Essential Back Exercises For Women: Beginner Top Tips 

Back day is just as important as leg and chest day… trust us! This muscle group is often the most neglected by women and it's one of the most important parts of your body as it helps you to lift heavy items including your supermarket bags, your kids and weights in the gym. 

Plus, did you know that women have a host of back and spinal related issues? These include lower back pains, spinal osteoarthritis and much more, and the risks get higher as women age, particularly when they hit their post-menopausal age. 

So, it is incredibly important for women to incorporate back day into their weekly workouts. Training back will improve your overall strength, support your spine and keep your muscles in top tip condition as you age.

We welcome fitness goers at all levels, beginners to advanced gym bunnies, our local gyms across the UK have state-of-the-art equipment and personal trainers ready to help you along the way.

Benefits of A Strong Back For Women 

Before we go through our back day exercise plan, let’s highlight the benefits of prioritising back workouts. It’s simple, your back muscles are involved in almost every moment you make day-to-day. From sitting up in bed, to standing up and pulling a chair from the table, your back muscles help you move pain free everyday. Let’s read about a few more benefits: 

• Spinal strength, especially for women, the lumbar spine is designed to support the uterus during pregnancy so strengthening these muscles can help hold the spine straight and upright to keep you limber and flexible. 

• Improved posture from stronger back muscles, meaning you’ll be standing upright more easily as your muscles will be more engaged in maintaining a straighter posture. 

• Increased core strength as your back and core will be better connected by working together to support and move your body. 

• Better stability because a stronger back and core will boost your balance and help minimise the risk of back pain. 

Let’s hit those back muscles now!

5 Best Back Exercises For Women

1. Conventional Deadlifts

2. Bent Over Row 

3. Lateral pull down 

4. Seated Row 

5. Pull Ups 

Conventional Deadlifts 

Deadlifts are compound exercises and every workout should include compound movements to target groups of muscles at the same time. This exercise will not only give you a toned back, it will boost your core as well as your lower back strength. This does require weighted equipment, usually a barbell, but dumbbells or kettlebells will suffice. 

How to do conventional deadlifts: 

1. Set up your barbell with appropriate weight, stand hip width with your shoelaces directly under the bar.

2. Then push your hips back and bend your knees, the bar should be just outside of hip width, beside your shines, with your palms facing downwards for grip. 

3. Now, keep your feet planted, your grip strong on the barbell and bring your hips down to sit back into the deadlift and pin your shoulder blades back. 

4. Next you need to sit back into the deadlift, your hips higher than your knees but lower than your shoulder. Lift your chest up, pull your shoulder blades together (for the entirety of the lift).

5. You’re ready to deadlift! Keep the barbell as close to your legs as possible and take a big breath, push your stomach outwards to activate your core. Drive down through your feet and push the ground away from you until the bar lifts. 

6. As the bar rises, push your hips forward and squeeze your glutes and hamstrings until you reach full lock out of hips and are standing tall. 

7. To go back down, maintain your neutral spine with your shoulders pinned back before pushing your hips back and hinging until the barbell passes your knees. 

8. From this position, bend the knees and sink your hips so the barbell is back on the floor. Reset your position and start your second repetition. 

We would recommend completing 10 reps for 3 sets. Remember to take a 60 second rest inbetween sets, or longer if you’re increasing the weight.

Bent Over Row 

An excellent addition to your back workout, bent-over rows are another compound exercise that will hit your lats and rhomboids (back muscles), whilst strengthening your shoulders, forearms, core and lower body - what a result! 

How to do bent-over rows: 

1. Load the barbell with the appropriate weight, if you’re a beginner, perhaps use the barbell itself without adding weight until you’ve got the form perfected. 

2. Stand your feet shoulder width apart and bend your knees.

3. Lean forward to bend over the barbell and grip the barbell with your palms facing down and shoulder width apart. 

4. Ensure your legs are not locked, your chest is lifted and your back is straight. 

5. Engage your core and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull (“row”) the barbell towards you until it touches your lower chest, driving your elbows back. 

