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Upper back exercise
Performing upper back exercises on a regular basis will give you that wide, muscular look that body builders and many professional athletes so frequently display.
It is not only aesthetically pleasing, it is also functional - this is an area of the body that is integral to numerous sporting and everyday activities. While it's obvious that tennis players and elite swimmers need to perform upper back exercises for their sports, it's also just as true that they will help women carrying heavy groceries, or men loading furniture into the back of a van.
Upper back exercises fall into two broad categories - those in which the weights move, and those in which you move your body. The latter involve al the variations of pull-ups.
Pull-ups are ignored by many people, for one simple reason - they are really hard! In fact, many otherwise fit people can't perform even one pull-up. However, if you want to strengthen this area, they are almost without equal.
The two main muscles to work in this area are the latissimus dorsi (lats) and the trapezius (traps). The most popular exercises are as follows:-
Lats: Cable rows (several variations); One arm dumb bell rows; Lat pull downs (wide or narrow grip); Pull-ups (various hand positions); Bent over row (numerous variations)
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Traps: Shrugs (barbell, dumb bell, cable); Close grip upright row (cable, barbell, dumb bell)
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