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Back to the Rack
You don’t need a gym full of equipment to carve out a strong, thick back. This workout takes you inside the power rack for six muscle-inducing moves.
Exercises
Pull-Up
Targets: Latissimus dorsi (lats), teres major and minor, rhomboids, trapezius, infraspinatus
Start: Take a wide overhand grip on a pull-up bar, thumbs wrapped for safety. Hang freely, elbows fully extended and feet crossed with your knees bent.
Action: Contract your lats to raise your chin over the bar, focusing on keeping your elbows flared outward as you “pull” them down to your sides to raise yourself. Hold the top position for one second before lowering yourself down to the dead-hang position and repeat.
Bent-Over Barbell Row
Targets: Lats, teres major and minor, rhomboids, trapezius, infraspinatus
Start: Take a shoulder-width stance in front of a loaded barbell, and lean forward at your waist until your torso is roughly parallel with the floor, knees slightly bent. Grasp the bar just outside the outer edge of each foot. Tense the muscles of your core, and keep your lower back tight, maintaining its natural curve.
Action: Without bouncing or raising your upper body, pull the barbell toward your abdomen, tracking just inches from your legs, bringing your elbows high and above the level of your back, then slowly lower the bar along the same path. Don’t touch the weight down to the floor between reps.
T-Bar Row
Targets: Lats, teres major and minor, rhomboids, trapezius, infraspinatus
Start: Place an unloaded end of a barbell in a corner of a wall or, in this instance, a power rack. Load the other end with weight, then straddle it, grasping the bar hand-over-hand about a foot below the plates on the weighted end. Keep your head neutral, chest up and flex your core and lower back to maintain the natural curvature of the spine.
Action: Pull the bar toward you, keeping your elbows close to your body. Do not allow your upper body to rise in the effort to pull the weight upward. Hold the top position momentarily, then lower the weight under control, stopping an inch or so off the floor and starting the next rep.
Rack Deadlift
Targets: Lats, teres major and minor, rhomboids, trapezius, infraspinatus, erector spinae
Start: Inside a power rack, place a barbell on the safeties, set just below knee level. With your head neutral and back flat, bend your knees to grasp the bar just outside your legs — your shins should be flush against it.
Action: Keeping your abs and back tight, arms straight and chest up, press through the floor with your heels and extend your knees to drag the bar up your thighs as you reach a standing position. Lower the bar along the same path, allowing it to rest on the safety bars for a moment, then repeat for reps.
Barbell Shrug
Targets: Trapezius
Start: Stand with your chest up and abs tight, grasping a barbell with an overhand, shoulder-width grip.
Action: Shrug your shoulders straight up toward the ceiling, squeezing your traps hard at the top. (It may help to think of trying to touch your ears with your delt caps.) Slowly reverse the motion to full stretch, and repeat.
Inverted Pull-Up
Targets: Lats, teres major and minor, rhomboids, trapezius, infraspinatus
Start: Place a barbell on the safety hooks, set about ab to lower chest high. Get into position underneath the bar so you’re hanging from it using an overhand shoulder-width grip, heels on the floor, body straight like a plank. Your back should be hovering a few inches off the floor in the starting position — if not, read- just the safeties.
Action: Pull your chest up to the bar by bending your elbows and driving them back behind you, keeping your body tensed in the plank position throughout.
