Since many of us still can’t go to a gym due to our present self quarantining times in the spring of 2020, we have to do our upper back training at home. Fortunately, you don’t need much equipment for home upper back workouts with light weight.
Pull-ups
One important piece of equipment for upper back training is a pull-up bar. In my case, I don’t actually have a safe place to do pull-ups, so I stick with alternatives. If at all possible though, a place to perform pull-ups at home is going to be better for working your lats. You can use many different hand placements, you can add weight with a chained belt or you can decrease weight by using the floor or a chair. There are just so many options that I’m considering trying a door pull-up bar, though they do kind of frighten me.
Alternatives to Pull-ups
The alternative to pull-ups I use is a weight cable with handles setup over a door for lat pulldowns. While this doesn’t give you the type of work a pull-up will, it works as a temporary alternative. I’ve found that doing lat pulldowns like this doesn’t offer a lot of resistance so I can do a ton of reps. A better alternative is to grip both handles with one hand and train one side at a time. Rep out on one side, do the other, then repeat until you’ve hit both lats sufficiently. It may take a lot of reps even training the lats one side at a time.
One Arm Rows
The one upper back exercise I can do with some real weight at home is the one arm row. This is because I use my gym bag to put the weights I have in for a total of as much as 85 pounds. I wrap the handles of my bag around the hand I’m lifting with to keep my grip and brace my other hand against a piece of furniture. Then I pull my bag up to the side I’m working as far as possible using my upper back muscles. It’s then repeated on the other side.
To really boost the intensity on gym bag rows, I’ll go between sets with minimal rest. This is possible as you go from one side to the other when you get to failure. Once I’ve done a few sets with my heaviest weight, I take a dumbbell or two out and continue doing sets. This is basically a drop set.
Straight Arm Pushdowns
I do these with my cable lat pulldown setup. It’s a nice exercise to isolate the upper back muscles. I bend my knees a bit for a better range of motion and flex my back muscles hard at the bottom of every rep. There are a lot of reps to be had for an experienced lifter, so I use it to pump my back up.
Shrugs
I work my traps as part of my upper back. This means doing shrugs during this workout. I’ve found that loading my gym bag with weights works well for shrugs. I do this one with both hands gripping the bag handles. The only issue is the bag can drag along your thighs.
Home Upper Back Workouts
I keep it pretty simple for my home upper back workouts. The sets are kept low because I take 10 seconds to rest after going to failure before continuing on. Drop sets are also done on exercises that lend themselves to them. This makes for as many as 100 total reps on some sets. This is more of a temporary way of training for me. I figure at some point I’ll be able to train more like normal, whether it’s at a gym or with more home gym equipment.
You can continue working your upper back as long as you need to. If at all possible, getting more equipment will allow for more workout variety. For more home workout tips, check out the Alpha Home Workout System.