How to Build a Massive Back

Eventually, all skinny people realize they need to build a massive back to unleash their physiques. The back doesn’t get as much immediate attention as the chest and biceps, but after you’ve started down your path for gains, it will be one of your favorite muscle groups to target for that truly beastly look.

Let’s dive in to why training your back matters, the muscle groups involved, and how to actually train your back for massive growth.

Back Muscles Matter… a lot

Building a massive back makes you look bigger

It’s easy to focus on the show off muscles, but hitting key major muscle groups will send you on the way to gains quickly. If you’re trying to build beastly arms, biceps alone won’t fill a sleeve. You have to really develop the triceps to get arms worthy of envy. In the same way, chest development will start to give you a thicker physique, but you need your back muscles to fill out your shirt, even if it’s a “smedium”. Building the muscles in the back will absolutely complete the look skinny people fighting for gains are looking for. If you need any motivation there, I suggest looking at pictures of any of your favorite fitness influencers.

Proportionality comes into play

Your back muscles are a major part of your torso. Your body will grow bigger and also stronger in a proportionate way. This means, by not developing all of the major muscles of your body, you can actually limit the mass potential of the muscles you want to target and develop. The muscle groups of your back also get recruited in a wide variety of lifts, including squats, deadlifts, and bench press. Having a strong back as foundation will lead to better performance on those critical lifts, which will turn into gains. By strengthening your back muscles and creating that balance your body needs, you’ll also help prevent injuries.

Focus on the major muscles of your back

The back is made up of a ton of different muscles of varying form and function. Some are large and assist you in pulling, pushing, bending, or twisting. Others are small and help to stabilize you. The two muscles you will target are the trapezius, also known as traps, and the latissimus dorsi, also known as lats. These two muscles make up the vast majority of your back, giving you added width and thickness. The moves you do to train them will also recruit other muscles of your back. Again, by hitting key major muscle groups, as a skinny person you’ll maximize the output for your effort. Growing those large muscles will make a notable difference in your mass gains.

Exercises

Here’s my blueprint for how I targeted those major muscles.

There are many options to train for a massive back

Although I don’t recommend switching up your routine constantly (Training for Massive Gains: Really Powerful Tips), it is helpful to know that you have quite a variety to choose from. Not every skinny person looking to build a massive back has access to the same gyms or equipment, and some people may have conditions or injuries to work around.

Think about the row. There are so many ways to switch up this pulling exercise to fit your needs. There’s a rowing machine, which is an under appreciated equipment, but I wouldn’t recommend it for skinny people. It adds too much aerobic exercise and consumes calories you need to grow. You could also do barbell or dumbbell rows. There’s an option to do Lat pulldowns with a cable machine, or use handles attached to the cables and do single arm cable rows.

My recommendation, and the exercises that helped me the most when incorporated into a German Volume Training routine were the bent over barbell row with overhand grip and chin ups. The barbell row is the primary exercise that I use for the 10×10 portion, while chin ups are added in as an additional way to target back and biceps together during that split.

Performing the row to build a massive back

The most important elements are proper form with high volume and intensity. Don’t worry about the weight on the bar. The amount of weight you use will increase over time. First, get the fundamentals of the training right. For this, you are still following the German Volume Training program highlighted in my post, Gain Mass Quickly with Basics that Actually Empower You.

Here are some specific tips and cues that will help you ensure you perform the row correctly and in a way that sets you up for maximum gains.

• Point your toes straight forward. If you can’t keep your feet in this position while maintaining your balance, it’s ok to allow your toes to point slightly outward.
• Position your feet shoulder width apart. This will give you a strong and stable base. I like to imagine there is an imaginary line from the shoulder joints to the floor beneath them. I position my feet so the space between the big toe and second toe are on that line.
• Hold the bar at about shoulder width. So, I am to have the inside grip of my hand, where my thumb and pointer finger wrap around the bar, align to the imaginary shoulder joint line.
• Get your torso parallel to the ground. Many people can’t do this and maintain stability. Do your best to bend your torso as close to parallel as possible. Eventually, you’ll be able to bend more confidently. You just don’t want to stand straight up, because then you are basically doing a shrug.
• Focus on using your back muscles and bring your elbows as far behind your body as possible. Don’t allow your arms to do the row. Make your shoulder blades move forward and retract.
• Drop the weight and your ego. Use an empty bar or even light dumbbells to practice the row without weight first. That mind-muscle connection is hard to develop when the weight is heavy to start.

Pull-ups are great way to build your back with bodyweight

Overhand pull-ups are a fantastic way to build your back muscles. The underhand form, also known as chin-ups, add some emphasis to the biceps instead of the back muscles. What is great about this exercise is that you can modify it to fit your personal level of fitness, while relying mostly on bodyweight. For example, in the gym you can use an assisted machine to lighten the load, you can do your own bodyweight, or you can add plates to make it heavier. At home, you can use a bar that hangs over doorways to do pull-ups. In these cases, I’ve used one or two feet on the ground to control how much weight I’m lifting during the pull-up. In general, I’d suggest that it’s better to practice with your body weight and accomplish fewer reps than to try a lower weight to bang out more reps. Eventually, your body will adjust and grow so that you can accomplish more pull-ups with your body weight.

The best advice I’ve ever received about the pull-up was to focus first on getting your shoulder blades into position. Before each pull, you want to retract your shoulder blades to prevent the exercise from relying on your arms. In fact, first practice getting that right while hanging from the bar. I’ve had sessions where I start by just hanging on the bar and retracting my shoulder blades to get the habit and form right. Doing that before each workout will help you crank out more pull-ups as you build the mind-muscle connection and warm up your muscles.

By folding in bent over barbell rows and overhand pull-ups into your German Volume Training, you’ll be able to build a massive back in no time at all.

Thoughts or questions? Let me know in the comments!