5 Best Machines for Back Exercises

There are several machines for back exercises, with most of them providing some common benefits.

You need to use a machine that allows you to work on every part of the back muscles for proper growth and development of the muscle group. Therefore, you do not need to use every machine available in the gym or fitness establishment to work on your lats.

The lat muscles have three parts - upper, middle, and back. Ideally, the machine you incorporate into your workout routine should allow you to target all three parts. Of course, there are free weight exercises that can help you with the same, but machines provide variations and enable you to add more resistance to the exercises.

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Best Machines for Back Exercises

Here are five best machines for back exercises that can help you attain proper growth and development across all three parts of the lat muscles:

1) Assisted Pull-up Machine

Usually, pull-ups are reserved for warm-ups and cool-downs, but they're mostly done using pull-up bars and adding resistance bands to the bar. However, some fitness establishments have an assisted pull-up machine.

The assisted pull-up machine is one of the best machines for back exercises that allows you to use weights to help you when you pull your body against gravity. The lower the weight, the less assistance you receive. Assisted pull-up machines are a great way to measure your strength. You’ll be able to understand that your strength increases as you lower the weight for assistance.

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2) Lat Pulldown

It's one of the most common machines for back exercises, and there's rarely a fitness establishment that doesn’t have this machine.

You can do lat pulldowns (wide grip and small grip) with this machine. You can do behind-the-neck pulldowns as well, which helps with the upper back and rear delts.

When you begin using this machine, use a lower weight so that you can understand the form. It’s easy to lean far back and pull a heavier weight. However, you need to lean back slightly, keeping a straight back and engaging the lats.

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3) T-bar Row

The T-bar row provides excellent compound movement for the back muscles. You can do this exercise with just a barbell, adjusting one end of the barbell in a corner or in the landmine press setup.

However, the machine allows you to stand on an elevated platform and makes racking and unracking weights much easier. You can use a wide grip and a close grip for this exercise as well, and work on all three parts of your lat muscles.

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4) Chest Supported Row Machine

This is one of the most effective machines for back exercises that isn't found in all fitness establishments, as variations such as dumbbell rows, cable rows, seated rows, and others are available.

However, if you have access to a chest-supported rowing machine, you should incorporate it into your workout routine. For chest-supported rows, adjust the seat to such a level where your feet are firmly on the ground. This firmness will allow you to pull a heavier weight than if only your toes were on the ground.

This is a great burnout exercise to activate all the muscles and give a great pump to the overall muscle group.

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5) Reverse Pec Dec

An important part of the lat muscle is the rear delt. Even though it falls under the shoulder muscles, back exercises work on delts. The reverse pec dec is done on a pec dec machine. Press your chest against the backrest and adjust the bars behind it.

When you push the bars to your side, ensure that you’re engaging your upper back and rear delts. This will help activate the smaller muscles in the muscle group.

Bottom Line

Machines for back exercises help with providing variation and increased resistance to your workout routine. If you don’t want to add machines as a beginner, you should consider free weights.

You must keep yourself hydrated whenever you’re focusing on resistance training and cardio, even if you don’t feel thirsty. It’s important to constantly hydrate your muscles to ensure that you do not reach a point of extreme fatigue.