15 Best simple Ways Exercises to Strengthen Your Back At Home

Back pain can make it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. It can also prevent you from playing with your kids.

The good news is that back-strengthening exercises can reduce back pain and prevent future injuries. Strong back muscles provide essential support for your spine, improving posture and stability.

In this post, we’ll tell you the top 15 exercises from physical therapists and fitness experts to strengthen your back.

These exercises can be done at home with little equipment, so you can easily add them to your weekly workout routine. They target all the major muscle groups, including the lower back, middle back, and upper back.

With consistency, you’ll stand taller, feel less pain, and have more freedom to do activities you love.

Let’s get started!

Here, we will discuss some of the easier and simplest back workouts you can try to strengthen and have flexibility in your back.

1. Strength-Based Workout

A strong back is important for everyone, not just fitness enthusiasts. It helps you do daily tasks without feeling pain or tired.

Strength workouts work on the muscles that support the spine to make you stronger and more able to deal with any physical challenge.

You not only become stronger, but also have better mobility and capacity to manage loads like groceries, children, or furniture. It leads to better posture, less pain, and more confidence to live an active lifestyle.

These workouts include exercises like deadlifts, pull-ups, and rowing.

2. Flexibility-Based Workout

To maintain a healthy back, flexibility holds equal importance to strength. Flexibility training extends beyond basic stretching to enhance the range of motion and prime muscles for movement. These workouts boost spinal flexibility and overall mobility.

Best Exercises to Strengthen Your Lower Back

1. Dead Bug

The dead bug exercise is popular for building core strength and stabilization. It helps build a solid, stable foundation that protects the spine and allows for greater ease in everyday athletic movements, such as moving heavy objects, walking up hills, and throwing.

This move also helps prevent and relieve back pain by protecting your lower back.

How To Do

1. Lie face up with your arms extended toward the ceiling and your legs in a tabletop position.
2. Slowly extend your right leg out straight, and simultaneously your left arm overhead.
3. Keep your butt squeezed and your lower back pressed into the floor.
4. Bring your arm and leg back to the starting position.
5. Repeat on the other side, extending your left leg and your right arm.

2. Good Morning

The Good Morning exercise is a beginner-friendly move that strengthens your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back while improving posture.

The erector spinae muscles of the lower back work isometrically to keep the spine in an extended position, while the hamstrings and gluteus maximus work isotonically to perform hip extension.

How To Do

• Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and a slight bend in the knees. Place your hands behind your head, such as when doing a sit-up or hold a stick on your back.
• Keep your knees slightly flexed and your back and neck neutral.
• Slowly bend forward at the hip, sending your hips back as if you were closing a door with your butt. Keep the spine straight during this movement.
• Keep bending forward until your upper body is almost parallel to the floor. Engage your core to help stabilize the movement.

• Hold for a brief period, then return to the starting position.

3. Plank

The plank is a brilliant bodyweight exercise that helps you develop your core’s strength and stability. Your muscles are exercised isometrically.

A study highlighted that high-intensity plank exercises significantly improved various physical fitness parameters such as muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiopulmonary fitness over a four-week period.

The most common plank is the forearm plank, which is held in a push-up-like position, with the body’s weight borne on forearms, elbows, and toes.

How To Do Plank

1. You need to start by laying on your time and then get into the push-up position.
2. Once you reach that phase, you have to hold this pose while making sure your back is straight and you are keeping your abs tight.
3. Hold this position for a set amount of time.
4. Then do 3-4 more sets.

4. Exercises for Upper Back Strength

Pull-ups are a highly effective upper-body exercise that primarily targets the muscles of the back, shoulders, and arms. They are widely recognized for their role in building strength and improving overall fitness.

Beginners often find pull-ups challenging, but consistent practice can yield impressive results. Start with assisted pull-ups using bands or machines, progressing to unassisted reps as you build strength.

A 2019 study highlights the pull-up’s effectiveness in improving functional upper-body strength.

How To Do

• Grab a pull-up bar with your hands positioned shoulder-width apart and use an overhand grip.
• Hang from the bar with your arms fully extended.
• Pull yourself up by squeezing your shoulder blades together and contracting your lat muscles.

• Hold the contraction at the top for a second before slowly lowering yourself back to the starting position.

5. Bridge Pose

This workout is a great starting point for beginners looking to strengthen their back, glutes, and core. It’s simple to do and highly effective.

As a fitness trainer, I’ve seen this exercise help many beginners improve their posture and ease lower back discomfort. It’s an excellent move for targeting the butt, hamstrings, and lower back while building core stability.

How To Do

• Lie face up on the floor, with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground.
• Keep your arms at your side with your palms down.
• Lift your hips off the ground until your knees, hips, and shoulders form a straight line.
• Squeeze those glutes hard and keep your abs drawn in, so you don’t overextend your back during the exercise.

• Hold your bridged position for a couple of seconds before keeping back down.

6. Bird Dog

The bird dog may not seem like a common exercise, but make no mistake, it’s actually an effective and often used movement to develop stability, strengthen the core, improve shoulder mobility, and more.

A 2016 issue of Rehabilitation Research and Practice examined four classic rehabilitation exercises, including bird dogs. Compared to the other three moves in the study, the bird dog made muscles less tired but still helped strengthen the abdominal and back muscles.

