Your back muscles play an integral role in your posture, movements and physical activity. The trapezius, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi and erector spinae are the large muscles that run from the bottom to the top of your back. Weak back muscles can be the cause of muscle strain and back aches. Strengthening all of the muscles in your back can improve your body composition, reduce injury and improve your metabolism by building more lean muscle tissue, which burns calories faster than fat tissue.
Trapezius
The trapezius muscles are most commonly referred to as traps. These muscles are located in the center of your upper back and wrap over the top of your shoulders. Imagine you are wearing a backpack, directly beneath where the straps are located you can find your trapezius muscles. These muscles can be strengthened with exercises that cause you to perform a shrug or rowing motion. To perform a shrug, stand upright with the weights in your hands and your shoulders relaxed. Shrug your shoulders upward towards your ears and release. Start in the same position to perform a row. Lift the weight upward with your hands close to your body as if you are pulling up a zipper on a jacket. Make sure your elbows are always higher than your hands, stop when the weight is just under your chin and lower your hands back down.
Rhomboids
Your rhomboid muscles are located between your spine and shoulder blades just below your neck. According to ShapeFit, the rhomboids are responsible for retraction, elevation and rotation of the shoulder blades. Exercises such as dumbbell rows help to strengthen this muscle group. Stand next to a weight bench and place your right knee on the bench while holding a dumbbell in your right hand. Bend over until your back is as flat as a tabletop. Hold onto the bench with your left hand for support, lift the weight upward with your elbow moving towards the ceiling and lower back down. Repeat the exercise on the opposite side of your body.
Latissimus Dorsi
Your latissimus dorsi muscles, or lats, run along the sides of your body and into your lower back. The lats help you to move your arms during extension, rotation and pulling movements. Pull-ups, chin-ups and pull-downs target these muscles. Pull-ups are performed with your palms facing away from your body while you face your palms toward your body during chin-ups. Pull-downs are performed using a lat bar. Sit on the designated area of the machine, grab the bar overhead, pull the bar down either in front of or behind your body and extend your arms back upward.
Erector Spinae
The erector spinae muscles are located in your lower back. These muscles can be injured easily with exercise because they support a lot of your body weight. Use little to no weight the first few weeks that you train these muscles to avoid injury. Torso rotations and the superman stretch strengthen the erector spinae muscles. Hold the top of a standing barbell while standing with your feet hip-width apart. Move only your upper body as you slowly twist the barbell from the right side to the left side. To perform the superman stretch, lie on your stomach with your arms and legs extended away from your body. Lift your arms and legs upward toward the ceiling, hold for 10 to 30 seconds and release.
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