6. Ease back down to the starting position before repeating. 

For beginners, we would recommend completing 3 sets of 10 reps. If you’re looking to up the weight, you can reduce the number of repetitions to 6-8 when progressing.

Lateral Pull Down

A must have in your back day as you’ll target your lats and help boost your upper body strength. Plus, lateral pull downs will help aid you into your first unassisted pull up - if you stay consistent!

For this exercise, you’ll need access to a lat pulldown machine at the gym. How to do lateral pull downs: 

1. Sit facing the machine, adjust the pads that sit above your thighs to ensure they fit your height and weight. 

2. Position your hands shoulder width apart on the straight bar above your head with an overhand grip - you may need to stand up to pull the bar to your arms reach. 

3. Engage your core, squeeze your lat muscles and pull the bar down towards the top of your chest, driving your elbows down.

4. Hold that position for a couple of seconds before slowly easing yourself back to the starting position. 

5. Now, repeat. 

Now for a toned back, you will have to complete around 3 sets of 10 reps. As you start to progress and perfect your form, slowly increase the weight to challenge your abilities.

Seated Row 

Another great exercise that pushes your back and upper arm muscles. This can be performed on a seated row machine, cable row machine or by pulling a resistance band. This exercise targets an array of muscles including your latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, trapezius and biceps. 

How to do seated rows:

1. Sit upright on the row machine and press your feet on the foot pad flat with your legs slightly bent, hip width apart. 

2. Grip the handle or cable and move your shoulders back and down, with your chest held high and core engaged.  

3. Pull the handle or cable towards you, just below your belly button by bending your elbows. 

4. Pause in this position and slowly ease yourself back into the starting position. Repeat!

Top Tips: Keep those elbows tucked in and your back neutral at all times.

Pull Ups 

This is a classic bodyweight exercise that targets your back, shoulders, forearms, chest and abs - yes a full body number! And yes, they are a challenging exercise that requires a lot of upper body and back strength and it’s been proven that women find these harder than men because they have less muscle mass in their upper extremities. But anything is possible with persistence and a positive attitude!

How to do a pull up: 

1. Stand directly under the pull-up bar and place your hands in an overhand grip, slightly further apart than shoulder width. 

2. Lift your feet from the floor so you’re hanging from the bar, engage your core and pull your belly in towards your spine. 

3. Pull your shoulders back and down, as if you need to hold a pen between your shoulder blades. 

4. Now pull up - engage your arms and back together, bend your elbows and raise your upper body towards the bar with your chin over the bar. Hold! 

5. Then, extend your elbows and lower your body back down to the starting position. 

If this is too difficult to perform, don’t worry, use our assisted pull up machine which has knee pads to support your bodyweight and help you master the pull up form. For sets and reps, we’d recommend two sets of 8-10 reps.

Work Your Back With Village Gym 

It’s time to step up your workout game and find your nearest Village Gym where you’ll find cutting-edge equipment to aid your fitness journey. When you join our gyms you can look forward to a welcoming atmosphere, friendly personal trainers who are itching to help you and tailor a plan to suit your needs and goals. Plus, we offer an array of classes to support your journey, add variety to your fitness regime and push your fitness limits. If you’d like to read more about back exercises to add to your full body days or switch up your back day, click here. We’ve also heard if you are worried about back aches and pains, pilates is perfect for remedying and supporting your back. 

If you’re unsure, book a tour with your local Village Gym and see what all the fuss is about and let us take care of you. 

FAQs About Female Back Exercises 

What are the best back exercises for women? 

The best back movements for women include row movements (barbell rows), pull movements (lateral pull downs, seated rows and pull ups) and hyperextension movements. We’ve discussed a variety of these movements above in more detail. 

How do I tone my back?

To tone your back, you need to be consistent with your exercises and ensure you never skip back day. Also, as you start to perfect your form, you need to progressively increase the weights when performing each exercise to ensure you are targeting the muscles effectively. 

What is the number 1 exercise for lower back pain? 

Walking is key because it is a low intensity exercise that does not aggravate the muscles and tendons of your lower back. When at the gym, ensure you warm up or cool down with 5-10 minutes of walking gently on the treadmill to stretch out your back and ease your joints.