The Best Back Workout Routine For Mass (Beginner Friendly)

Looking to build a bigger back and get a nice v-taper?

Well you’ve clicked on the right guide!

In this guide we will show you how you can add more muscle mass and overall thickness to your back even if you’re a beginner to weight training.

Check out the best back workout routine for mass below…

Understanding Your Back Muscles

When it comes to choosing a back workout you need to understand just how your back muscles work so that you are able to target them correctly. Having a deeper understanding of your back muscles will allow you to choose exercises that activate the biggest areas of your back. This will result in the most muscle fibres being activated and help us reach our goal of gaining more muscle mass.

There are five main muscles that we are looking to target, these include:

• Trapezius
• Rhomboids
• Latissimus dorsi
• Posterior serratus
• Erector spinae (muscles used to straighten spine)

The Simple Science Of Back Training

So let’s talk about what we want to achieve with our back training. Our goals should be simple and easy to follow. We want to…

• Increase the size of our trapezius or “traps” without overdeveloping them.
• Increase the width and thickness of our latissimus dorsi or “lats” creating an aesthetic V-taper.
• Increase the size and thickness of our rhomboids to create good muscle separation in our upper back.
• Create a thick and strong lower back which provides stability as well as giving you that “Christmas tree” look (see pic below).

When it comes to training we want to avoid doing the wrong exercises such as isolation exercises/machines and focus more on the compound exercises like deadlifts, bent rows etc. This will allow you to hit more muscles and increase anabolic hormone production such as testosterone and HGH. 

In terms of rep ranges you’ll want to focus on the 4 to 6 or 5 to 7 rep range with a progressive overload, this way your back will grow and you will get stronger faster.

The Best Back Workout For More Muscle Mass

Don’t be fooled by the simplistic look of these workouts, if you are giving it your all on these exercises it will be challenging.

Beginner Workout

Exercise:	Sets:	Reps:
Wide Grip Pull-ups *	3	Try do as many as you can
Barbell Bent Row	3	4-10
Deadlift	2	4-10

* If you struggle to complete the movement, then you can do lat pull downs or assisted pull-ups as an alternative until you are strong enough to do normal pull-ups.

Intermediate Workout

Exercise:	Sets:	Reps:
Deadlift	4	4-6
Barbell Bent Row	3	4-10
One arm dumbbell row	3	4-6
Wide Grip Pull-ups	2	Go to failure

Advanced Workout

Exercise:	Sets:	Reps:
Deadlift	4	4-6
Barbell Bent Row	3	4-10
One arm dumbbell row	3	4-6
Wide Grip Pull-ups	2	Go to failure
Chin-ups	2	Go to failure

No Gym? No problem. Build A Bigger Back At Home

Here’s a back workout routine you can use at home

Exercise:	Sets:	Reps:
Pull-ups	As many as you need	Do a total of 50 reps
Chin-ups	3	4-10

This workout will be tough even though it’s only two exercises. What you will want to do is try and do as many pull-ups as you can, let’s say you get 8 reps on the first set, then you do a second set and maybe only get 6, third set maybe 5 etc, you then add the number of reps together and in the end you will want a total of 50 reps. Once you reach this goal you can start to increase this total by 10 reps.

If you don’t have anywhere to do pull-ups you can invest in a pull-up bar such as this one. If you have dumbbells lying around you can also add in one arm dumbbell rows for 3 sets of 4-10 reps.

Nutrition Is Important Too

When looking to put on more muscle mass you need to keep in mind that you don’t actually build muscle in the gym but rather tear the muscle down. This is why proper nutrition is important, it’s the only way to ensure that your muscles will recover and grow bigger than before.

You need to make sure you are getting an adequate amount of protein, as well as good sources of carbohydrates like brown rice, sweet potato and rolled oats.

Do You Need Supplements?

Supplements can help you achieve your goals faster, but they are not essential. Supplements should be used in addition to a proper nutrition plan. In terms of what supplements to take, you will want to stick with the basics like a pre-workout, a whey protein to increase protein intake and maybe some creatine monohydrate. 

Conclusion

There you go, now you have the best back routine to start adding some more muscle! Remember to stay consistent with your diet and recovery and within a few weeks you will start noticing some changes in your physique. I would suggest doing this routine for 4 weeks take 1 week off, then change the order of exercises so that you can keep the body guessing.