Big arms might let people know that you work out. Six-pack abs might tell the world that you eat right. But a big back immediately screams that you’re a savage who loves lifting heavy.
Wide lats, thick rhomboids and tall traps command respect. Plus a strong upper back is the foundation of all the big barbell movements, whether it’s supporting the bar on squats, controlling the bar path on bench press or keeping the bar close to your body during deadlifts. So if your back won’t grow, you’re not just losing out on physique gains, but strength potential too.
This is part three of a series on how to grow stubborn body parts. You can read the others here:
Part 1 – 6 Reasons Your Legs Won’t Grow
Part 2 – 5 Reasons Your Chest Won’t Grow
Here are six reasons your upper back progress may have stalled:
1. Sloppy Form
Technique is a choice. It’s one of the things you have complete control over in the gym. It’s not enough to just know what good technique is. You have to execute. You must be disciplined enough to choose the right weight for the given exercise and perform each rep with as close to optimal technique as possible.
Yes, when you’re training hard and heavy, sometimes technique deteriorates. You can’t let the fear of imperfect technique stop you from pushing yourself. However, back exercises tend to get sloppy quicker than other movements.
That’s probably because the strength curve is reversed; when doing pressing/pushing movements like bench press and squats, the lift gets easier as you approach lockout/the end of the movement. With pulling movements like rows and pull-ups, the movement gets HARDER at the end, causing people to cheat or shave off range of motion.
If your back won’t grow, try reducing the weight on the bar and focusing on picture perfect technique. Opt for movements that reduce the chances for sloppy form, like chest-supported rows or seal rows.
2. You’re Not Deadlifting Heavy
“Do deadlifts go on leg day or back day?” This age-old question can show someones naiveté – because in-the-know lifters understand that EVERY day is back day. That is, all big lifts have a huge upper back component, especially deadlifts.
The upper back works isometrically during deadlifts, meaning the muscles aren’t changing length/going through a full range of motion. Isometrics don’t do much for hypertrophy in the short term, but if you do enough of them often enough for long enough, they’ll add plenty of thickness to your traps, lats and spinal erectors. Just take one look at the back of an elite powerlifter, weightlifter or strongman. All these lifters perform lots of deadlifts or deadlift variations in their training, leading to impressive back development.
If you’ve been avoiding heavy deadlifting for one reason or another, it may be time to start picking things up and putting them down. You don’t have to jump right into straight bar deadlifts from the floor. Block pulls, Romanian deadlifts and trap bar deadlifts are all great places to start and hold all the same benefits as the competition-style deadlift.
3. You’re Not Attacking from All Angles
The upper back is composed of many different muscles. Rhomboids, lats, rear delts, three different levels of traps… hell, even most of your rotator cuff muscles are visible from the back. If you’re not varying the angles and implements you’re using for your back exercises, you’re leaving gains on the table.
It’s easy to group upper back exercises into two main categories:
- Horizontal pulling (i.e., rows of all kinds)
- Vertical pulling (i.e., pull-ups and pulldowns of all kinds)
But within these categories, you can get creative and find endless variations and angles to mix up the stimulus. Just like you’d hit your chest with flat bench, incline bench, decline bench, flyes at various angles, push-ups with varying hand placements, etc. If your back won’t grow, apply that same attention to detail.
Here are just a few ways I like to attack the back from different angles.
Rows: Go Above and Below
It’s easy enough to find a rowing variation that works for you. But it’s also important to change the angle at which you row and where you bring your hands/upper arms at the finish position. This will slightly change the emphasis among the lats, rhomboids and traps. I love changing the angle within the same exercise by using rows to the chest (“above”) immediately followed by rows to the hips (“below”).
You can also row at a steep angle with face pull variations. Mix it up between cables and bands, using a variety of hand widths to hit the rhomboids, rear delts and traps.
Lats: Lengthened vs. Shortened
Lats most often get trained in the shortened position, when the lats are fully contracted and the arms are flush to the sides. Pull-ups and pulldowns of all kinds check this box.
However, if you want fully-developed lats, it’s a good idea to emphasize the lengthened (i.e., stretched) position too. Pullover variations are the key here. Most specifically, supine (i.e., lying face up) movements with the arms overhead.
That’s why PJR Pullovers are one of my favorite exercises in the world: you hit the lats AND the often-neglected long head of the triceps in the lengthened position. Add these to an upper body day to smoke your arms and your back simultaneously.
4. You’re Not Using Straps
Somewhere years ago I heard the phrase, “No straps, no traps.” I can’t remember who said it, but whoever did probably had impressive upper back development because they know that using wrist straps is the key to targeting your back without your grip or forearms failing first.
But aren’t straps cheating? You know who says that? People with small traps.
If you’re a competitive powerlifter who can’t use straps to deadlift in competition, you shouldn’t use straps all the time while deadlifting. But when you’re doing exercises that require you to hold the bar without putting it down for an extended period of time (rows, RDLs, shrugs, etc.), by all means use straps. Nobody has forearms or hands that are stronger than their back or hamstrings.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to use wrist straps.
5. You’re Ignoring Your Rear Delts
Lats and rhomboids get all the clout when it comes to upper back training. But the rear deltoids – the back third of your shoulders – can complete the look of a well-developed back while also supporting a big bench press.
Almost all rows and pull-ups/pulldowns hit the rear delts to a degree, but to target them directly, you’ll want to focus on a reverse flye motion with exercises like:
- Dumbbell reverse flyes
- Band pull-aparts
- Cable chest pulls
The rear delts are relatively small compared to other upper back muscles, so stay light and use crisp technique (see mistake #1). However, if you want to overload your rear delts, you can use heavy partial-ROM swings followed by full-ROM reverse flyes. A favorite of the late bodybuilding pioneer John Meadows, the hang-and-swing rear delt destroyer is a legendary upper back finisher:
With most upper back exercises, it’s important to let your shoulder blades move through a full range of motion: retraction during the concentric and protraction during the eccentric. However, to bias the rear delts instead of the rhomboids, try keeping your scaps pinched together the whole time and just moving your arms. You’ll feel a huge difference.
6. You Don’t Train Your Back Frequently Enough
Here’s that damn frequency thing again. As discussed in the first two posts, you should train a muscle group as often as it’s recovered. That’s less often for big muscle groups and more often for small muscle groups.
But isn’t the upper back a BIG muscle group? Yes and no. Because the back is composed of many muscles – some big, some small – you can train the upper back almost every training session as long as you shift the emphasis between bigger and smaller muscles.
Here’s a simple guide:
- Lats (big muscles): Twice a week with pull-ups/pulldowns and rows
- Erectors (big muscles): Twice a week with squats and deadlifts
- Traps (big muscles): Twice a week with deadlifts, shrugs, loaded carries
- Rhomboids (small muscles): 3-4 times a week with rows
- Rear delts (small muscles): 3-4 times a week with rows, reverse flyes, face/chest pulls
Because many of the upper back muscles are postural in nature (i.e., they maintain a static position while holding the bar/controlling the bar path in the squat, bench press and deadlift), they can stand up to a lot of volume. Train accordingly. If your back won’t grow, train it in some fashion every single workout.
Big Back Attack
Just like your legs and chest, adjust your training to avoid these mistakes if your back won’t grow.
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