Your back is involved in every movement you make. Reaching overhead, rotating your torso, bracing when you pick something heavy off the floor. The muscles from your neck to your lower back work together constantly, and most of us undertrain them.
Pull-ups and rows get all the credit for back work, and they deserve it. But they’re vertical and horizontal pulling patterns, and your back does a lot more than pull. It stabilizes, it rotates, it extends, it retracts and protracts your shoulder blades through ranges that a pull-up never touches.
The five exercises below train all of that. They work your back through multiple planes of motion, emphasizing the end-range positions where most people are weakest. You don’t need a bar, rings, or any equipment. Just floor space.
And if you’re someone who does pull-ups regularly, these aren’t substitutes. They fill the gaps your pulling work leaves behind.
🎙️ If you prefer, listen to the podcast on this topic here.
Why Floor-Based Back Training Works
Sure, you can rig up makeshift pulling stations with door frames and towels. Those work fine if you have the setup for it. But the exercises here aren’t workarounds. They’re legitimate back training that targets actions your pulling exercises miss.
When you push into the ground from different positions, you’re loading your shoulder blades through elevation, depression, retraction, and protraction. Those four actions are the foundation of scapular health, and they directly improve your ability to produce force when you do pull, lift, or reach overhead.
That’s the reason these exercises can feel surprisingly hard even if you’re strong. You’re working ranges you’ve probably been neglecting.
There’s More to the Back Than “Pulling”
From the base of your neck down into your low back, your spine is involved in basically every movement you do, from the simplest daily chores to the most involved athletic endeavor.
There’s so much to it, and you can see our detailed post about the spine here, but let’s focus on the upper and mid back, which is what most people think about when talking about back strength.
Stability — the ability to hold proper positioning both statically and while the rest of your body is working — is a major attribute of functional back strength. Improving it means better alignment for producing power in every movement, whether that’s a deadlift, a sport, or just carrying groceries up stairs.
The following exercises achieve this through back and shoulder strengthening in their end-ranges of motion. Those last few degrees of available movement in your shoulders and arms are often neglected by other exercises, which is why these will likely be surprisingly difficult the first time you try them.
They’re also holistic in the real sense. Using your whole body to do them correctly means your whole body gets benefit. These aren’t simply easier versions of pulls — they’re distinctly difficult movements that train the same stability and strength from different angles.
5 Bodyweight Back Exercises to do at Home
- 1. Prone Swimmers
- 2. Hollow Body Shrugs
- 3. Butterfly Shrugs
- 4. Bear Walk
- 5. L-Sit Shrugs
We’ll explain each of these in the video below, along with detailed instructions.
Bodyweight Back Workout with No Equipment
| Bodyweight Back Exercises | |
|---|---|
| #1 - Prone Swimmers | • Lying on stomach • Arms overhead, circle down to your sides and rotate palms up • Squeeze shoulder blades together and lift hands as they move to your hips • Slide fingers on ground as you circle back up to overhead |
| #2 - Hollow Body Shrugs | • Start first on hands and knees, then progress to plank position • Round out your back, spread your shoulder blades, push hard into the ground |
| #3 - Butterfly Shrugs | • Lie on back, hands out to your sides, pull elbows back behind you • Lift your chest up and squeeze shoulder blades together • Practice sitting up first to get a feel for it |
| #4 - Bear Walk (Exaggerated) | • Keep lifting your hips high • Emphasize pushing through the hands to lift off the floor • Feel your shoulder blades moving through a large range of motion |
| #5 - L-Sit Shrugs | • Sitting up tall, start with your shoulders shrugged up • Push through hands and roll shoulders back and down • Keep chest up and back straight • Use parallettes, push-up bars, blocks, or nothing at all |
Let’s talk about these exercises in more detail.
Prone Swimmers
Our core is much more than “six-pack abs”. From hip flexors to inner abdominals, obliques, deep spinal muscles and erectors up to the midback, our entire torso contributes to core stability. From the first repetition of this exercise you’ll begin to understand how there is so much that contributes to back strength!
- Start prone (lying on your stomach) with your legs straight, forehead on the ground, and hands overhead
- Now circle your hands down to your sides and at about 90 degrees, rotate your palms up towards the ceiling and lift up as high as you can by squeezing your shoulder blades together
- Think of pushing your chest into the ground as you do this
- Move your hands towards your hip and then slide your fingers on the ground to circle back up overhead
Start easy with your range of motion on the first few repetitions, this will likely be a very new movement for you and muscle cramping is not unusual!
Hollow Body Plank Shrugs
Scapular (shoulder blade) strength and mobility are key to useful upper back strength. They are necessary to allow for the proper shoulder alignment and positioning to use the larger back muscles to best advantage and transmit their power efficiently.
- Start on hands and knees, shoulders directly over the hands and hips over the knees. Keep your elbow pits facing forward
- Push your hands firmly into the ground to round out your back and focus on spreading your shoulder blades as wide as possible
- Relax into a shrug position and repeat. Lean forward to place more weight on your hands as you get more comfortable with the movement
- Progress to the plank position as you improve your strength
This is another exercise that can have you sweating more than you think, start by emphasizing more range of motion vs. force and then gradually place more weight through your hands as become more familiar with it.
