If you’re looking to build your overall size and a muscular physique, it’s certainly going to take more than training just your arms and your chest. It’s going to take a body frame that is full and complete, and the back muscles are where you can fill out your upper frame so that you have the appearance of maximum size and strength.
This is no easy task, since your back muscles are the largest muscle group on your upper body - they’re second in size only to your thigh muscles. That means that back training is going to require a lot of time, energy, and focus.
It’s the time, energy, and focus that a lot of guys out there aren’t willing to put in. As a result, they end up with a smaller frame and less than spectacular back development. If you’re not used to this type of effort, doing a really intense back workout might make you feel like you’re going throw up at the end, but the effort is well worth it.
The first thing to realize is that when we talk about “back muscles” is that the back is actually a very unclear term. In reality, the back is composed of three major muscle groups that each serves different functions. They are the Trapezius (Traps), Latissimus Dorsi (Lats), and the Spinal Erectors (lower back). The lower back has been given its own separate section on this website since it is mostly trained with separate exercises than the other back muscles, and we won’t be discussing it here.
So let’s start off with the traps. The traps are large group of muscles that are shaped like an upside-down triangle starting at your shoulders and tapering about half way down your upper back. Many people argue that these are more a part of your shoulder workout, but we are including them as part of the back muscle group because many exercises that work the lats will also give your traps a good secondary workout.
The traps tighten to pull your shoulders upward and to the rear. Try pulling your shoulders upward as high as possible, and then try to pull your shoulders to the rear with a slight upward movement. In each of these movements you should feel your traps tighten up.
Exercises such as the upright row and deadlift are the basic mass building exercises for your traps. Shoulder shrugs specifically isolate stress on the traps, but they can also help to build a tremendous amount of muscle in the upper back and shoulders area. This will help you to make your traps look clearly separated from your rear delts and will give you a fantastically muscular effect. In addition, your growing traps will be clearly visible when your shoulders are viewed from the front.
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