How To Do

• Get on your knees and place your hands on the floor in front of your body at shoulder width.
• Keep your spine in a neutral position and contract your abs and lift one hand and the opposite knee slightly off the floor.
• Now extend your arm and leg all the way out. Try to form a straight plane from your hand to your foot.

• Hold this position for about 10 seconds and then return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise with the other side. Repeat the exercise alternately.

7. Renegade Row

The renegade row is a full-body exercise that targets the primary muscle groups of the lats, shoulders, and core while also engaging the triceps, biceps, and legs.

It is a variation of the traditional plank exercise that adds resistance by incorporating a rowing movement with dumbbells.

You can increase the intensity of this exercise by trying renegade row push up.

How To Do

• Take a plank position with a pair of dumbbells placed on the floor underneath your shoulders.
• Engage your core and maintain a neutral spine.
• Start the exercise by lifting one dumbbell up to your chest.
• Keep your elbow close to your body.
• Lower the dumbbell back down to the starting position.

• Perform the row with your other arm, this completes one repetition.

8. Knee to Chest

This is another simple yet effective workout. Knee-to-chest stretches can help elongate the lower back muscles, relieving tension and pain.

I find this exercise great for easing tightness in my lower back, especially after long periods of sitting. It’s also very beginner-friendly and can be done anywhere.

If you experience any discomfort, always listen to your body and modify the stretch accordingly.

• First, lie down flat on your back. Make sure your body is straight and your arms are at your sides comfortably.
• Now, let’s start with your right leg. Bend your right knee and bring it towards your chest. Use your hands to help guide it closer gently. Don’t force it; go as far as feels comfortable.
• Hold this position momentarily and feel a stretch in your lower back and hip.
• Then, slowly and carefully, return your right leg to the starting position, lying flat on the ground.
• Now, repeat the same steps with your left leg. Bend your left knee, bring it towards your chest using your hands, hold it briefly, and then return it to the ground.

• That’s one rep! You can alternate legs like this for the desired number of repetitions. Remember to breathe normally throughout the exercise.

9. Dumbbell Deadlift

The dumbbell deadlift is particularly effective for hypertrophy, or muscle growth, due to the high-stress and mechanical tension it places on the muscles involved.

If you have back pain, be cautious with the dumbbell deadlift. Incorrect form, such as rounding your back or overextending, can worsen pain or lead to injury. Start with light weights and consider using a mirror or trainer to check your posture.

• Place a dumbbell in front of you. Grab the dumbbells with each of your hands.
• Remember to keep your back straight as possible and contract your back and hamstrings.
• Raise the dumbbell from the ground using your hamstrings and glutes.
• You should keep your legs slightly bent, your back straight, and your head looking up.
• Raise it to the point where your body is erect. Do not hyperextend your body as the weight shifts to the lumbar spine.
• Hold the dumbbell for a moment at the top of the lift.

• Now, lower the dumbbell slowly at a steady pace by bending at the hips first and then at the knees, and let the weight almost touch the ground for a moment before you begin the next rep.

10. Resistance Band Pull Apart

The resistance band pull-apart is a simple yet powerful exercise to strengthen your upper back, shoulders, and improve posture. It’s work your rhomboids, rear delts, and traps.

A study investigates how different hand positions (palm up, neutral, palm down) and movement directions (diagonal up, horizontal, diagonal down) during resistance band pull-apart exercises affect the activity of shoulder muscles.

• Palm Up: Increased activity in the infraspinatus and lower trapezius.
• Palm Down: Increased activity in the upper trapezius and posterior deltoid.
• Diagonal Up: Generally resulted in higher activity for upper, middle, and lower trapezius muscles compared to horizontal or diagonal down directions.

• How To Do

1. Stand tall, with your feet about as wide as your shoulders.
2. Hold the exercise band in front of you, like you’re about to give someone a hug, but a little than your shoulders.
3. Now, squeeze your shoulder blades together as if you’re trying to touch them. At the same time, open your arms out to the sides, pulling the band apart.
4. Slowly bring your arms together and keep the tension in the band.

11. Cat-Cow

The cat-cow exercise is a spinal mobilization exercise that helps people “loosen” their spine. It improves movement of your lower back.

The Cat-Cow stretch is a gentle flow between two poses that warms the body and improves spine flexibility. It stretches the back and neck and softly stimulates and strengthens the abdominal organs.

How To Do

• Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
• As you inhale, arch your back and lift your head and tailbone towards the ceiling.
• As you exhale, round your back and tuck your chin towards your chest.

• Continue alternating between the cat and cow positions for 10–15 repetitions.

12. Lying Bent-Knee Twist

The Lying Bent-Knee twist is a bodyweight exercise that strengthens the obliques and back muscles.

This exercise can act as a stretch, but the main purpose is to stabilize your core and strengthen your obliques. In everyday life, your posture will benefit from this antidote to sitting and hunching overwork.

How To Do

• Lie on your back on the floor or mat with arms extended to the sides to keep your body stable during the exercise.
• Raise and bent legs at a 90-degree angle, so thighs are vertical and lower legs are horizontal.
• Next, slowly lower both bent knees to one side, towards the floor. Keep your shoulders flat on the ground. You should feel a stretch in your lower back and obliques. Don’t force it; just go as far as it feels comfortable.
• Hold this position for a moment.
• Then, slowly and carefully, return your knees to the starting position, pointing straight up.

• Repeat the same steps and lower your bent knees to the other side.