to increase your weight. You can also use dumbbells instead.

How to do the Farmer’s Carry:

With a kettlebell in each hand, start by standing straight with a very slight bend in the knees, keeping your back straight and your shoulder blades retracted slightly, ensuring your shoulders are back and down. Tip your pelvis forward slightly. Keep your feet hip width.
Start with your left leg, taking short, fast steps as you start walking forward. Walk until you’re out of the room, and then turn around, taking your first step with your right leg, to walk the opposite way. Continue pacing for 45 to 60 seconds, focusing on good posture and activated back muscles the entire time.

8. Single-arm dumbbell row:

Hello, well-defined traps, rhomboids, and lats! Thanks to this back workouts staple, you’ll be able to use a heavier weight and identify any back muscle imbalances. Performing the single-arm dumbbell row is what we call a win-win.

How to do the Single-Arm Dumbbell Row:

Start by grabbing a dumbbell in your left hand. Place your right hand and knee on a bench (or chair), aligning your left hand with your shoulder and your knee with your hips. Pressing them down into the bench will enable you to lift heavier.
Keep your back straight, retracting your shoulder blades. Your left arm is straight with your left palm facing your body.
Bending your elbow, row the arm back as you move your dumbbell closer to your body. At the top of this exercise, give your back muscles an extra squeeze.
Straight your arm by extending your elbow, and lowering your dumbbell back toward the ground. Complete all of your reps on one side before moving to the other.

9. TRX Inverted Row:

A great pre-cursor to the pull-up exercise, you can also find a place for both of these moves in your back routine, as the pull-up does a better job hitting the lats, and the inverted row more thoroughly activates your rhomboids and traps.

If that’s not reason enough to use this move to build the back muscles of your dreams, we’re happy to continue convincing you. Research comparing this move to the barbell bent-over row and one-arm cable row found the inverted row elicited the most powerful contractions in the lats and upper back muscles while providing the most stability to the lower back³.

How to do the Inverted Row:

Hold the TRX handles in each hand, with your palms facing one another.
Facing the strap's anchor point, lean backward. Continue leaning until the straps are tight and your arms are straight. Your body should be in a straight line.
Retracting your shoulder blades, bend your elbows, pulling them close to your sides. Make sure you squeeze your shoulder blades together throughout this movement.
Pause before straightening your arms to return your body to the starting position.

10. Pull-Ups:

To pull-up or chin-up? For back-specific workouts, we recommend the pull-up as it activates your lats and lower traps. If completing a pull-up seems unlikely, we suggest starting with the lat pull-down or using an assisted pull-up machine and working your way up. Your upper body muscles will love this exercise.

How to do a Pull-Up:

Standing below a pull-up bar with your feet hip width apart, place your hands in an overhand grip with palms facing away from you on the bar. Your hands are slightly wider than shoulder-width; keep your feet hip width. If you can't reach the bar from the floor, grab a box for a boost-up.
Hang down from the bar and lift your feet from the floor, retracting your shoulder blades to activate the back.
Bending your elbows toward your hips, bring your upper body up toward the bar, continuing until your chin is above the bar.
Straighten your arms as you lower your body back to the starting position.

11. Dumbbell Pullover:

The dumbbell pullover does an excellent job isolating the lats, something that can be hard to do. But trust us, the lats are incremental in achieving a sleek, sexy back that’ll make your strapless dresses look even better, so it’s important to strengthen them in back workouts. For added variation, you can alternate between dumbbells and cable pullovers.

How to do the Dumbbell Pullover:

Lying face-up on a bench, grasp one dumbbell in both hands with your palms facing each other, straightening your arms over your chest toward the ceiling.
Slowly extend your dumbbell over and behind your head. Stop when your arms are straight behind you, but before your weight is below your head.
Return your arms and dumbbell to their starting position.

12. Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row:

We love compound exercises for hitting multiple muscles and burning extra calories, but we can't ignore isolation moves for extra back emphasis. Fortunately, this back workout targets both. Enter: the chest-supported row, a back-isolating exercise that enables you to lift heavy.

How to the Chest-Supported Row:

Set your incline bench to a 45-degree angle. Holding one dumbbell in each hand, press your chest against the bench with your neck and head over the top of it. Keep your body straight with straight arms extended downward.
With a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing downward, bring the dumbbells toward your ribs by bending your elbows and retracting your shoulder blades. Continue rowing until your elbows are aligned with your shoulders and above your sides, keeping your head and neck neutral the entire time.
Straighten your elbow to lower your weights down.

BACK TRAINING TIPS FOR WOMEN

Remember, ladies: Your muscle accrual will look different than men's just as men and women's strength standards vary. Strength training creates broad backs for guys, whereas weightlifting for women results in a sleek, defined back that makes your waist look even smaller.

