5 Best Back Exercises with Dumbbells at Home

Back Exercises with Dumbbells at Home – 5 Great Exercises You need to Know About

You don’t need to head out to the gym to get a thorough workout, nor do you need to buy a bunch of expensive equipment for your home gym.  If you’re looking to strengthen your back, traps and shoulders, all you really need is a good set of dumbbells, a lifting bench and a few solid exercises.  Here are five of my favorite exercises that I really try to include in my back workouts with dumbbells at home to really keep my back in prime condition.

What's covered.

• 1   Kneeling One-Arm Dumbbell Row
• 2 Dumbbell Back Fly
• 3 Dumbbell Dead Lifts
• 4 Dumbbell Pullovers
• 5 Upright Dumbbell Rows

  Kneeling One-Arm Dumbbell Row

 A kneeling row really helps work out your lats and middle back, with some secondary bonus effects for your biceps, traps and shoulders. Hint – for this exercise you will need heavier set of dumbbells or adjustable dumbbells.

1. Put your knee and hand on a bench, and grab a dumbbell with your other hand, keeping your palm facing you. You’re looking for a weight that you can lift about 10 times without stopping.

2. Then, keeping your back straight and your stomach parallel to the bench, bring the dumbbell straight up to your chest, bending only the elbow and lifting with your back, not your arms.

3. Lower the dumbbell back to the floor, and repeat for your desired number of repetitions.

Dumbbell Back Fly

A back fly will also focus its efforts on your middle back, as well as helping you strengthen your traps and shoulders.  There are multiple ways to perform the back fly, but the best is to lie down on your chest on your workout bench, with a dumbbell on either side.

1. Grab dumbbells with your elbows at 90 degree angles.

2. Then, straighten your arms parallel to the ground, bending at the elbow, raising the dumbbells as you go.

3. Hold it for a moment, and then return to your initial position.

You can also perform a reverse fly standing up; it’s roughly the same motion, only instead of lying on a bench, you instead bend at the waist and lift the weight that way.

Dumbbell Dead Lifts

Dumbbell dead lifts are great for working out your hamstring and glutes, but they can also help provide support to your lower back.

1. Grab your dumbbells, and stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart.

2. Slowly, keeping your back straight, lower the dumbbells to the floor in front of your body, bending your legs and flexing your knees and hips.

3. Then, return to a standing position, and repeat.

Make sure to keep your back straight while performing dead lifts, or else you could seriously wrench your back out of alignment. Form is very important when performing these lifts.

Although they’re very simple to perform, people really often have problems performing deadlifts the correct way. I remember this video helped me alot when I just started doing deadlifts. It shows how to do deadlifts with a barbell, but overall the idea remains the same + these guys are funny as hell and they make awesome training videos.

Dumbbell Pullovers

Dumbbell pullovers are great for working out your lats, as well as your chest, shoulders and triceps.

1. Lay sideways on your bench, so that only your upper back is on the bench.

2. Brace yourself with your feet, so you’re at roughly a 90 degree angle to the ground, bending at the knees.

3.Take your dumbbell in both hands, and hold it over your chest, with your arms straight.

4.Keeping your arms straight, bring the dumbbell back behind your head as far as you feel comfortable.  Return it to its original position over your chest to complete one repetition.

Upright Dumbbell Rows

There are a number of ways to do simple rows; the upright method will work your upper back, shoulders and traps the most.  Stand upright, with your feet shoulder-length apart.

1. Grab a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing downward and with your hands closer than shoulder-length apart.

2. Start with your dumbbells touching your upper legs, with your elbows slightly bent, and then raise the dumbbells straight up to your chest.

3. Hold for a moment, and then reverse your motion and return to the starting position

So there you have –  some of my favorite dumbbell back exercises. If you have some specific back exercises that you really like doing, I’d  love to hear about them. Also be sure to check out my newest article on best dumbbell workout programs, where I talk about p90x and a few more.

About the AuthorDumbbellsgeek

Hey! My name is Paul Sheldon. I live in Nashville, TN and I love all things related to sports. Naturally I love workking out and I do it every day. If you want to talk feel freee to hit me a message or if you happen to be in Nashville we can get a coffee, I know a great place. Peace!