6 of the best bodyweight exercises you can do at home to sculpt and strengthen the muscles in your back. This awesome back workout works the upper, middle, and lower back muscles all with zero equipment required. You’ll love your results as your back becomes stronger and more defined.

How do you work your back out at home?

You don’t need weights, bands, or fancy equipment to get in a great workout at home. The primary motions our back muscles generate are pulling out shoulder blades together (rhomboids and middle traps), pulling our elbow down from an overhead position (lats), and extending our spine (paraspinal muscles). Working all of these is essential to achieve that toned, sculpted back.

What exercises are good for back pain?

Back pain is the most-common condition that I treat in my physical therapy clinic. It affects 8 out of every 10 people and can be completely debilitating.

I have put together a few blog posts that may help your back pain. These are the exercises that I recommend most-often to people to stretch out their backs and strengthen their core muscles:

7 Best Stretches For Low Back Pain
How To Treat Your Low Back Pain
How To Fix Your Lower Back Posture

How can I straighten my back?

Oftentimes our hip flexors can become tight (due to excess sitting) and our butt and ab muscles can become weak. This results in an excessive curve in our lower back that often can become painful. The fix is to stretch our tight hip flexors and strengthen our core to minimize this excessive curve. I actually shot an entire YouTube video about it for you… check it out RIGHT HERE.

Now let’s get on with the workout!

• Lay on your stomach with your arms stretched out over your head
• Extend through your entire spine to lift your chest and knees up off the ground.
• Hold 3–5 seconds and slowly return to starting position. (This exercise can be made easier by placing your fingertips just behind your ears). 
• *3 sets of 10 reps*

• Similar to the Superman, however we’re mixing up the muscle activation with contralateral limb activity (just trust me).
• Lay on your stomach on the floor with your arms stretched out overhead.
• Lift your right arm and left leg up off the floor and then return to the starting position.
• Repeat with the left arm and right leg. 
• *3 sets of 10 reps on each side*

 

• Stand with your back against a wall.
• The back of your head, shoulder blades, and butt should be against the wall; your feet are out approximately 1 foot from the wall.
• Bring your arms up and rotate them back until your knuckles touch the wall at approximately ear level (this is the starting position).
• Maintaining these points of contact, slide your hands up and over your head while keeping your knuckles on the wall.
• Touch your hands together at the top and return to the starting position. 
• *3 sets of 15 reps*

• Get down in the push-up position, however your butt is going to be way up in the air so your arms and torso are lined up.
• Bend your elbows and slowly lower your forehead towards the ground.
• Return to starting position.
• *3 sets of 10 reps*

• Lay your back with your knees bent.
• Squeeze the muscles in your butt and lower back and lift your pelvis up towards the ceiling.
• Hold 3–5 seconds and slowly return to the starting position.
• (This exercise can be made more difficult with a single-leg bridge– basically the same thing except you’re only using one leg to lift towards the ceiling)
• *3 sets of 20 reps (or 3 sets of 10–15 her leg if you’re doing the single leg bridge)*

• Lay on your stomach with your arms stretched out to the side and your face down.
• Raise your head/chest up off of the ground and bring the backs of your hands up towards the ceiling.
• The most important part of this exercise is really squeezing the muscles between your shoulder blades together. 
• *3 sets of 15 reps*

Work these into your regular at-home routines and watch the amazing results unfold!

Looking for some other awesome home routines? Here are a few of my favorites:

The Dirty Dozen

Interested in more amazing at-home workouts just like this one? Our “8-Week Beginner Workout Guide” features more than 50 awesome workouts, healthy recipes, tips, advice, and motivation to help you realize your fitness goals. Check it out here!

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