Butterfly Shrugs
This exercise continues the integration between your arms and shoulder blades along with proper spinal alignment. It’s a fairly unique movement so we recommend practicing this sitting up first. Do a few reps and keep the following cues in mind before you head to the ground to do them. A mat along with towels/sheets to decrease friction can be helpful in making this more comfortable on your elbows.
- Lie on your back, with your knees bent and arms out to your side
- Lead with your chest to sit up as you drag your elbows toward each other
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together the entire time
- Lift your chest up high to keep a proper position
You may be familiar with the “face pull” exercise. This motion is very similar except that you are “pushing” through your elbows to achieve the same end position. It’s very important to lift the chest up as this will work on and improve your upper back mobility (active thoracic extension), which is so important for your back strength and health.
Bear Walk (Exaggerated)
If you’ve been following us for a while you know that the Bear is one of the three fundamental locomotion patterns we teach, and they all have different variations within them to emphasize the training of different attributes. In this variation we’ll exaggerate the arm motions to focus on back strength.
- Start in the A-Frame position. Hands and feet on the ground and hips high up in the air
- Emphasize pushing through your hands as you progress forward, lifting off one hand as you push hard with the other
- Think of pushing the floor down and away and move your shoulder blades through a large range of motion
Just like the Hollow Body Planks, emphasizing your shoulder blade mobility in this exercise will dramatically improve your scapular strength. Pushing through the ground as you move forward and back in the Bear walk is an excellent stimulus.
L-Sit Shrugs
You’re probably noticing a pattern at this point! All of these exercises take you through different angles for your shoulder blades and arms. From prone and supine, hands and knees, and to hands and feet, these positions allow you to use the ground to provide resistance through various planes of motion. L-Sit Shrugs complete this by having you sitting upright so you can push down vertically. (By the way, for a ridiculously complete step-by-step article on everything you need to know about the L-Sit click on over here.)
- Start sitting up tall with your legs straight out in front of you
- Let your shoulders be shrugged up but keep your back straight
- Push through your hands and lift your chest up as you roll your shoulders back and down
- You’ll get more range of motion with your hands elevated, but they can be flat on the ground and you’ll still get a lot of benefit
All of these exercises can be deceptively difficult and not just because they may be totally new to you. But as we’ve shown above, they take your arms and shoulder blades through a variety of planes and require your muscles to engage strongly throughout the range of motion.
| Primary Actions | |
|---|---|
| Latissimus Dorsi | • Extension and Adduction of the shoulder • This is when your arms move back and toward the midline |
| Rhomboids | • Retraction and Downward rotation of the scapula • Squeezing your shoulder blades together and rolling them back and down |
| Lower Trapezius | • Retraction and Depression of the scapula • Squeezing your shoulder blades together and pulling them down |
Bodyweight Back Training Tips
In the video above, Ryan talks about a simple and effective way to get started right away with these exercises.
In a circuit style performance, set a timer of 30 seconds for each exercise and move on to the next, either without rest or taking some time as needed. And repeat for rounds as best fits your condition.
Let’s put some more details into that for you:
- First, take your time and practice each exercise for a just a few reps. Don’t turn those reps into a “workout” just yet, instead treat this as a learning experience. A few minutes for each one helps a lot
- Next you can either call it a day, or if you have more time and energy go ahead and get started on a circuit
- 30 seconds work and 30 seconds rest in between is a great place to start, going through the series for 2 to 3 rounds
- When you feel ready to have no rest in between exercises, we suggest a rest period of 1 to 2 minutes between rounds
- You can incorporate this wherever in your current training you like, either at the beginning of your workouts when you are fresh, or at the end after you’ve done what you’ve prioritized for the day
As always, the most important thing is to start incorporating some of these movements in whatever way works best for you.
Don’t let analysis paralysis, or a less-than-ideal space stop you from getting stronger.
Build a Complete Foundation
These five exercises are a solid start for training your back without equipment. If you want a structured daily practice that builds strength, mobility, and control across your whole body, our free Bodyweight Reboot will get you moving in the right direction.
Take Your Back Strength Further
These five movements train your back through every plane of motion, and they complement any strength program. Work them as a circuit like Ryan showed, or slot them into your existing routine wherever makes sense.
When you’re ready for a structured program that builds on these same movement patterns, here’s where to go next.
Elements
Integral Strength
Hi, I'm Jarlo Ilano PT, MPT 👋
Jarlo Ilano has been a Physical Therapist (MPT) since 1998 and was board certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS) with the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. He’s undergone extensive postgraduate training in neck and back rehabilitation with an emphasis in manual therapy along with being certified as a Therapeutic Pain Specialist by EIM/Purdue University.
In addition to cofounding GMB, Jarlo has been teaching martial arts for over 30 years, with a primary focus on Filipino Martial Arts.
