Best Dumbbell Exercises for Back — Top 9
Dumbbell training is fixing muscle imbalances with unilateral training. Here are the best dumbbell exercises for targeting your back, ranked by effectiveness. Dumbbells offer unilateral loading, greater range of motion, and more freedom of movement than barbells.
Ranked by back muscle activation percentage, range of motion quality with dumbbell, and progressive overload potential.
The single-arm dumbbell row is a unilateral back exercise that builds thickness and fixes side-to-side imbalances. Support yourself with one hand on a bench and row the dumbbell to your hip.
Key Form Cue
Place one knee and hand on a bench with your back flat and parallel to the floor.
Chest-supported rows remove all momentum by pressing your chest against an incline bench. This isolates the back muscles and prevents the lower back fatigue that limits standard rows.
Key Form Cue
Set an incline bench to 30-45 degrees and lie face down against it.
The Helms row is a chest-supported incline dumbbell row that removes all lower-back stress and momentum cheating. Lie face down on an incline bench and row two dumbbells simultaneously.
Key Form Cue
Set an incline bench to 30-45 degrees and lie face down with your chin over the top edge.
The dumbbell pullover stretches the lats through a long range of motion while also engaging the chest and serratus. Lie perpendicular on a bench and arc a dumbbell from above your chest to behind your head.
Key Form Cue
Lie with only your upper back on the bench, hips slightly below bench height.
The dumbbell pullover works both the chest and lats in a single movement. Lie perpendicular across a bench and lower a dumbbell behind your head in a wide arc.
Key Form Cue
Lie across a bench with only your upper back supported, hips below bench level.
The dumbbell Romanian deadlift uses dumbbells for a greater range of motion and more natural hand position than the barbell version. Hinge at the hips with a slight knee bend, feeling a deep stretch in the hamstrings before driving your hips forward to stand.
Key Form Cue
Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs with a neutral grip and pull your shoulders back.
The Romanian deadlift is the best hamstring exercise and a foundational hip-hinge movement. It loads the hamstrings through a deep stretch while building the entire posterior chain.
Key Form Cue
Stand with feet hip-width, holding the barbell with an overhand grip just outside your thighs.
Reverse flies target the posterior deltoids and rhomboids. Hinge forward at the hips, hold dumbbells beneath you, and raise them out to the sides in a reverse hugging motion.
Key Form Cue
Hinge forward at the hips until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor.
The dumbbell side bend isolates the obliques through lateral flexion of the spine. Hold a dumbbell in one hand, stand tall, and bend sideways toward the weighted side before contracting back to upright.
Key Form Cue
Hold a dumbbell in one hand and place the opposite hand behind your head.
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