Best Bodyweight Exercises for Back — Top 9
Bodyweight training is training anywhere with no equipment. Here are the best bodyweight exercises for targeting your back, ranked by effectiveness. Bodyweight training builds relative strength, body control, and joint resilience with zero equipment.
Ranked by back muscle activation percentage, range of motion quality with bodyweight, and progressive overload potential.
The pull-up is the king of upper-back exercises. Hang from a bar with an overhand grip and pull your chin above the bar using your lats and biceps. Mastering pull-ups is a milestone in any training journey.
Key Form Cue
Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width with palms facing away.
The chin-up uses a supinated (underhand) grip that increases bicep involvement while still hammering the lats. Many lifters find chin-ups easier than pull-ups, making them a great stepping stone.
Key Form Cue
Grip the bar at shoulder-width with palms facing you.
The inverted row is a bodyweight horizontal pull that builds back and grip strength using just a bar at waist height. It scales easily from beginner to advanced by adjusting your foot position.
Key Form Cue
Set a bar at waist height, hang underneath it with arms extended and body straight.
The scapular pull-up is a small but critical movement that strengthens the lower traps and scapular depressors. Hang from a bar and pull your shoulder blades down without bending the elbows.
Key Form Cue
Hang from a pull-up bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip and arms fully straight.
The bodyweight chin-up curl modifies the chin-up to emphasize the biceps by keeping the body very close to the bar and focusing on elbow flexion over shoulder extension. It builds serious biceps strength with bodyweight alone.
Key Form Cue
Grab a pull-up bar with a narrow supinated (chin-up) grip, hands six inches apart.
The prone Y-T-W raise is a bodyweight sequence that targets the lower traps, mid-traps, and rotator cuff in three arm positions. Lie face down and raise your arms into Y, T, and W shapes.
Key Form Cue
Lie face down on the floor or a bench with arms extended overhead.
The ab wheel rollout is an advanced anti-extension exercise that produces extreme abdominal activation. It challenges your core to resist spinal extension as you roll the wheel forward.
Key Form Cue
Kneel on a mat with the ab wheel on the floor in front of you.
The towel hang drapes a towel over a pull-up bar and hangs from the towel ends, forcing the fingers and forearms to work much harder than a standard dead hang. It is one of the best grip builders available.
Key Form Cue
Drape a thick towel over a pull-up bar so both ends hang down evenly.
Dead hangs build crushing grip endurance while decompressing the spine. Simply hang from a pull-up bar with arms fully extended for as long as possible.
Key Form Cue
Grip a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, shoulder-width apart.
Put these exercises into a real program
Revy's AI combines the best exercises for your goals into a personalized training program with progressive overload built in.