Building visible muscle mass is also more challenging for women compared to men, meaning you need to work equally hard - if not harder - to yield visible results.

What does this mean for your training? We’ll be sticking to the same reps and sets that men follow for muscle hypertrophy because this is the best strategy for creating a defined back.

Aim for 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions per exercise. Use a challenging weight that enables you to reach at least eight but causes you to feel thoroughly fatigued by set 12. If you hit 12 and could keep going, do your back a big favor, and bump up that weight.

Rest between 30 to 90 seconds for each exercise. If you’re hoping to burn extra fat while building muscle, leaning closer to 30 seconds of rest will keep your heart rate nice and high. This will also help boost your resting metabolism throughout the day.

If you strictly want to emphasize hypertrophy and volume, 90 seconds of rest allows your anaerobic energy system to recharge. To grow your back and increase your upper body strength, train your muscle groups twice weekly, not on back-to-back days. We’ve provided two workouts for you: perform one earlier in the week, and the other 2 to 3 days later.

During your two workout options, you have one exercise in both in which you can pick between two options. Don’t do both as they work similar muscles, and overtraining is counterproductive. Rotate between your options for variety, or on a busy gym day, pick the open one.

Remember, almost all exercises are modifiable, so if these seem too challenging, adjust them to fit your needs. Decrease the weight, use body weight to begin when appropriate, or start with two sets.

BEST BACK WORKOUT FOR WOMEN

Workout A:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Dumbbell Superman	3-4	8-10	30 to 90 seconds
Bent-Over or single-arm dumbbell row	3-4	8-12	30-60 seconds
Pull-Up	3-4	7-9	60-90 seconds
Chest-supported dumbbell row	3-4	8-12	30-90 seconds
Seated cable row	3-4	8-12	30-90 seconds

Workout B:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Kettlebell Farmer’s Carry	3-4	30-60 seconds per set	45 seconds
Bent-over Barbell Row	3-4	8-12	30-90 seconds
Lat pull-down or dumbbell pullover	3-4	8-12	30-90 seconds
Inverted rows	3-4	8-12	30-90 seconds
Renegade rows	3-4	8-10	60-90 seconds

FAQ:

1. How can women tone their back?

A toned back is the result of muscle development. If you’re hoping for a sleek, sculpted back, strength training to hypertrophy will get you there!

2. What exercises make a strong back for a woman?

Pulling exercises and rows of any kind, whether you're using cables, dumbbells, or barbells, are great back-strengthening exercises for women. In addition, compound movements such as the farmer’s carry and renegade row do a great job building back muscles while burning extra calories.

And don’t forget the benefits of isolation exercises, including the pullover, which, quite literally, has your back when it comes to increasing strength.

3. How can a girl get a backline?

Defined muscles create a beautiful backline. Specifically, muscular traps, lats, and erector spinae muscles will create a more visible back line.

The teres major, found closer to your armpit, won't directly contribute to your back line, but when developed, it creates a beautiful bubble shape that further accentuates your back line.

4. How can a woman shape her back at home?

No gym equipment required for a sleek, sculpted back. Consider dumbbells your new best friend if strength training at home! With dumbbells, almost all row variations are possible. Invest in a set of kettlebells as well, and you can add in moves like the farmer’s walk (or just use dumbbells for it).

Kettlebells are also great to use for renegade rows in place of dumbbells. Pull-up bars for your house are always an option, or you can follow one of our favorite techniques and fit your pull-up reps in at the park's monkey bars while your kids play.

For exercises requiring a bench, instead, use a kitchen bench or chair, or move it to the ground, like with the dumbbell pullover.

Other great at-home back exercises include plank up-downs, W superman, alternating rows, and swimmers. You can keep the calorie burn and back sculpting going by incorporating some at-home cardio, including mountain climbers and half burpees.

women's fitness back exercises

Training big won’t make you big

Beautiful backs are built on muscle hypertrophy and dedication. If you’re heading into your back workouts journey nervous about getting jacked and looking over masculine, rest assured that building muscle is a slow process. Once you get to your desired appearance, maintain your new muscle by training once a week. Hoping to take your training one step further? Complement your back exercises with these arm workouts for women, a chest workout, and some breast lifting exercises.

Looking for some inspiration to hit the gym and follow these back exercises? Check out the Top 20 Female Bodybuilders!

Related:

References:

Bartolomei, Sandro, et al. “A Comparison between Male and Female Athletes in Relative Strength and Power Performances.” Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, vol. 6, no. 1, 9 Feb. 2021, p. 17, 10.3390/jfmk6010017.
WALTS, CORY T., et al. “Do Sex or Race Differences Influence Strength Training Effects on Muscle or Fat?” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, vol. 40, no. 4, Apr. 2008, pp. 669–676, 10.1249/mss.0b013e318161aa82. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

Kirsten Yovino

Author

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